Although an internal combustion engine-based generator isn’t exactly one of the most complicated contraptions, any time that you combine something that produces power with electrical devices, you generally like to know how safe it is. Even more so when it’s a $139 generator you got off Amazon, like the PowerSmart 1200 Watt (1000 continuous) that the [Silver Cymbal] took a gander at recently. They used an expensive professional power analyzer to look at more than just the basic waveform of the 120 VAC output to figure out what kind of devices you’d feel comfortable connecting to it.
On the unit there is a single AC output, which a heater got attached to serve as a load during testing, but before that, the properties out of the output voltage were analyzed without any load. This showed a highly erratic waveform, as the generator clearly was unable to synchronize and produced a voltage within a wide range, immediately disqualifying it for connecting to sensitive electronics. Things got less dire once the load was hooked up and turned up to use up a big chunk of the available continuous power.
Although being far from a perfect sine wave, the output now looked much better, with all properties including the total harmonic distortion (THD) being just a hair over 20% and hitting just over 60 Hz on the frequency.
Definitely not a great result, but as a cheap unit to keep around for powering things like heaters and power tools that aren’t too fussy about how clean the power is, one could do a lot worse.
It’s also a 2-cycle engine, which has a heinously dirty exhaust and I’m baffled that they’re even still legal to sell. Please, please don’t run one of these.
Chill. This is an emergency power source, not a daily driver.
In a post-hurricane, post-blizzard, post-earthquake, post-tornado, or any other post-power-grid-failure scenario, the “heinous” emissions of a dinky 2-stroke generator will be the least of anyone’s worries.
The continuous “Chicken Little” response to anything with a gas tank on it doesn’t advance the cause of responsible stewardship of our ecology. It’s silly, it’s tiresome, and the crisis-fatigue it engenders eventually causes people to stop caring all together.
I would agree with this. In an emergency, this is better than nothing. However, if this were running at an RV park, it would likely generate many, many complaints from the neighnors.
I would have agree’d up until the third paragraph. The ability to state a counter argument to a statement is the purpose of discussion. That was done with the argument that a catastrophe is why you would use it, so the fact that it is bad for the environment is secondary in such cases. Open for debate in my opinion since there also would be cleaner alternatives, but it can stand as an argument. What bothers me is why some people seem to feel it is needed to follow up any offerings that have on a subject which is specifically SUPPOSED to be debated with some sort of personal insult. “It’s silly. It’s tiresome”, are not facutal statements beyond the scope of opinion. If it is too silly or tiresome to engage in someone about a topic, then simply don’t do it. Pointing out that one somehow *feels* that is beneath oneself doesn’t advance the understanding of the subjectmatter.
This device doesn’t work particularily well, and the postive use-scenerios are limited to say the least. Seeing as how the tank is limited in size, and the build quality is questionable, I would argue that any time wasted trying to keep this toy running would be better spent in an actual emergency locating a much more reliable source for power. Seems more along the lines of a marketing gimic to give people with a specific budget a [false] feeling of security. If you needed a generator after a disaster for heat, you will also need it other tasks, and 1000W doesn’t go far.
I owned a similar unit from Snug Harbor. Bought specifically to use power tools away from a line source on my farm. Worked great. And oddly enough, the neighbors never complained. But they were all squirrely anyway.
Exactly
I agree 100%
This is Hackaday, not Greenday. 😉
I’m so sick of people shoving their politics into every G-D- discussion.
GTFO and take that nonsense to reddit.
This place used to be a nice respite from all the politics I get stuffed in my face everywhere else. Now there’s clowns in every post comments whining about something. What’s worse is I get the feeling most of them are here just for that and haven’t hacked squat or soldered a single thing in their lives.
Just take it somewhere else Karen. Most of us just want to enjoy on topic discussions about things we enjoy.
I have a few of these at different locations, and I love them.. on many occasions has gotten me out of a bind.. little dirty.. yep. Recharged my battery out at the lease and kept me from walking 22 miles back to town ( where I left my cell phone, ugh )
Recently Ann Arbor, Michigan is banning all leaf blowers as those are 2 cycle and dirty as well. The challenge is finding a powerful substitute that won’t break lawn care companies’ bank.
