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L

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Discussion Starter · #1 ·
Looks like I've bought another inverter. Wal Mart is having a sale on the Sportsman GEN1000i 1000. It's regularly $370 but it's on sale for $159. I tried to pass it up, but at that price? My will broke. I blame Iowa. Somehow, it's gotta be his fault, although I don't know how yet.

It's a small inverter, but it gets great reviews. It runs about 7 hours on a half gallon of fuel. Lightweight, so my guess is it would be perfect for something like camping. When I get it, I'll run the usual tests and put the scope on it. It's supposed to output clean power, somewhere around 5% THD.
 
L

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Discussion Starter · #5 ·
Dutchy491 said:
Be interesting to talk in a year from now and see how this throw-away unit is doing…
Click to expand...
It's no Honda, that's for sure. But I don't think it's worse than any of the other Chinese Honda clones out there. My guess is it's on par with Firman, Wen, Pulsar, and Westinghouse. People still use their $79 Tail Gators from HF for years, and I'd put the Sportsman in a higher category than those things.
 
OrlyP

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#6 ·
Dutchy491 said:
Be interesting to talk in a year from now and see how this throw-away unit is doing…
Click to expand...
For $159, it's not bad. Just set your expectations I guess. This is fine to power a few lights, charge phones or laptops or watch TV with.

There are reviewers on YT that claims to have had this gen for 4-5 years, some with hundreds of hours, and it seems to do reasonably well.
 
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iowagold

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#7 ·
LaSwamp said:
Looks like I've bought another inverter. Wal Mart is having a sale on the Sportsman GEN1000i 1000. It's regularly $370 but it's on sale for $159. I tried to pass it up, but at that price? My will broke. I blame Iowa. Somehow, it's gotta be his fault, although I don't know how yet.

It's a small inverter, but it gets great reviews. It runs about 7 hours on a half gallon of fuel. Lightweight, so my guess is it would be perfect for something like camping. When I get it, I'll run the usual tests and put the scope on it. It's supposed to output clean power, somewhere around 5% THD.
Click to expand...
how could you go wrong at 160 bucks?
LOL!
yea the little gens are cool for little jobs.
and they sip fuel for sure.
i would to have bought two of them at that price.
nice is you need to share one for charging phones during a BIG power out event.
a few power strips are handy as well.
or get one of those multi outlet usb setups for a charger bank.

i saw a little power back up solution for security cams that was a power brick.
and it had multi voltage outputs.
and was setup for power input all of the time as an inline charger.
pm if you need links.
 
L

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Discussion Starter · #10 ·
OrlyP said:
For $159, it's not bad. Just set your expectations I guess. This is fine to power a few lights, charge phones or laptops or watch TV with.

There are reviewers on YT that claims to have had this gen for 4-5 years, some with hundreds of hours, and it seems to do reasonably well.
Click to expand...
I'm sure the primary factor is in how well the unit is maintained. Fresh oil and don't overwork it. I have other inverters to do the heavy lifting, so I would use this for perhaps the garage fridge and garage door opener or something else extremely light duty. It seems it would make a good overnight window a/c power source. One thing I really like about having several inverters is the ability to scale fuel use. Man, I cannot tell you how important that became in 2021 after Ida. The ability to do that really made all the difference.
 
L

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Discussion Starter · #12 ·
iowagold said:
how could you go wrong at 160 bucks?
LOL!
yea the little gens are cool for little jobs.
and they sip fuel for sure.
i would to have bought two of them at that price.
nice is you need to share one for charging phones during a BIG power out event.
a few power strips are handy as well.
or get one of those multi outlet usb setups for a charger bank.

i saw a little power back up solution for security cams that was a power brick.
and it had multi voltage outputs.
and was setup for power input all of the time as an inline charger.
pm if you need links.
Click to expand...
I have a friend who is going to Daytona for the races this spring. He's asked to use one of my smaller inverters. They are up on a grassy hill nearby and picnic with other people. He told me lots of people bring those small inverters to have something to provide power. It sounds like he wants one to use to charge cell phones and the like since they are out there most of the day. I was going to lend him my Pulsar inverter. Now, I think I will let him use this one since it's ultra-light, quiet, and should provide all the power he needs on about a half-gallon of gas.

It would have been interesting if there was an option to parallel the inverter. Without that feature, I didn't really need two, although I saw in reviews that some people like the unit so much they purchased a second one. I have yet to see a bad review for the inverter, so I'm stoked I picked one up.
 
L

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Discussion Starter · #13 ·
sledman8002002 said:
I dont blame ya LaSwamp, chances are I'd probably do the same lol (y)
I look forward to your review, bring us some pics too!
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I tried to resist, but Iowa appeared to me in a vision and told me I had to buy it. He said it was for the good of the nation. It was really weird. That's the last time I drink tequila from a plastic bottle while reading the Slick deals email.

I'll do a review of it once I get it set up. I have a scope and I'll post the waveform. I'm about to order the NGK plug for it. Looks like a chainsaw plug, lol.
 
L

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Discussion Starter · #14 ·
GenKnot said:
I just looked at the specs. It is a 1.3HP, 40cc engine that runs up to 5,000 RPM. That's moving along! :p
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Oddly, the reviews all say it's still extremely quiet, even at that RPM. It seems like it'd be a screamer, but no. Eco mode drops the RPM to about half, which is not bad. As long as you keep output to under around 350 watts.
 
L

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Discussion Starter · #16 ·
sledman8002002 said:
I like the fact it has a primer, first I've ever seen on a modern day 4 stroke gen. I did a quick search for them here in Canada, from what I found, not so inexpensive up this way...o_O
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I saw that, too. I have a lawnmower that has a bulb pump. I don't have any other engines that use one.

It looks like there are at least a few companies that sell this inverter under different brands. I think it's usually in the $350-400 range retail. I've seen this model before but thought it was a bit spendy for the output. But at the sale price... well, I can tell you how that turned out.
 
L

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Discussion Starter · #17 ·
GenKnot said:
In case you haven't looked it up already, it uses the NGK 1223 CMR6A nickel spark plug.

www.ngk.com

NGK 1223 CMR6A Nickel Spark Plug

NGK 1223 CMR6A Spark Plug - Same Day Shipping. PayPal Accepted. Secure Online Ordering. Est. 1969.
www.ngk.com www.ngk.com
Click to expand...
I think that's the one I have in my Amazon basket. I'll double check to make sure. I'm leery of Amazon NGK plugs, but it seems to be the iridium plugs that the counterfeiters target for faking. I've not seen the regular $4-$6 plugs faked. That makes me feel at least a bit better.
 
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