Comparison: Honda vs. Subaru Inverter Generator

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I bought a poorly-running Subaru 3200 inverter generator last week as my next project:

Subaru 3200 Inverter

The little Mikuni carb was stuffed up with gunk. Built-in hour meter showed 0.1hr of runtime, so it must have been assembled, fueled, tested, and stored with gas in it. It would start, but only run at ~1/2 choke.

Comparing against my neighbor's Honda EU3000is, I'd say they are in the same ball park. I broke out various evaluation criteria below:

1.) Exhaust Noise
The Subaru is slightly louder at the exhaust at idle and under load, but still much quieter than the other neighbor's Generac. The Honda has an impressively large muffler and baffled outlet which dampens the noise well, whereas the Subaru's smaller muffler directly outputs the exhaust out the rear.

2.) Engine Design
Honda engine is OHV type with gear-driven camshaft and lifter-pushrod actuation. Subaru is OHC with a hardened steel chain according to the specs. Hard for me to say if either design has an advantage or weakness in this application, but they are very different.

3.) Electrical Quality
Using my Kill-A-Watt, the Honda makes 127VAC at the outlet whereas the Subaru makes 123VAC. AC freq on the Honda varies from 59.9Hz to 60.0Hz, whereas the Subaru was 60.0Hz constant. I can't say a 0.1Hz variation is problematic. My little Honda EU2000i has the same variation.

4.) Serviceability
Dropping the two side panels from the Subaru reveals the entire inner workings down to the little metal cooling fan at the rear. Very easy to see everything except the inverter box itself, which is up front behind the control panel. The Honda has a single hinged service door and things are very "busy" inside, but the key component most likely requiring access...the carburetor...is right there. The Subaru is built like a conventional alternator-type generator, on a steel cage, but with a floor and removable side panels to deaden the noise. Oil changes are a piece of cake on both models compared to the Honda EU2000i, but with Honda 3000 a tad easier as the oil fill and drain are more easily accessible via a plastic hatch on the rear below the exhaust. Subaru has a metal chute under the oil drain to direct oil out of the case and avoid messes.

The Subaru got some break-in time with a pair of space heaters for load, 1800W for one and 600W for the other totaling 2400W load. I put 2hrs on it with only one issue...the built-in GFCI outlet would occasionally trip when switching one heater to the OFF position. It's a cheapo heater and the switch may be arcing, who knows.

More to come. I'll put another 2-3 hours on it for break-in, change the oil (Valvoline VR1 10W-30 again) and post an observation on the drained oil appearance.
 
When I bought one, I went with the Robin subaru because it appeared to be a better value for a stouter system. That said, cant see how you could go wrong with either. And the Honda can be found more readily.
 
Good to know. Just saw a commercial for the Generac yesterday and was wondering if they were any good. Seems like the other two alternatives are better. The Hondas are expensive but maybe I could negotiate them down a bit.
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I think subaru power equipment engines are very well built. So are Honda engines so its tough to say what is actually better.
 
Originally Posted By: satinsilver
Good to know. Just saw a commercial for the Generac yesterday and was wondering if they were any good. Seems like the other two alternatives are better. The Hondas are expensive but maybe I could negotiate them down a bit.
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Generic has a few levels of quality.

How many people can afford to run their home on a generator/inverter? Yes its cleaner AC sine wave and may use less gas, but if you have essential things in your house that consume power, like a 220V water pump, a generator/inverter would seem to be impractical.
 
Originally Posted By: Donald


Generic has a few levels of quality.

How many people can afford to run their home on a generator/inverter? Yes its cleaner AC sine wave and may use less gas, but if you have essential things in your house that consume power, like a 220V water pump, a generator/inverter would seem to be impractical.


I didn't see where powering a home has been mentioned, but it should be interesting to see. The advantage of inverter would be lost if it spends its whole life at wide open throttle...

My 5600 Subaru gen is working pretty hard when most of the house is on it, especially when the 220V well pump kicks on.
 
Down here, anyone who's smart has a generator on hand for poweroutages.

When I was at the dealership, I rarely had a Honda come.back for more than a Carb cleaning...but it did happen. The Yamaha models never made am appearance in the shop unless it was Carb related. Ever. Just a bulletproof model.

I have a Briggs and Stratton storm defender until I can afford the large diesel unit I want. Works well, within reason.


One of neighbors has a huge genset he bought from a plant and rebuilt. The thing could easily run 15 houses, much less one.

