Thank you for this public service!

I looked at the reviews and this looks alright. Always worth looking at reviews before you play Harbor Freight roulette.

they do seem to be trending towards better quality

not the timeline I expected from them

True. I have a bunch of Harbor Freight tools and have no complaints with them and I did a lot of research before I bought our Predator. Everything I read said they are good units. The 9000/7250 model we have can go 12-16 hrs on a full (8 gal) tank at a 50% load from reading user reviews. Ran ours for the 4 hours our power was out Friday night and it used less than 2 gal.

Avoid the Pittsburgh brand. Every time I watch a "project farm" video with that brand in it I always know who is going to get the worst review by far.

Unless you need a thing to only work once and cost as little as possible. I admit, there are situations where that is ok.

The predator generators are one of the few items at harbor freight that get really good reviews from everyone.

Yeah absolutely

You still have to read the reviews as with almost everything

For general home use/DIY the Pittsburg stuff isn't bad. I have a couple torque wrenches that are fine for the limited use they get, have a couple sets of the impact wrench sockets that are pretty good. The Earthquake 1/2" impact wrench I got 4 years ago is a beast.

Is it the best?

No.

Is it better than nothing?

Yes.

Edit: Downvote away.

Harbor freight stuff is Russian roulette. It works until it doesn't. I've had their beater knives last for years and had tools break on the second use (yes they were used correctly).

As an emergency item, I'm not sure I'd use a Harbor freight generator unless I had literally no other choice simply because you don't cheap out on something that may save your life. In theory the better names are less likely to fail in an emergency. If it's all I could afford? Yes, I'd buy one and hope for the best. If I could afford the extra for a better name? That's what I'd go for.

If you’re reliant on electricity to save your life, I agree. Some people have medical conditions where a loss of power could actually kill them. In those cases, you should really have a backup generator too, even if you have a whole house generator. This Harbor Freight generator would make a decent backup generator IMO.

Personally, I got the cheap harbor freight generator because I want it to save the food in my fridge, not my life…

Check online for a dual fuel inverter generator. They go on sale often and if you time it right, about the same price as HB. Look for the ones that can run on propane, they store much better than gas

I mean, in the event of a total shitstorm like Texas, using a small generator to power small heaters could save your life. But people with cpaps, O2 machines etc.? Idk, but I wouldn't trust the knock off version of anything keeping me breathing.

Just to run a fridge? Yeah, no worries at all. It works or it doesn't. Plus, keep a thermometer in there and as long as it stays under X, food should be fine.

Well, this is N.H., not Texas. We have coats, long underwear, blankets, sleeping bags, wood stoves, etc. The vast majority of us wouldn’t die of exposure in our homes. The frail exceptions are why they always tell you to check on your neighbors during a winter disaster…

Seriously, my coworker from Houston didn’t even have a coat when that shitshow went down. Unbelievable.

There are also kits to add the regulator to a gas generator making it dual-fuel.

You are comparing apples and oranges. Bitterly cold weather isn’t at all common in Texas. It is here. Of course people are going to be better prepared.

Not to mention that your characterization of NH is wishful thinking. This idea that the majority of NH is full of self-reliant rural folk doesn’t match up the demographics. Remember the chaos of the ice storm of 2008? Most people still don’t have generators.

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I didn’t say it’d be a good time. I said we wouldn’t freeze to death inside our homes. If your neighbor is elderly or an infant and is at risk of hypothermia, someone in the neighborhood has a wood stove. There are places they can get warm.

Actually, my point is that we are not self reliant at all, but that we have more resilient communities. People come together in the Northeast, in times of crisis. Just look at what’s happening in Buffalo. People opening their warm homes to strangers who were stranded in the middle of the road. We aren’t so different. WNY is a lot more similar to New England than to NYC.

No, self-reliance is what produces Texas level disasters. Run your own power grid where the gas lines aren’t insulated. You’re on your own. You’re prepared, right? It’s bullshit. It’s toxic individualism. Nobody is an island. Even the off grid homesteaders can’t sustain themselves forever. How the hell did they afford that land, anyway? By chopping wood and growing potatoes? Give me a break.

I have a 3500 watt Predator inverter. It runs VERY quite, and is wicked efficient. I needed an inverter model because my natural gas burner on my furnace is like a little computer and needs a really clean energy supply.

It runs my tv, computer, lights, furnace, and sump pumps with ease. Everything needed while we wait for power to return.

I got mine in 2018, and the battery lasted about two years, it looked like some super cheap thing. Last week I started it up, something I do everything three months to put an electrical load on it, and the display wouldn’t show the voltage but it did show “0” and a icon that it was running normal.

I’m happy with it. I bought the Honda model it’s compared to and that broke a valve rod after 12 hours of use.

This is a great deal if you don’t have one.

I would not trust my livelihood on a harbor freight product. Don't go cheap on somerhing that is supposed to keep you warm.

I have their box cutter knife and it outlived my Stanley one.

So how did you do the math on what size to get? Add up the critical items (In my case well pump, furnace, fridge) add in some other circuits, assuming you wont be using everything at once. My house has a 200 amp panel (200 amps X 120 volts = 24,000 watts, but all breakers aren't used, subtract big ones like 30s for welder, air compressor, hot tub...)

I realize this is not a slick total house solution, those are $6-12,000. Still any would be a step up from my 1,500 watt 30 year old Honda that requires moving the cord around to power the fridge after coffee is made...

House Igniter

We installed ours in 2012, put in a Reliance 10 circuit manual transfer switch. Has 2 240v, 8 120v. So the 240v circuits handle well pump and hot water heater, then we have kitchen circuit with fridge & microwave, lights, living room (TV, internet equipment, lights) back room outlet with mini fridge & small freezer, 2 bathrooms, 2 bedrooms, front room outlet for pellet stove.

What gets used in an outage is living room, back room, fridges & freezer, a couple lights , pellet stove (in winter) and the well pump & water heater (but not constantly). So there is usually only a 40-60% load on the gen most of the time.

Reliance has newer model transfer switches , ours is the older Pro/Tran, I'd go for the new Pro/Tran 2 series as it uses standard breakers, the old Pro/Tran uses proprietary breakers that supposedly can't be replaced. Generac makes good transfer switches as well. Ours is wired to an outside connector that the generator connects to with a 15 ft 240v cable.

The Pittsburgh pro hand tools have a lifetime no questions asked free-replacement warranty on them… just like Craftsman. Now that Craftsman is made in China, they probably come off the same assembly line.

When it comes to HF… I’m generally wary of anything with a motor. My rule is I’ll buy a Harbor Freight tool when I need it to do a specific job. If I use it enough to break it, I’ll buy a better one.