Generac iQ2000 Inverter

[Mr Mower Man]

I have a iQ2000 generator in the shop that a customer bought to charge his marine batteries on his boat. His complaint is that when he plugs the battery charger in to the generator, the generator spits & sputters, runs erratically, and finally the breaker gets tripped. His friend has a Honda EU 2000i generator that handles the battery charger just fine. They're both rated at 1600 running watts, so you'd think they would be the same. However, I've been told that the Honda is a pricier unit, and for good reason. I'm afraid that this generator might be a little underpowered for his application.

The engine doesn't run completely smooth. Lean at startup, but after a couple minutes of warming up, it improves quite a bit. I'm considering recommending a carburetor replacement just to cover the bases, but I don't believe that's truly the problem. I've plugged an old drill press of mine into it to see how it acts. The generator has 3 engine speeds: economy, standard, and turbo. When I've tested the generator with my drill press, I've noticed that the breaker trips and the overload light comes on consistently when I have the switch set on economy mode (supposed to be 3000 RPM's) and flip on the drill press. On standard mode (3600 RPM's), I've gotten the breaker to trip a couple of times when I turn on the drill press, but it handles the load for the most part, even though the engine labors pretty hard and revs up pretty high until things line out. And when it's on turbo (4500 RPMs), that seems to handle the load the easiest.

My customer didn't say anything about it, but I'm wondering if he left the engine speed setting on standard (the way it was when I got it), and it would handle the load better if it were set on turbo. I had him send me a picture of the data plate off his friend's Honda generator, and I noticed that it has an RPM spec of 4300, which would be similar to the turbo RPM's on the Generac. That makes me wonder if the Generac would work better if he had his RPM's up to match the Honda's engine speed.

I welcome any of your input on any of this, but I had one specific question in mind when I sat down to type this up. I tried to check the engine speed with my tachometer, and I can't get a reading, either with my inductive tach, or with my older one with the red wire you wrap around the spark plug lead. I used them on another engine just to verify that they work, and they do. It looks like the spark plug lead on the Generac might have some kind of special insulation around it that somehow blocks the signal. I was able to partially shove the sleeve back to get a better place to wrap the tach wire around, but I still got no reading. Is there a tach I could get that would read this? Or is there another way to determine RPM's? I didn't expect to run into this problem.

Thanks for any ideas! This is a tough one.

[bgsengine]

When dealing with a generator , you're better off with a kill-a-watt meter and extension cord to plug it into. You wanna get 62-63 Hz at 120-130v unloaded, and 59-60 Hz at 120V with a load applied,if you can get that, the RPMS engine runs at should be set correctly. If RPM seems high to achieve the right Hz and voltage, you may need to look at the generator side of things,but if the engine can't get the volts and Hz to the proper range reliably, then you likely have a engine problem to deal with.. just a basic rule of thumb there..

Those units are basically honda clones, Homelite,BlackMax,and similar brands make the same units , probably all come out of the same factory in China.

However, if it is tripping the breaker,I'd be thinking about checking the generator side of things for shorts or high resistances, etc.

[Mr Mower Man]

Do you have a recommendation for a generator "load creator" or whatever you call it (kill-a-watt meter?)? It's something I can set to draw however many watts I want it to, to test the generator capacity. Where's the best place to get one of those? Being a Generac authorized service center, I should probably have some of the right tools.

OK, here's an edit:
I now realize the kill-a-watt meter isn't the same thing as a load creator. I just ordered one of those meters that should be here by Monday. Looks like a great tool! But what about a generator load tester? I heard about them a long time ago, and I've always wanted one. Would you call that a "must" for generator service shops? Where should I get one? I'm afraid of how much one probably costs.

[bgsengine]

Nah just a load, any load , can work - say, for example, one of those really bright lamps (heat lamp?) or a 1/2 inch drill , perhaps a spare shop grinder, pretty much anything if you can find some electrical load to apply, what you do is plug in extension cord, then the kill-a-watt nearby where you can read the display (and work the buttons) and then plug your load (electric motor) into that , you can switch display around to read volts,Hz, Watts or amps the load is using, etc etc. Only time you really kind of need to put a full load (to generator's rated watts or surge) would be when needing to test the generator's actual output capacity,I imagine. there's others on here that can probably advise a bit better,but I have yet to see a generator that can handle the applied load I use (1/2 inch drill) but wouldn't manage the full load that was applied to it (electric chop saws, etc for a construction company).. perhaps I was just lucky that way,but it worked for me for years,so..

