Champion Power Equipment 8750-Watt Electric Start Home Backup Portable Open Frame Inverter Generator with Quiet Technology

7-21-2023 - Still working. It's only failed to start once and I discovered it must have been a Friday build machine since the assembler put way to short of a fuel line and it kinked over time. Easy fix. Other than that, it's still running strong and cranks easily. I test run it every quarter and load test about once a year as maintenance. I moved it to 5 stars.After using my tried-and-true Generac 5500 watt/8500 watt surge generator for about 18 years, of which still chugs along without issue, and giving it's a "dumb" generator with a dirty electrical output that runs "dumb" items I figured it was time to upgrade to a new inverter giving all the sensitive electronics in houses these days. After much looking and pricing it was either Harbor Freight's new 7000 watt/ 9000 surge watt inverter for over $2k or Champion's 100520. I use this at a house and not an RV so I assumed the noise reduction may not be worth the additional $1000+ over the price of the Champion and went with this unit. I bought the Champion through Amazon and it was delivered to my garage in great shape without even a blemish on the box. I spent Saturday unpacking, assembling and getting ready for the break-in.My experience with generators/inverters is limited to the Generac mentioned above which has performed dutifully and without complaint for nearly 20 years, two 2000w inverters I can parallel to 30 amps and a 1050 amp hour battery backup system on my house. I needed a 240v outlet to run larger 240v "smart" appliances and devices and charge my batteries in a pinch, so enter the Champion.Here's my 2 cents if you wish to continue reading.1. I'm not impressed with the plastic wheel kit and see this as a future fail point. I'll be doing an upgrade. They are a hard wheel made of plastic and just the weight of the unit causes them to bow out like a car out of alignment. The design with the wheels are also slightly wider than my Generac which is annoying since I had to make additional room in my storage space. I'm not sure what comparison is used by Champion for the percentages for "smaller" but it's roughly the same size as my Generac. It is also equally as heavy as my Generac so the "lighter" comment also seems to be subjective. It does maneuver fairly easily though and was simple to assemble. After assembly I placed ramps on my mobile work table of a standard height and heaved-ho it up to a less back-breaking working position. I liked the way it looked on the table and considered a permanent mount, removing the wheel kit and front prop but I changed my mind later, explained below.2. All maintenance items are fairly easy to get to. Installing and changing oil was a breeze with the included funnel and hose. The instructions say 1.2 quarts but I found just a standard quart fills it nicely. I removed the plug and checked the gap - no issues - and slowly pulled the rope about 10 times getting some oil circulated while there wasn't any compression on the engine. This unit does have electric start but I'm not using it yet and I will admit, pulling the rope when the inverter in 3' in the air is not the most comfortable but I wasn't worried since I figured I would be using the electric start soon. I also squirted a bit of lube in the plug hole to lube the upper cylinder.3. After looking it over pretty well it was time for gas. I have 5-gallon cans so with the inverter in the air this was difficult as even with sufficient strength and a funnel, gas is, well, 'splashy'. I figured I would just get a hand pump but reconsidered later. It's not just me who has to use this but my wife as well so I need to K.I.S.S. Anyway, about 2-2.5 gallons later it's time to crank the inverter. I'm still using the rope so I flip the button to run, open the gas valve and pull the choke. After three moderate pulls, it sputtered and popped a bit as it started up, I pushed in the choke and she leveled out and ran fine. I left it to run for a few hours, changed the oil with fresh and prepared to do some load testing. The break-in oil came out pretty clean. I rarely use the stop button when shutting down a generator and prefer to use the fuel valve allowing the carburetor to drain the bowl. This takes a minute or two but works fine.4. I run my generators in my garage near the breaker box so part of my prep was to remove the spark arrestor and install an extension and hose to exhaust outside. While sitting there listening to the inverter run, it really hit me that it's loud. Eco is livable, I guess, but on full run, it's every bit as loud as my Generac. It is open frame, I realize that, but I was expecting it to be quieter since, after all, it's 20 years newer. Fortunately with my exhaust and ventilation system I can leave the inverter locked in the garage so no chance of theft but yeah, if you're wanting to be more incognito, this is not the inverter for you.5. Load testing was next later that afternoon. My house is 3200 sq. ft. with two HVAC zones, the smallest being in the rear where the bedrooms are and the largest being in the front living area. I killed the breaker to the house and connected the 30 amp, 240 outlet and started testing. Bringing each circuit online one at a time, it ran my front HVAC fan motor, rear fan motor, rear AC, two upright freezers and the refrigerator without overloading. A little note here: turn your fans on manually and then start the AC as this will alleviate some of the start-up load. Do the same with a window unit. I was also able to power lights (all LED) and charge electronics but by this time I'm assuming I'm getting close to it's 30 amp limit. Here is the first