OT: They shouldn't be shops like these!

Makro do the same thing for £49 plus VAT if that's any help.

They also do a 2.3kW for =A399 plus VAT!

Cheers

Peter

Well that answers my question about price! I guess I'll give it a miss. I don't think there is a Makro around here - probably a good job!

Cheers,

Matt.

Thats more like the price. =A375 is mid retail. You can probably find an= e-bay seller for about the Makro price if you aren't a member or not nea= r to a store.

Do they indeed. 2.3kW is a much more reasonable size. I found my Makro card the other day, haven't used it for years. Website seemed to accept =

my number though, maybe I'll visit the Newcastle store next time I'm ove= r that way.

Little generators can have trouble starting larger fridges and freezers.= Prime reason for having a genny for most domestic uses I would have thought, keeping the freezer cold when the power goes. That and a light =

or three.

The savings you can make on groceries etc can make economic sense even with a 100 mile round trip... That is always assuming you have the required status to be a member.

On Tue, 14 Mar 2006 14:55:33 +0000 (UTC), Matthew Maddock scribbled the following nonsense:

I picked a 950W 2 stroker up at Driffield for about £40 last year, has been run no end at various shows and at home for doing stuff. Best not say too much more.....

You've already said too much! Maybe I'll see if there is one knocking around cheap at Sodbury in a few weeks.

Matt.

...and Simon Isaacs spake unto the tribes of Usenet, saying...

I got a Wolf 800W 2-stroke job off ebay last year. Bit hard to start (or am I just getting weaker?) but it will run a battery charger for the caravan, small kettle, a few lights and small power tools* - it will *just* run my

4.5" angle grinder. Great for working on the boat away from 230V sources. I couldn't justify the expense of a Honda EU101, but for the use I give it it's great. Really glad I got it. *not all at once, obviously.

"Matthew Maddock" wrote in message news:dv75i8$2v6$ snipped-for-privacy@nwrdmz02.dmz.ncs.ea.ibs-infra.bt.com...

All I can say is its a good job these folk are in Ripley and I'm in Cheshire or there would be another project sat in the garage.

Fit for purpose very much depends on the purpose. The cheap Chinese jobs are good if you are not bothered about noise (either electrical or accoustic). At the prices they fetch you can consider them disposal.

For regular use, the Hondas have two big benefits

i) very quiet ii) run on standard unleaded

Last time we used the Honda was for a wireless site survey on a 70 acre site. We suddenly had loss of signal and it was a minute or so before we realised that the fuel had run out - it's so quiet we hadn't noticed it go off. Being able to get some standard unleaded from the nearest petrol station was a bonus.

Which "Honda" is that then? The open frame jobbies are horribly noisy. The horribly expensive invertor ones are better but not what I would call "very quiet". All small generator manufactures seem to have a different definition of the word "silent" than the rest of the world. Or maybe you where the otherside of the 70 acre site to the set... B-)

But then if you can tell the genset is running by anything other than the gauges being active, the lights on, the exhaust heat and some minor enclosure vibration it's too noisy in my book. That goes for any genset up to twins of 500kVA each set.

I have a 'Wolf' branded 3 kVA gennie I bought from Aldi last year. It was £145. So far it has run about 200hrs faultlessly. It is obviously of far eastern, prob Chinese origin but I wouldn't hold that against it. The most likely area of unreliability is going to be in the governor or plastic toggly bits on the engine. i would say go for that price and 3 kVA rather than a smaller gennie as they can't run very much. This can run a PA and a big 3 gallon water boiler without flinching. 800W can't poer much above an electric drill. If it has 240/110 v options that a bonus too.

If I needed a generator for more than 300 hrs/year I'd buy a Honda. They go on for ever and ever.

Eddy

1966 88" Series 2a +ve earth

Aye, electric start (and remote), 3kVA, =A3175 + VAT tested or =A350 non-runner pick your own. Ripley/Nottingham is even further away from me= than you. B-)

Petrol though, wonder if they can be converted to propane?

EU20i - 2kw.

I was stood next to it, albeit on a windy day with teletrucks driving around in the background.

I've also used it in a warehouse, where it could be heard running but didn't need me to raise my voice to address 20 people when I was 10 feet from it.

Horribly expensive is also relative - I think this was about £1000.

For those who can't justify that sort of money but still want a decent quality, equally quiet inverter generator there's always the Kipor range. IME not bad products, probably not quite the quality of the Honda ones but significantly cheaper and still a damn good product.

- for their main site, and - £370 inc VAT for a 2kvA

"horribly expensive invertor one". B-)

Yes they are quiet compared to the open frame things, get a bit noisier =

if you load 'em up. Nice thing about them is you can join them together =

very simply. Want more juice? Just plugin another genny...

For a 2kVA genny that is relatively expensive. B-) See the ex-military= jobbie =A3200, 3kVa, electric start... But for that =A31000 you do get a= fairly quiet, economic on fuel and light weight genny. They are a moderate one person, one handed, carry. And I see you can get gas conversions for them.

"horribly expensive invertor one". B-)

Yes they are quiet compared to the open frame things, get a bit noisier if you load 'em up. Nice thing about them is you can join them together very simply. Want more juice? Just plugin another genny...

For a 2kVA genny that is relatively expensive. B-) See the ex-military jobbie £200, 3kVa, electric start... But for that £1000 you do get a fairly quiet, economic on fuel and light weight genny. They are a moderate one person, one handed, carry. And I see you can get gas conversions for them.

If I knew what the engines were and the availabilty/cost of spares for them I'd be tempted to go that route as well.

I don't understand the question.

Back up for when the mains power goes off or camping/remote BBQ party WHY. Considering where we live (high on the North Pennines overhead line= s all the way from the grid) our power is very reliable but cuts come in two forms. A quick off/on as the auto-reclosure does its stuff on a temporary fault/overload or three quick off/on cycles then nothing for a= t least 6hrs.

If I knew what the engines were and the availabilty/cost of spares for them I'd be tempted to go that route as well.

I don't understand the question.

Back up for when the mains power goes off or camping/remote BBQ party WHY. Considering where we live (high on the North Pennines overhead lines all the way from the grid) our power is very reliable but cuts come in two forms. A quick off/on as the auto-reclosure does its stuff on a temporary fault/overload or three quick off/on cycles then nothing for at least 6hrs.