4 cycle electric generator and electric leaf blower might work. I’ve had a few battery powered leaf blower. They either dies in a few minutes or sucked badly
I bought a reconditioned 4-stroke leaf blower at Northern Tools a few years ago (a brand name that currently escapes me).
No fuel mixing required. But it doesn’t push leaves as well as my 2-stroke ones.
Because 4 stroke motors typically ruin at about HALF the rpm of a similarly sized 2 stroke.
It is a Ryobi.
At least for residential units they can just tell the owner “I’m going to plug this into your outlet” and use an electric blower. and I suspect every homeowner would be fine with that. Would be nicer and quieter by a lot in the neighborhood anyway. For huge lots or commercial property without external power outlets- more of a problem but noise is less of a concern.
You can’t pull enough watts out of a residential outlet to even come close to a 2 cycle engine, particularly after accounting for 100+ feet of heavy 12/3 extension cable.
Batteries are much better for this.
* In the USA
40 volt Ryobi works good the one with turbo jet button. I’ll be using two cycle engine until I die wether legal or not. As long as I can get gas and fix my equipment I’ll use it.
I use to live in Ypsilanti and moved to the Jackson area because it was the only way me and my family could buy a house. Significant number of California transplants moving into the Ann Arbor area, causing massive inflation, massive housing pricing issues that’s spilling out into the surrounding areas. We lived in a trailer park in Ypsilanti and they raised our lot rent up to $1500 a month and it was still the cheapest in the area. We moved into that trailer park in 2012 and were originally paying $700 a month. They raised it almost $100 a year every year until we were forced out. Thankfully we lived in a 40 year old trailer, so it was paid for, otherwise add what, another $1200 a month for a trailer payment onto the $1500 a month lot rent? Those transplants are also passing the same bizarre eco friendly laws and regulations that caused them to flee California. The Detroit Free Press did a news article about how the homelessness in Washtenaw County (the County Ann Arbor is in) is now the highest in Michigan. It’s higher than Wayne County (Detroit area). It’s a microcosm of California in every way. I don’t think climate change is a myth but there’s a sensible way to address it and then there’s the insane liberal progressive way of addressing it.
“I don’t think climate change is a myth but there’s a sensible way to address it and then there’s the insane liberal progressive way of addressing it.”
This conservative agrees with that sentiment.
Are you a conservative or an insane conservative, the distinction matters.
You do know that factories and many other pollutants being put in the air and your worried about a generator lmao
Recent study in my metro area claims that 50% of the particulate pollution here is from 2 stroke lawn care equipment. And this is in Houston, where we still have huge refineries all along the ship channel.
I have a 2 stoke Gen similar to this, mix is 50 to 1. It is for emergencies only. Naturally it would never start if we had an emergency. In this instance this is a scam and amazon charges $400 for this particular generator not $130.
Maybe a better 2-stroke engine?
https://youtu.be/peiPM6rVe5o
It’s just a cheap two stroke it was never meant to be an extensive use thing… This is how you trickled charged lead acid batteries
before lithium jump packs
I know it will sound controversial but THD is not that important, even plain square wave will be “filtered”/utilized by modern electronics ( absolutely no way to harm them contrary to all misinformation ), and big motors already have capacitors attached to them anyway so this whole perfect sine is either marketing or overcorrection of some sort… Yes as engineers we strive to have best thing possible but that is not always needed, worth pursuing. Most homes have worse sine in outlets….
I’m trying to think where this would be of significance, maybe with a capacitive dropper?
Otherwise of course it will be noisy, but that isn’t too important.
I’m glad odd and even harmonics were brought up as per the tube amp lot :)
Electrical noise does matter! I can’t even use powerline communications modules during the day as my old solar inverter is so noisy. Having a clean sine wave does matter and if you don’t know what is going on it can be very frustrating when gear that should work fine just refuses to do so, but only when the sun is shining (in my case).
