re: Has anyone had experience with "Preditor" generators from Harbor Freight?

Consumer Reports Predator vs Honda Review

Honda wins by a narrow margin, largely because of its ability to deliver power constantly and reliably—it works without tripping its own internal circuit breaker as we added to its load, right up to the generator’s claimed capacity. But the Predator is the clear winner on price. Were the warranties identical, we’d certainly crown the Predator as the better buy.

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sounds like the engines are solid but what about the electronics for the generators vs actual Honda? I know Hondas are great for putting out "clean" power but I wonder about the preditor.

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I’ve tested a bunch using an instrument which shows the whole waveform and the harmonic distortion spectrum. The predator inverter generators out out about as clean of a sine wave as you can get. So does the Honda inverters. The non-inverter models of all the brands less than about 12kW (which is all the small ones) put out a dog shite sine wave that is very distorted due to the cheaply designed, built, and wound alternator.

For portable generators in the 15kW range and larger (ain’t many of them) and home standby generators, the alternator quality is much better - what I’d consider acceptable, but still not nearly as good of a quality sine wave as the cheap little portable inverter generators.

If you’re getting a small portable generator, get an inverter model. I personally have a few predators and I would consider them better than Honda. Compare the 2000W versions - the Honda has a much bigger displacement engine and is heavier and uses more fuel. The Predator is lighter and more fuel efficient, but at full load it’s got to run the engine at higher rpm to make the horsepower needed, so at full load it’ll be a little louder than the Honda due to the predator’s smaller displacement engine. We’re talking about a decibel or so we’re splitting hairs.

Another reason for the inverter is that when you inevitably run it out of fuel while on load, the inverter will just shut off. A non-inverter model may become unstable in frequency and voltage and may be problematic for your connected loads, and may also lose the residual magnetism in its field as it spins down while under load.

Any of those little engines will just about run forever if you service it by the book.