Cheapest ETQ IN800I 800 Watt 4-Cycle OHV Gas-Powered Portable Digital Inverter Generator (CARB Compliant)

I am a photographer who bought this generator to power a couple of computers and maybe a printer. It works great for that, but you have to trick it into working. Meaning you have to be very specific in the way that you plug things into it or else the overload light comes on. It seems to be very sensitive to which extension cord you use, 15ft seems to be the limit. Also, if you use a power strip don't even think about using the switch on it as it will trip the overload every time. The overload situation wouldn't be so bad if you didn't have to stop the generator each time to reset it.

After about 20 restarts I figured out you pretty much have to go in order from largest load (My 17" DELL XPS) to the lightest load which was a cheapo Lexmark printer. Any variation caused issues. On the plus side you do feel like you have accomplished something when you get everything up and running. My peak load was 4.7AMPS and it handled it fine, this included a 17" Dell XPS (often running at full load processing pictures), a toshiba 15" Laptop an LG 19" monitor, netgear wireless N router and a cheapo lexmark inkjet.

I have used this generator for 1 event and I am thinking real hard about returning it, there are just too many bugs with it. I wasn't expecting the world with this generator, I was expecting something that would be for the most part hassle free with my small electrical load. What I got was something that is great when it works but frustrating to no end when it doest.

*Update MAR 2009*

I have replaced this generator with a Yamaha 2400IS, the Yamaha is simply amazing. Although it is substantially more expensive at $1200 I must say the price was worth it. The Yamaha performs flawlessly with none of the quirks of this unit. Tests show that the Yamaha puts out a perfect sine wave with no signs of broadband noise.

While the IN800I still runs great I was simply fed up with all of the quirks, it is also quite a bit louder at idle than the Yamaha is under full load. Get more detail about ETQ IN800I 800 Watt 4-Cycle OHV Gas-Powered Portable Digital Inverter Generator (CARB Compliant).