[creia]

Mower Man,
You have been given sage advice from Brian (bgsengine)- no surprise!. I would suggest that you scroll down to the thread I started on 6/23/18 entitled "1983 MTD Products Generator- Need Help" and read the excellent advice and guidance I was given by the various great professionals on this forum. Go to Ebay and search for "Kill-A-Watt P3" and purchase one. You should also have a reliable/accurate tach to use along with the Kill-A-Watt to do a proper job. I did not know a thing about setting up generator output until they helped me, and I was able to get mine dialed in pretty good.
Michael

[Skywatcher]

Greetings All

As this is an inverter unit, engine RPM has no effect on output frequency, this is controlled by the stepper motor on the throttle shaft via the magic in the mother board. In my experience, all the inverter generators I've worked on produce 60 Hz +/- 0.05 Hz. The throttle setting or engine RPM just gives the permanent magnet rotor more oomph to handle a given load. If the engine is sputtering, check the make, model and gap of the spark plug, make sure the plug is matched to the manufacturers specifications. Make sure you are running the highest octane fresh, ethanol free fuel you can get and add a dash of Seafoam for good measure.

Depending on the age of the unit, the engine valves may need to be set. If the overload light or breaker is tripping with a load less than rated, this may simply be a result of poor quality Chinese manufacture. By your overall description of the symptoms, I'd say your basic problem is varnish in the carburetor jets starving the engine for fuel when it needs it most. Hope this along with the advice given by the other members will point you in the right direction. All the best,

Sky

[RJRacing]

I work on a lot of these Generac inverters they all seem to be over rated as far as output while the Hondas seem to be under rated, Sky is correct the HZ and volts wont change with RPM only available amps will change. only thing I can add is to test it with a resistive load (small electric heater) some where around 1800 watts so you can put a constant load on it. you also might want to check the amp draw on the custs battery charger and compare it to the amp draw from the heater. Does this one have the LED fuel gauge on it ??

[Mr Mower Man]

Thanks for all the advice, everyone. I have some more reading to do to learn more. I was able to test the generator more yesterday and actually took a video of it (not sure how to upload that video on here, in case you would find it interesting). I plugged in a drill press and bench grinder to the generator, and it handled them both at the same time OK. The power bar was fully lit (100%), and the overload light came on, even though the breaker never did trip (green light stayed on, and the drill press & grinder continued to operate). So I think those two loads maxed out the generator capacity, and it operated fine under that full load.

My gut tells me this generator is underpowered for the customer's application. I'm going to recommend a carburetor replacement just so we know the engine is running perfectly and will respond properly to the increase in load. I don't really think this will solve the problem, but there's only one way to find out.

I'm afraid that I'm going to end up visiting this guy on his boat just so I can watch it for myself, which is something I really don't want to do.

[Mr Mower Man]

Mower Man,
You have been given sage advice from Brian (bgsengine)- no surprise!. I would suggest that you scroll down to the thread I started on 6/23/18 entitled "1983 MTD Products Generator- Need Help" and read the excellent advice and guidance I was given by the various great professionals on this forum. Go to Ebay and search for "Kill-A-Watt P3" and purchase one. You should also have a reliable/accurate tach to use along with the Kill-A-Watt to do a proper job. I did not know a thing about setting up generator output until they helped me, and I was able to get mine dialed in pretty good.
Michael

Thanks! I will scroll through that thread and see what I can learn. I do have a reliable tach. Problem is, I can't get a reading on this engine. There must be a special insulation on the spark plug lead that is blocking the signal or something. You can see more detail about that in my original post. I did purchase a Kill-a-Watt on ebay yesterday; looks like a cool tool!

[Mr Mower Man]

Ok, so I got my Kill-A-Watt meter this weekend and did some testing on this inverter generator this morning. The voltage was just above 120 VAC and the frequency was right at 60 Hz. No problem there. So then I used the meter to test the current draw of the bench grinder and drill press I used to test the generator the other day. The grinder was drawing 7.3 amps and the drill press was drawing 7 amps, for a total of 14.3 amps if they're both plugged into the generator at the same time. Now I know why the overload light was on when the generator was powering both of them; it's only rated at 13.3 amps.

But the confusing thing is the Watt/VA toggle button on the meter. I think when I'm looking at the VA measurement, it's actually the wattage number, and when I'm looking at the watts measurement, it's actually the VA number. I don't even know what VA means, but I know what a watt is. You figure watts by multiplying the voltage by the amps, right? So my drill press, for example, that uses 7 amps on 120 VAC is pulling 840 watts, right? That's what the VA number on the meter is, but it's telling me the wattage is 290, which doesn't make any sense to me. This is why I think the meter has the watts and VA numbers backwards.

Aside from that confusion, I believe the generator is OK. It gave a continuous power output of 14.3 amps, or 1700 watts, and it's rated at 13.3 amps and 1600 watts. My only conclusion is to say that this generator is underpowered for the customer's application, which is a marine battery charger for two 12V batteries. So what do you guys think?