Is there any reason you’ve opted for powerline modules as opposed to just pulling some CAT6?
i gave up on powerline communications a long time ago. of course all my x10 stuff stopped working if i plugged in the wrong laptop brick anywhere in the house…so i got insteon and had the same experience. i know it’s correct to blame the laptop brick but i’m trying to be pragmatic. before it was that, it was something else…it’s just too touchy.
anyways, i decided it’s not really that important to be able to switch the lights without getting off the couch.
There are several potential reasons why powerline networking may cease to work when using a solar inverter.
One of these potential reasons is, indeed, noise.
Another less-obvious potential reason is a reduction in source impedance:
It may be the case that your inverter presents a lower (perhaps much, much lower) RF output impedance than your grid connection does, which would effectively attenuates any RF transmissions that happen on your home’s electrical wiring.
The symptoms of both of these unrelated potential issues might be improved by introducing a fair amount of series inductance at the output of the inverter.
(But that’s only interesting in a theoretical sense, since it is doubtlessly cheaper, better, and safer to install some Cat5e.)
THANK YOU. Yes this.
Essentially every device I need to power runs on a switching power supply which will even work directly on DC. A bad waveform or frequency should be irrelevant to those “sensitive electronic devices”.
Wrong. Try hooking up a newer furnace with one of these and your power board doesn’t work. I had to upgrade to an inverter style for a cleaner ac line to run my furnace. Yeah, I live up north and heat is important to me.
Furnace controller boards are notoriously old buggy whip tech. I’m shocked at how rudimentary they are. They may have difficulty with highly irregular power due to several safety features built in to address excess unburnt natural gas or pooling diesel in your basement.
Yup, and it’s specifically the flame sensor that depends on measuring microvolt differences they it particularly sensitive. Bonding the generator to ground seems to help.
A modified sinewave inverter killed one of my phones and three 550W air conditioners. No, Pure Sine Wave is not just hype.
The power supply for your phone must be faulty if anything happening on the input can fry the phone.
A while back I bought a 1200W inverter so I can use my car as a generator in emergencies. Seems like the performance of this thing is pretty similar in terms of gallons per hour. I think a car burns about 1 gallon per 4-5 hours. I haven’t tried running long enough to see how a load effects that though.
I have always loved this idea in principle, but be careful. Lets say you have a 100A alternator, when car is *idling* I think you can expect it to put out more like 50A. Which means if you are drawing more than 600-700W on average then you will be draining your battery. Should be enough to keep a fridge going, since it only turns on periodically. But some cars have smaller alternators.
A high amperage alternator and/or a high idle controller in the car can help.
I also like the hack of adding a standard power plug to a hardwired gas furnace so you can run it off a generator/inverter like this.
Haha, that’s actually exactly what I set this up for. Renting though, so I won’t cut into the house wiring unless there’s an actual emergency.
That hack is recommended in Canada for emergencies and standard practice in the UK.
The inverter generators are noticeably better; cars and non-inverter small generators have a huge 0-load consumption. Very much depends on the car; also a car with lower idle consumption may not have much alternator output at the same time.
I used my car for 36 hours a year ago. A 2006 Subaru legacy. I could draw 1kw and no more despite having a 2kw (4kw peak) inverter. That was good enough for two fridges, Internet, TV, lighting and charging phones and computers. But the telephone exchange/Internet went down after about 24hrs.
Fuel use was very good. Noise was basically non existent. If you could connect to the coolant for heating it would be very efficient. Only issue was oil usage. I’m not sure if it got into the cat but it was very smoky for the first few drives.
I would have liked more power in bursts but I now have a dual fuel 3kw inverter generator. Good enough but far noisier.
You have to be careful on what you run on inverters, just like this generator. My son has a CPAP machine and we had to buy a true/pure sine wave inverter to run his CPAP machine from our car in the event of a power outage because the cheaper inverters are actually DC modified sine waves and can destroy sensitive electrical equipment. I actually have a shop light that won’t even run on the cheaper inverters. It just flickers.
Agree. I have an oscilloscope to check. I was surprised to see a medium expensive ups wasn’t even modified sine but was square wave.