I typically just use my generator to run everything but the highend electronics. Use a cheap PC monitor to watch movies on when the power dies. If the dirty power fries it, who cares.





Out of curiousity, why vr1? They don't spec 0w30 synthetic these days?
 
Originally Posted By: Donald
satinsilver said:
How many people can afford to run their home on a generator/inverter? Yes its cleaner AC sine wave and may use less gas, but if you have essential things in your house that consume power, like a 220V water pump, a generator/inverter would seem to be impractical.


I agree with your point about 220V appliances, but even then I'd likely add a cheap alternator gen to fire up and run the well pump occasionally, and let the inverter run continuous duty.

We have no well pump at my house, and from 2006-2011 we used a Kipor 2KW inverter (Honda clone) to run the essentials during the routine 2-3 outages each year. Central natural gas heat, fridge, a few lights, little TV...or the Mr. Coffee. Only reason I sold it was to add more wattage and enable the microwave, we got very sick of grilling during the 5-day outage in Oct 2011.
 
Originally Posted By: SuzukiGoat

Out of curiousity, why vr1? They don't spec 0w30 synthetic these days?


I don't use synthetic oil for break-in. Manual calls for either 10W-30 or 10W-40 depending on ambient temps, and it's chilly here. VR1 is my go-to oil for new engines, healthy shot of ZDDP and a very effective oil overall.

It'll get Rotella T6 5W-40 after break-in, same as my other OPE.
 
Thanks for the review. Very interesting indeed.

As people here know, I'm a fan of high quality, conventional (non inverter) generators. The fuel savings will never pay for itself, and inverter generators are difficult to repair if something goes wrong. Electronics and especially capacitors don't last forever and I expect the inverter units to be no different.

It's known that the little Honda's occasionally fry circuit boards. Which are very expensive and sometimes hard to find. Contrast that with the DIY nature of replacing a set of carbon brushes or a bridge rectifier for a conventional genset.

Emergency equipment should be easy to service and repair. And, in my opinion, it should be a mechanical device that, properly stored, will last a lifetime.
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
When I bought one, I went with the Robin subaru because it appeared to be a better value for a stouter system.
Agreed. I bought my Subaru-Robin 4300 inverter for the same reasons, although the Honda would have been my second choice were the S-R not readily available.
 
Originally Posted By: Cujet
Thanks for the review. Very interesting indeed.

As people here know, I'm a fan of high quality, conventional (non inverter) generators. The fuel savings will never pay for itself, and inverter generators are difficult to repair if something goes wrong. Electronics and especially capacitors don't last forever and I expect the inverter units to be no different.

It's known that the little Honda's occasionally fry circuit boards. Which are very expensive and sometimes hard to find. Contrast that with the DIY nature of replacing a set of carbon brushes or a bridge rectifier for a conventional genset.

Emergency equipment should be easy to service and repair. And, in my opinion, it should be a mechanical device that, properly stored, will last a lifetime.


I agree. Many contractors I have spoken to run their conventional gens for hundreds of hrs. Little or no problems. My Subaru Robin 5KW run gen is 6 years old, and running fine. However not too manys on it.
 
Originally Posted By: Cujet
Thanks for the review. Very interesting indeed.

As people here know, I'm a fan of high quality, conventional (non inverter) generators. The fuel savings will never pay for itself, and inverter generators are difficult to repair if something goes wrong.

Emergency equipment should be easy to service and repair. And, in my opinion, it should be a mechanical device that, properly stored, will last a lifetime.


I snipped a bit to focus on a few of the great points made by Cujet for further discussion.

While it's true that in typical use cases the fuel consumption advantage would not be of financial benefit, I found after Sandy in 2012 that being able to run continuously on 3-4 gallons/day was advantageous. Getting gas was a real problem here in NJ for over a week, and with 15gal on hand plus another 18gal in the fair-weather car available for pumping, it was nice avoiding the gas station drama.

15gal = 4-5 days with the inverter running continuously.
15gal = 2 days on the neighbor's 4500W Generac, shutting off at night.

Difficulty of repair and complexity of machinery...no argument here.
 
Of course, running a larger, non inverter genset under low load conditions results in comparatively high fuel consumption. That, unfortunately is the sad reality. My best suggestion is to have more fuel on hand, and a way to siphon some from your car. Or to manage power by running the genset only under significant loads, then shutting it down when it's not necessary.

But, when heating water, say 4500 watts, the fuel consumption is so close as to be considered identical between equally sized, generator types.

