kingfishbc
- Jul 14, 2014
- 6
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2014
- Messages
- 6
I'm both a newbie here and pathetically under-educated in electronics and electricity. But I think I am teachable, and I am asking for help in trouble shooting an inverter generator that won't produce power. I hope I am at least remotely in the right place...
The I/G is a Honeywell HW200i that was given to me by a friend in return for a favor I performed. He bought the genset on Amazon about 5 years ago and never used it; never started it, never even fueled it. I took it home, fueled it up, checked the oil, followed the instructions and started it. It ran slowly, obviously way below the 5000 RPM on the face plate, whether in or out of "efficiency" mode, and the power light never lit so I believe it was not producing power. Anyway, I thought maybe an inverter generator needs to have a complete ground system to operate correctly, so I shut it down, and drove and connected a ground rod.
Then I couldn't get it to re-start, no matter what I did. So I figured out how to remove all the plastic cladding, and removed, dis-assembled and cleaned the carb. After I re-assembled and re-installed the carb, it started and ran, this time in what sounded to me like the appropriate RPM range, and it backed down in the efficiency mode and came back up to higher RPM upon turning the efficiency mode off. But it didn't produce power. The green light on the control board indicating power production didn't light and an electric drill motor plugged into either AC outlet didn't run.
So I googled the Honeywell HW2000i and found it has its share of problems, in initial starting, re-starting, producing power, made in China, poor or non-existent dealer/rep;air network, etc. I read that sometimes a new I/G arrives with a broken AC breaker, so I procured a new one and put it in with no joy. I read that sometimes small generators (not sure if that includes inverter generators or not) lose magnetism when not started over a period of time,and need to be re-flashed by hand spinning an electric drill motor plugged into one of the receptacles while the unit is running. Tried that, no joy. I understand there is a more complex method of re-flashing involving hooking up 3 light bulbs in series with a male plug in each end of the wires, starting the ailing genset, plugging in one of the male plugs to a receptacle thereon and plugging the other end into an active AC source like another generator. I have a diagram to build one of these and understand how to do it and how to use it, but I still don't know if the magnet flashing deal is only for a standard generator, or for an inverter generator, too. I don't want to inadvertently ruin something that is not already ruined.
The dam thing starts and runs just as sweetly as you could ever hope for, and I don't want to give up yet. Can anyone here weigh in on the flashing issue, and/or what else I can test and/or replace to make this a functioning inverter generator?
Thanks in advance,
John
The I/G is a Honeywell HW200i that was given to me by a friend in return for a favor I performed. He bought the genset on Amazon about 5 years ago and never used it; never started it, never even fueled it. I took it home, fueled it up, checked the oil, followed the instructions and started it. It ran slowly, obviously way below the 5000 RPM on the face plate, whether in or out of "efficiency" mode, and the power light never lit so I believe it was not producing power. Anyway, I thought maybe an inverter generator needs to have a complete ground system to operate correctly, so I shut it down, and drove and connected a ground rod.
Then I couldn't get it to re-start, no matter what I did. So I figured out how to remove all the plastic cladding, and removed, dis-assembled and cleaned the carb. After I re-assembled and re-installed the carb, it started and ran, this time in what sounded to me like the appropriate RPM range, and it backed down in the efficiency mode and came back up to higher RPM upon turning the efficiency mode off. But it didn't produce power. The green light on the control board indicating power production didn't light and an electric drill motor plugged into either AC outlet didn't run.
So I googled the Honeywell HW2000i and found it has its share of problems, in initial starting, re-starting, producing power, made in China, poor or non-existent dealer/rep;air network, etc. I read that sometimes a new I/G arrives with a broken AC breaker, so I procured a new one and put it in with no joy. I read that sometimes small generators (not sure if that includes inverter generators or not) lose magnetism when not started over a period of time,and need to be re-flashed by hand spinning an electric drill motor plugged into one of the receptacles while the unit is running. Tried that, no joy. I understand there is a more complex method of re-flashing involving hooking up 3 light bulbs in series with a male plug in each end of the wires, starting the ailing genset, plugging in one of the male plugs to a receptacle thereon and plugging the other end into an active AC source like another generator. I have a diagram to build one of these and understand how to do it and how to use it, but I still don't know if the magnet flashing deal is only for a standard generator, or for an inverter generator, too. I don't want to inadvertently ruin something that is not already ruined.
The dam thing starts and runs just as sweetly as you could ever hope for, and I don't want to give up yet. Can anyone here weigh in on the flashing issue, and/or what else I can test and/or replace to make this a functioning inverter generator?
Thanks in advance,
John