OB opinion on Predator generators

westinghouse igen 4500 for me.

Had a buddy that sold his Honda and replaced it with one of these on his bow fishing boat, never had any issues with it in the couple years he had it.

Several buddies at work have them and use them for not only emergency but several times a year camping and such and they all raved about them.

What out Baw you gonna trigger them.

Dude... get a WEN from Amazon and tack on the 4 year extended warranty. It'll be way cheaper than the Predator.

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I have the 9000 and have used it the past 3 hunting seasons, it runs everything in my RV plus the water well and two other RV’s on occasion, I’ve had great luck with mine.

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I’d love to have one of those. Pretty sure you can make 220V with those.

That’s nice to have if you have 220V A/C’s. I have a 11,000 BTU 220V window unit for storms. It draws less than 5 Amps starting and running. Leaves me a lot of amps to power other stuff if I am running my old Wheel Horse 5500 generator.

Living in South Louisiana as one who has never left and never will for a hurricane you tend to collect generators.

I liked it so much I bought a second one when work gave use a rebate during the hurricane so I have 2.

Few things.

I did the hack and made a lift kit. There are videos. Makes oil changes a Breesze.

Leave the sides on it as it is designed to help airflow across the electrical components in the front of the machine.

There is also a hack to remove the carbon filter. This allows the use of a second tank above it gravity draining into the top with an adapted cap.

Once broken in throw away the Chinese spark plug and put in the NGK equivalent.

Running during Laura we got 24 hours on 7 gallons of gas running two fridges. A 5k and 8k BTU ac and some TVs and fans.

I use rotella T6 in everything. It holds up great to heat and during the hurricane. Generator loves it. I was getting 5 days of runtime before changes.

I've got two 9500s for whole house backup in parallel.

I've had several various models over the years.

These gennies have come a long ways since 2015 ... especially these newer quieter inverter models.

They are the best value on the market right now imho. I've got 8 hours on one and 12 on the other.

The key to these generators are proper breakin.

Here's the pro tip.

When you buy one the manual says 30 hrs breakin period then change the oil. That's some Chinese bullshite right there.

You do you first oil change at 4 hrs and your second at 8 hrs and your 3rd at 30 hours. Manual says 10w30. China is cold. I went with 10w40.

Here's the other secret. You go to Amazon and buy a $25 magnetic dipstick and a magnetic oil plug if you can find one. If not get a strong Neodymium magnet and attach it to the bottom of the oil pan between the dip stick and the drain plug.

Here's what you're going to find.

At the 4 hr mark there will be little pieces of metal. At the 8 hr mark there will be fewer pieces, tiny pieces, of metal stuck to those magnets. At the 30 hr mark you'll be free and clear to get on a normal routine maintenance schedule.

Also, only burn ethanol free gas in it and use some marine stabil in the tank.

I learned this lesson with a 3500 and a 5500 by a mechanic in our preppers circle.

Also, get a battery keeper connected to the starter battery if you're not going-to use it much but don't wait to break it in until you need it.

These are good generators.

Oh, and one other thing. When breaking it in try to keep it ln energy saver and don't stress it enough to get it up past 75%. You can increase that between 4 and 8 hours. Once you've got all the itsy bitsy pieces of metal out of the oil ... run that bitch hard and put'em up wet.

You're going to love these generators.

I borrowed the regular version in 3500 for Ida and it worked well and started very easily. Seems to be a solid machine.