I have multiple units, big and small to cover all needs. For the price of one Honda 3500 inverter unit, one can purchase 3 high quality Honda powered units of various sizes from big to small.
 
Originally Posted By: Cujet
Of course, running a larger, non inverter genset under low load conditions results in comparatively high fuel consumption. That, unfortunately is the sad reality. My best suggestion is to have more fuel on hand, and a way to siphon some from your car. Or to manage power by running the genset only under significant loads, then shutting it down when it's not necessary.



I've read that generators are most efficient when running at or near full capacity, which jibes with your statements cleanly.

The most efficient model would seem to be copying the diesel submarine approach...high capacity batteries and limited but intense use of the generator. But then you'd need an inverter, or a set of 12VDC appliances & lights. As with all things, compromises are unavoidable.
 
Originally Posted By: crainholio
Originally Posted By: Cujet
inverter generators are difficult to repair if something goes wrong.

Difficulty of repair and complexity of machinery...no argument here.
I respectfully disagree. Before I purchased the unit, I was able to DL the complete factory service manual for my Subaru-Robin from their website at no charge, and one of the things that swayed my decision to purchase was that it requires no special tools or jigs to disassemble or repair anything. The only "black box" is the inverter module itself and it seems to be easily replaceable. No idea of the cost, but I like knowing I can repair everything else on the unit with tools I already own.

Having said all this, I can only speak for this particular inverter generator...others may be more complex or require specialised (read: expensive) tools.
 
Originally Posted By: RF Overlord
Originally Posted By: crainholio
Originally Posted By: Cujet
inverter generators are difficult to repair if something goes wrong.

Difficulty of repair and complexity of machinery...no argument here.
I respectfully disagree. Before I purchased the unit, I was able to DL the complete factory service manual for my Subaru-Robin from their website at no charge, and one of the things that swayed my decision to purchase was that it requires no special tools or jigs to disassemble or repair anything. The only "black box" is the inverter module itself and it seems to be easily replaceable. No idea of the cost, but I like knowing I can repair everything else on the unit with tools I already own.

Having said all this, I can only speak for this particular inverter generator...others may be more complex or require specialised (read: expensive) tools.


I have a wonderful ability to not be clear, sorry. My boss' inverter generator failed during an extended power outage. Could not find a circuit board anywhere. What a pain. We were tasked with flying to Nebraska to get the only remaining board in the USA. Hence my dislike for complex emergency equipment.

All his food went bad and he was furious.
 
Originally Posted By: Cujet


I have a wonderful ability to not be clear, sorry. My boss' inverter generator failed during an extended power outage. Could not find a circuit board anywhere. What a pain. We were tasked with flying to Nebraska to get the only remaining board in the USA. Hence my dislike for complex emergency equipment.

All his food went bad and he was furious.


What brand was his generator?

I plan in layers since the 2011 October storm (5 days on generator) and 2012 Sandy (12 days). Sold my old faithful Kipor 2KW inverter after Sandy and have been playing with bigger/better options ever since. I started with a Ryobi 2200W inverter from Home Depot and ended up selling it at a loss just to be rid of it. Lesson learned. Nice generator but it had flaws that were show-stoppers.

The Subaru RG3200is is now our primary, and the little Honda EU2000i I rehabilitated is our backup (or neighbor loaner). I originally wanted a Honda EU3000is for the big box, but even used they command top $$ and with no hour meter it was impossible to know how used/abused they were.

I also have an 800W pure-sine inverter with car battery clips if things break or when the gen needs an oil change. It had been our sole backup power source and has run our fridge in the past without complaint, just sucks down a battery quickly if the engine's not running. Neighbors ran their fridge, central heat (natural gas hot water baseboard @ < 1A draw), and a few lamps on it after the 2011 snow.

I guess the old saying "Two is One, and One is None" applies to things other than battlefield equipment.
 
Originally Posted By: Cujet
Of course, running a larger, non inverter genset under low load conditions results in comparatively high fuel consumption. That, unfortunately is the sad reality. My best suggestion is to have more fuel on hand, and a way to siphon some from your car. Or to manage power by running the genset only under significant loads, then shutting it down when it's not necessary.

But, when heating water, say 4500 watts, the fuel consumption is so close as to be considered identical between equally sized, generator types.

I have multiple units, big and small to cover all needs. For the price of one Honda 3500 inverter unit, one can purchase 3 high quality Honda powered units of various sizes from big to small.

which 3 smaller honda units would you suggest instead of the one large?
 
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