Sounds better than most cars I’ve had – even if your car was full to start that’d correspond to no less than two hours per gallon. The figure I remember for one of the small honda generators was something like 12 hours per gallon, at the partial load they rate them for. So it should be better at idle, but not as much better if you were really adding up to 1kW very much of the time.
I would say using your car like that would beat a lot of the older portable generators that ran at full speed all the time – I had a flathead briggs that we used to keep the food from spoiling in a hurricane, and it had to have its 5-gallon tank refilled more than once a day, I think. It was just running two fridges and a fan most of the time, and turned off at night IIRC- which was way lower load than it was meant for. Of course you need to make sure you’re not going to be stuck without a car.
My car engine idles at around 0.55 gallons (as reported by OBD-II) per hour without any accessories running, or roughly one gallon every two hours. When performing work (like running an inverter), the fuel consumption will be even higher than that.
It’s not the most modern engine in the world, but this Honda J35 also is far from the worst. I have no reason to suspect that it is running improperly.
You can figure out your own car’s hourly burn rate with a cheap ELM327 Bluetooth dongle and the Torque app on your phone — and it may be worth doing to set appropriate expectations.
(It’ll also let you keep an eye on the car’s voltage to make sure the alternator is keeping up, observe coolant temperature to make sure the cooling system is behaving, and see realtime fuel tank level — from anywhere within Bluetooth range, perhaps even from your sofa.)
Operating noise alone should disqualify the thing from being used.
Depends upon the generator. Some are pretty quiet. Also bears mentioning there are four-cycle versions.
https://www.absolutegenerators.com/american-built/engine/motor-type/4-stroke-4-cycle
I agree, and am glad there are 4-stroke models available from this brand.
” Also bears mentioning there are four-cycle versions.”
These opinionated bears 🐻,
do they find the exhaust, or is it the noise that they can’t bear?
Come on me eco this small generator ran my pellet stove for 4 days keeping my family and house from freezing! The noise was very welcome and hardly detected inside!
OMG I just realized. Someone NEEDs to turn this thing into a drone. If you strip off all the unnecessary parts, 1000W is probably enough to keep it airborn.
Looks like it’s near 40 pounds. Why not just buy a standalone 2-stroke motor and forgo the generator altogether?
That reminds me, Hackaday hasn’t shown updates on the Chinese 2-stroke octo-copter.
You’d have to strip it way down. This is just a hunch, but I believe turning a 2 stroke into a generator would be a lot harder than cutting a bunch of metal off of this thing and rectifying the output.
If there is no generator, then there is no electricity. If there is no electricity, then we must be using mechanical contrivances as the prime-mover.
I’m sure that it’s possible to make a quadcopter that uses independent CVTs (to vary rotor speed) and/or variable-pitch rotor vanes (to vary lift at a given speed), but that’s a whole different game than “Slap a genny on there and sent it!”
Most generators will show odd things at no or low load often a result of “hunting” where mechanical speed control is not in a stable window. Load them more and they should clear up if of basic quality.
I love those little gen sets, I have two. This sensitive electronic stuff cracks me up. Any time I ask someone to show me a piece of sensitive electronics I look and it will have a switching power supply that does not care, and on top of that the vast majority of the time it will run on 100 to 240 volts. So much for being sensitive. I have ran stereos, big screen tee vees, computers, network gear.. About the only thing I found that is not happy with them are LED lights, CFL’s are nicer, they flicker less. BTW, if you wanna see ugly look at the output of a commercial UPS. I had a couple CFL’s on one of them back in the old server room at work as it had no windows and it was nice having some light in there when the power failed. They were more like strobes with the amount of flickering they did.
They are a bit of a PITA for power tools as something like a circular saw takes a few seconds to spin up, but they do a pretty good job once has spun up. I have done a lot of back woods building with one of them and a small compressor to run a nail gun and a circular saw, not at the same time obviously. It is also much easier to use one of these and a small extension cord with my pole saw for tree trimming. The power is is better than running multiple extension cords from the house or the shop.
I have nothing bad to say about these little guys. I have had one of them for over 20 years now and she still spins up and does a good job for me. I am lazy and run them a bit rich, off of my Stihl chainsaw premix, but they take it just fine.