real problem I have with the unit: the digital display only shows frequency (HZ), voltage (in this case 240) and hours. No amps or watts. Sigh. I have no idea what I'm drawing from the inverter. Anyway, I shut everything down and now I want to see if I can start my front AC unit which is significantly larger than the rear and can draw about 40 or so amps. I suspect it won’t but am curious if the surge will allow it to do it. I manually start the fan to reduce it's surge-start and then manually turn on the AC. Nope. Can't do it. Nice try though. I'm happy enough so I give the inverter a rest and power the house back up on utilities. This was a bit welcome as by now my ears are ringing from the nose of the generator. Yeah, going to need ear muffs when I'm working around it. Maybe the extra $1k on the enclosed inverter is worth it after all? Nah. I'll build a box.6. Although the motor stays nice and cool, the exhaust side gets hot. Real hot. I learned the wheel kit is actually part of the airflow design as the air seems to come from under the muffler enclosure and blow down. Remember, I've removed the wheel kit earlier and now my table is super-hot. Fortunately it's a metal table. I reinstall the wheel kit and the inverter starts to breath better so if you get this inverter and plan to hard mount the unit, it must be raised up about 4" to allow air to flow underneath and help with cooling. This is going to make designing a hush box interesting. I removed it from the table to make it more accessible to fuel up and more maneuverable. I may build an elevated hush box later on when I get the gumption but I will only be about 12" to 18" off the ground.Anyway, to summarize, This seems to be a good inverter and I'm sure when we need it will be well worth the money. It runs well but is heavy and loud but other than that looks to be a keeper. Hopefully it's as reliable as my old workhorse Generac.P.S. I did eventually connect the battery and it works fine. I keep it stored with a trickle charge float maintainer so it's less likely to be dead when used. BTW, the battery is hard to access. The negative side is easy to get to but the positive is a booger and makes putting a maintainer on it difficult. I was hoping I could just back feed though the 12v port but nope. It doesn't work that way.

Update a year later. This thing is pretty much flawless. We now have two of them. My son liked the one that I had wired into a transfer switch that he bought one to keep as a spare for additional power, and also to use for the Church when they have retreats 3 times a year. He's used his twice already and everyone loves it. Easy to start even in rainy conditions. Solid and dependable. The only Con that I can think of is that unlike a few others, it cannot be joined with another in a parallel kit to effectively double the output. If it could, then it could truly power our entire house. We have a 5 ton AC for the main part of the house, and a 2 ton for the main theater. The two ton can run on a single genny but not the 5 ton because of the deep well pump, swimming pool motor and hot tub motors/heaters and a few frost free fridges/freezers that need to come first. Still, our power has never been off more than an hour or so. This model is still plenty strong enough to keep us comfy, and in PA, when it hot outside, we can still run the two smaller AC units or go outside to swim. In the winter, the only draw for electric will be well water pump, furnace, computers, fridge,microwave, and the hot tub heater, which this unit can supply..-------Original Post-------------Received my new Genny yesterday. Heavy and solid. Delivery guys placed it exactly where requested. perfectI watched a bunch of You tube videos so that I knew exactly how to unpack it and get things set up. Learn from other's mistakes when you can. : )I only needed a Phillips screwdriver and a tiny wrench (for the battery connection), a 9MM and 8 MM sockets for everything else. Removed the shipping brackets. Kept those and the screws. Installed the wheels. Installed the under-bracket with the rubber foot, then the handle. In total, 13 minutes. I timed myself. And I'm not strong but I was able to position it as needed.The only confusing thing was the BIG TAG that is affixed inside near the oil fill. It states that there is NO OIL IN THE UNIT. But when I went to fill the unit, the oil stick showed it was FULL. I came inside to call tech support to ask why there was oil in the unit, but the wait time was 35 minutes. While I was on hold, I went to their site to see if maybe they are shipping with oil. There was a chat button. I clicked it and within 15 seconds, I was chatting with a support person. I explained the oil problem I encountered, and she confirmed that they do not SHIP with oil, however, each unit is TESTED with oil before it leaves the factory. It appears that when I was affixing the bottom bracket, which took me the longest, and I had the unit resting on its face, all of the oil that remained after being drained at the factory headed to the oil filler plug. I took it out again, wiped it off, pushed it in again, and voila... there was no more oil. Filled it up with OIL and put it aside, since my lunchtime is over. I want to get the Tri-fuel kit for it since we have Natural gas. Not sure that it is really worth it though because in the past 10 years, we have only lost power a total of maybe 6 hours combined. However, the Farmer's Almanac is predicting the worst weather in 14 years for this winter. This will easily power my well pump and the gas furnace/refrigerators and computers TVs. I can wait until the furnace stops to try and use the microwave or coffee makers. Will update once I get the conversion kit setup.