Silent Power 3200 Watt Inverter Generator Emmissions Type: Standard Reviews
Excellent product - louder than stated at full throttle., August 1, 2010 By Al (Silver Spring, MD)
This is a great unit. I bought it in anticipation of power outages in our area, which happen often. I have it wired through a transfer switch to run the gas furnace, gas hot water heater (direct vent), refrigerator, under-cabinet microwave, and some lights (but not all at once). It runs reasonably quiet when idle. I did notice the automatic control tended to blip the throttle with no load, so the engine races slightly. Under load, things settle down. Once there's any significant current draw (like when the refrigerator kicks on), noise levels go up considerably. It still has less than 20 hours on the clock, so its still in the break in period. Both pull and electric start are effortless. It hardly needs the choke even with a cold start.
The engine is quiet enough at idle, although I wouldn't want to hold a conversation right next to it. Once it revs up under load, it can get loud.
I estimate gas consumption to be around 8 hours/tank for my application. That's for a furnace fan cycling approximately 1/3 of the time, energy star fridge (about 300W), water heater (also about 300W), and occasional microwave (1.3 Kw). That works about to about 22+ hours with a full tank and a 5 gal gas can.
Be careful with the oil dipstick, its plastic screwed onto metal and its easy to cross thread. You get two dipsticks, one on each side of the engine, for some reason.
If you're thinking of converting this to propane, the carburetor must be modified. There's not enough room to fit a tri-fuel kit and still fit the air filter into the enclosure. Its only doable if you sacrifice the side panel, or permanently modify the existing carburetor.
Unlike Yamaha or Honda, the parts list and service manual are readily available from the manufacturer. If you've some experience with small engines, it shouldn't take a lot of effort to do most of the servicing yourself.
Good generator, but can be noisy, July 16, 2010 By Al (Silver Spring, MD)
This is a great unit. I bought it in anticipation of power outages in our area, which happen often. I have it wired through a transfer switch to run the gas furnace, gas hot water heater (direct vent), refrigerator, under-cabinet microwave, and some lights (but not all at once). It runs reasonably quiet when idle. I did notice the automatic control tended to blip the throttle with no load, so the engine races slightly. Under load, things settle down. Once there's any significant current draw (like when the refrigerator kicks on), noise levels go up considerably. It still has less than 20 hours on the clock, so its still in the break in period. Both pull and electric start are effortless. It hardly needs the choke even with a cold start.
I estimate gas consumption to be around 8 hours/tank for my application. That's for a furnace fan cycling approximately 1/3 of the time, energy star fridge (about 300W), water heater (also about 300W), and occasional microwave (1.3 Kw). That works about to about 22+ hours with a full tank and a 5 gal gas can.
Be careful with the oil dipstick, its plastic screwed onto metal and its easy to cross thread. You get two dipsticks, one on each side of the engine, for some reason.
If you're thinking of converting this to propane, the carburetor must be modified. There's not enough room to fit a tri-fuel kit and still fit the air filter into the enclosure. Its only doable if you sacrifice the side panel.
Unlike Yamaha or Honda, the parts list and service manual are readily available from the manufacturer. If you've some experience with small engines, it shouldn't take a lot of effort to do most of the servicing yourself.
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