Listen to this guy before getting all pearl-clutchy. I have one of these (rated for 900W continuous but it’s old enough that it’s likely it’s the same /similar unit). I ran a 1600 Watt heat gun on it and my nerve gave out before the generator did (15-minutes-ish) so they’ll take something of a startup/overload beating.
The video already covered putting a good spark plug in it so the other upgrade is to use good 2-stroke oil in the mix; less smoke and will prolong the engine life. I also drain mine dry before any prolonged storage to avoid having the carburetor/fuel system glued into a solid block of varnish. Put an additional bit of arrestor screen on it if yours is as bad as the one in the video (mine wasn’t).
Noise? Yes, but less than the power tools that are plugged into it.
Smoke? Yes, until the choke comes off (see the “good oil” part about that – it helps with that too).
Convenient and portable? Absolutely.
Underrated feature: The 12V charge feature. Nice in winter if you’ve got a vehicle with a low battery and no power available.
GCFI protected? No – I use a plug-in unit added on to mine. Some people will use a grounding stake to ensure the frame is well-grounded.
Better than the alternatives such as an inverter? It depends – so far it’s very field-portable which a car-based system won’t be and I’d bet it’s much lighter than one of the new luggable battery/inverter units. It has the definite advantage if it has to be used for a whole day or more.
I’d like to see the video author run at max rated continuous load for a very long time just to see what happens though.
Yep. People have commonly (in both consumer and enterprise spaces) been running “sensitive electronics” from modified sine inverters for UPS applications — for decades.
It is generally fine.
I myself keep a very inexpensive (but at least ETK-tested) modified-sine inverter in my work truck. It is always plugged in and runs whenever the key is switched on.
I mostly use it to run my laptop, to recharge power tool batteries, and to run my cell phone via a fairly complex PinePower power supply. These all use SMPS.
I often work in the field, so these daily-use devices may see tens of hours per use per week (and sometimes, per day).
No issues to report, and none expected.
The generator tested in this HaD article can be pretty awful compared to grid or “good” generator power at 20% THD, but that 20% THD is not bad at all compared to many inverters (in vehicles, and also on desktop PCs) that people don’t blink an eye at using.
“Sensitive electronics” usually means cheap junk that uses a capacitive dropper for a power supply.
The dirty output from this generator is much better than what a modified sine wave inverter produces and will power most devices just fine.
LED bulbs that are compatible with normal dimmer switches will absolutely go crazy with dirty power. Avoid them if you don’t want strobe lights. Non dimmable and remote controlled LED bulbs are usually fine as long as they don’t use capacitve droppers.
To my understanding, virtually all modern devices will run fine off very unclean power, even if it spikes to like 150% of the acceptable voltage (even in 240V countries)? or is virtually a square wave? A frequency anywhere between 30 and 100Hz will likely be ok? Virtually everything from laptop power bricks to desktop PC power supplies, to high quality soldering stations, to 3d printers, to anything and everything powered off a wall-wart or a brick converter somewhere between the plug and the housing of the device itself… Has mains supplying a pretty rugged high voltage AC to “low” voltage DC converter with regulated DC output. These are inductive loads, which can further mess up an ugly waveform, but on the output of these converters you still get the proper DC voltage able to supply the appropriate current requirements of the device. Even a modern (anything designed since the 90s perhaps) digital osilloscope would probably be ok, so long as there was a good mains earth ground reference for it. Correct me if I’m wrong, thanks.
All my electronics run off DC bricks – how is a dirty AC supply going to affect them?
As above, my 950W gets earthed and I run a long pipe from it’s exhaust which quietens it considerably.
I have seen some active PFC circuits perform poorly with very dirty output from a UPS (almost a square wave, not a ‘modified sine’ but really a square wave). The supply was working but making a very ugly noise. Not sure if it would keep working.
It seems that only concerns might be around while using that generator with a inductive load, i.e. transformers, induction cookers, microwave ovens, etc. And, if there is no really high voltage spikes (something well over 300 volts) it must be generally ok for any “IT stuff”. Perhaps, only certain models of PSU’s with a active PFC will not be “happy” with that.
