Yamaha EF1000is vs Honda EU1000i Generators....
Alex Salmona
read it seems that some of you have used the Honda flavor. I was
wondering if anyone had any experience (good or bad) with the Yamaha
version of the baby generator. According to my readings, the Yamaha
seems better specs wise. It can do 12 hours on 1/4 load. Thats about
225 watts or so. I have a power hungry rig (portable Pro Tools setup
which also double with Boom Recorder and if your curious as to how I
got TC out to a slate from a Pro Tools LE system ask me cuz it took me
about 3 weeks to come up with a solution that worked)... If I were to
go battery it would mean lugging around two 110 amp/hr batteries at 75
lbs a piece plus a 40amp charger just to get 10 hours. then recharge
time would be a couple of hours. The generator would be instant
recharge (just add gas). And if the Yamaha claim is good then 12 (lets
say 10 to be safe) hours per tank is pretty good. Figure I could put a
UPS on the rig (like I know many of you do already) and it would alert
me (beep) when its time to refill (seeing as how I would put the
generator somewhat far away). I calcualted my rig at roughly 150 watts
of consumption so that pretty much puts me WELL under the 225 @ 1/4
load limit. At 12v (if my math is correct) its about 20-21amps so
batteries would be sort of a nightmare. And I would like not to get
into a war about WHY my rig eats so much power. The short of it is that
it works for me and the way I like to work. So any advice from you
power experts would be good.
Thanks,
Alex
Steve King
news:1160579172.6...@c28g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
Alex, for what it's worth, I purchased about a week ago a 3000 watt (6.5
Horsepower) generator from CostCo for $199. It's rated 3500 watts peak,
3000 watts continuous. It is also reasonably quiet. The info says that it
will run 9 hours on a tank of gas at half load. It is made in China. It
runs great. I've not used it on a job, but I have tested it and it performs
at spec it seems. It will run, sometimes reluctantly, a compressor that
draws about 20 amps continuous and as much as 30 amps on start-up. I
figured @ $199 I wouldn't be too devastated if it walked off a set.
Steve King
Eric Burge
compared Honda and Yamaha at the time (10+ years ago) and although the
specs were similar, I thought the Honda was bulit better. Of course
that was a long time ago.
It ultimately got ripped (from my home when I was out of town) and I
was bummed. I also have a 2.5kW Honda though so I've never replaced the
smaller unit. Still miss it though. I've used both for sound, mobile
darkroom, remote construction projects, power outages, etc. and neither
has ever flinched. I've also rented the 2.5k out to productions on
occasion and it has easily paid for itself by that alone ($1000+). I do
take care of it though and run synthetic oil and good fuel, but I've
used a lot of Hondas in various 3rd world locales and they seem to run
forever on crappy fuel too.
One tip however, whatever you decide: I always use a voltage stabilizer
just upstream from my electronics. It supresses spikes, but equally (or
more?) important will drive an adequate and contant voltage after those
long stinger runs typically needed for sound. I've got a Tripplite,
which I think cost me about $150 a decade ago.
EB
contactscott
I went blue instead of red with a Yamaha EF1000is firing it up every so
often for some years now. My main use has been with three hurricanes
for news coverage. The motor purrs quietly where you could hold a
normal voice conversation with it at your feet. More so, the gear has
done just fine with its sine wave inverter power.
mgke...@yahoo.com
I don't have any experience with either generator, but a comparison of
the specifications is interesting. The fuel tank sizes are .6 (Honda)
vs. .66 (Yamaha). Run Time for Honda is 8.3 hrs @ 1/4 load while Yamaha
is 12 hrs @ 1/2 load. That's a huge advantage for Yamaha if it's true.
The noise level for Honda is 53 to 59dBA while the noise level for
Yamaha is listed as 47 to 57dBA. That's another huge advantage for
Yamaha.
Just based on the specifications, I would go with the Yamaha. There's a
post, by the way, that gives a favorable review of the EF1000is at:
http://groups.google.com/groups/search?hl=en&q=EF1000is+more+fun
http://www.yamaha-motor.com/sitemap.aspx
http://www.hondapowerequipment.com/gen.asp
Eric Burge
another 1kW in the immediate future, I too will look closely at the
Yamaha when the time comes. A lot has changed in the last decade since
I bought my Hondas.
Thanks, guys.
EB
Bruce Wilson
locations. The 8.3 hour specification is conservative, as I've always gotten
more than that per tank (at least at 9000 feet where I normally go on Field
Day), typically 9 to 10 hours. My rig, at night, runs less the 100W on
receive, about 150W transmitting. The Honda does generate quite a bit of RF
hash (amplified by interacting with my switching 12v supply) which is killed
with grounding and a good low-pass filter. I doubt this would interfere with
any FM radio system as the hash is mostly below 60 MHz, but it might cause
some trouble at the far reach of radio mics.
I suspect the Yamaha generator, using the same sort of "sine wave inverter"
would behave similarly. I don't have any friends with Yamahas to compare,
though, as most of us have cheaper non-i generators, and only a few have
Hondas.
Ham reviews:
Honda: http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/5226 (4 reviews, including mine
(KD7VEM))
Yamaha: http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/4692 (1 review)
--
Bruce Wilson KF7K
http://science.uvsc.edu/wilson
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