> “immediately disqualifying it for connecting to sensitive electronics”
You do know that ‘sensitive electronics’ don’t plug straight into the mains outlet…? They have an intermediate, sometimes integrated PSU having its own regulation and hold up capacitance.
Usually most PSUs for ‘sensitive electronics’ can be supplied from a source 100v to 250v, 50Hz to 60Hz to meet worldwide markets.
I’ve discovered in practice that PSUs are able to operate way-outside their stated limits.
Seems that you are unnecessarily scaremongering.
One other issue with these 2-stroke models is the poor efficiency – only about 5% gasoline to electric energy conversion. 4-storke generators run roughly 15-20%.
A couple of things you need to consider here though.
1) For a portable generator, the size to weight ratio may be more important.
2) The 2 cycle generators require NO maintenance at all. In the 20+ years I have owned and used my little ones, I have two of them, I have never done *anything* to them. Also the spark plug thing seems to be stupidity passed on from generation to generation, as I did not even change the stock one out. Yea, over 20 years of occasional use on the same plug.
If I kick one of my bigger gensets up for more than a bit, I feel obligated to change the oil. Even if I do not use one of my big generators I feel somewhat obligated to change the oil as it degrades with the temperature changes in the shed, from below -20 in the winter to over 120 in the summer in the enclosed shed it is in. The oil is also hydroscopic so it absorbs moisture over time.
When it comes to a big blackout, and we have yet to have one that big, no doubt the big generators will purr along and power much of the house. Most of the time we have 3-5 hour blips, trees on branches and such, and ol blue fires up the tee vee and plex server just fine as well as a couple lights. If it goes on much longer son of old blue can power the fridge and freezer. I plan on plugging them both in at the same time and if I hear the engine really bog down, unplug one until the other one’s compressor kicks out. Just kind of playing the odds they will not kick in at the same time too often. More gas efficient would be to let them both sit for a couple of hours and than start the generator and run one than the other and shut the generator down for an hour, but I am a old fart and that is too much getting up and dicking with things.
I suspect, reg, that your maintenance-free generators were not Chinesium like the one in the article. I have owned one of these, and it very definitely could not have been trusted to come good on the occasion of some random future emergency.
These engines ought to be similar to a chainsaw engine. I’ve given up on 2-stroke chainsaws before, when nothing I could do would start them. Anything’s going to go bad if you can’t keep the carb clean.
Guess my post on the danger of Carbon Monoxide and these generators wasn’t all that important. There have been many deaths in the past when they were used indoors or close to a window or air intake. This should have been in the article.
Do you really think the typical HaD really needs that warning? Unlikely. I’m sure the included documentation clearly warns against indoor use, but anyone who’s that clueless probably didn’t read it anyway. Some people are just carelessly self-destructive like that, and provide the fodder for r/darwinawards subscribers.
This is just stupid and the only reason it happens with these is they are small enough to carry in the house. Most of the people who gas themselves with these have already killed off most of their brain cells barbecuing in the house or running their outboard motors in the bathtub as a poor man’s jacuzzi.
The 240V version of this generator has been available in the UK for years, in a variety of paint schemes and with different names stuck on the side. I bought mine (badged Performance Tools) from B&Q in the early 2000s for £35. I had a camper van that I kept at a storage compound where there was no mains power, and it was useful for powering a drill, grinder or saw etc. when needed for repairs/improvements. It was perfectly OK for that, but I remember thinking at the time that I would not want to put anything electronic near it.
I would not have wanted to depend on this POS in an emergency, however. We got a smaller van, and the genny became redundant and got shoved to the back of the garage. A few years later I was clearing the garage out and found it. It eventually started with a bit of fresh fuel in, but then I was alarmed to see a growing pool of fuel gathering underneath the thing. The main fuel line had rotted to the point where it collapsed when I examined it; not something that will be a surprise to anyone who ever owned or worked on a Chinese motorcycle, but doesn’t bode well if you don’t want to introduce the possibility of fire into your power failure situation.
Picked up one from Kragen 2007ish during a 3 day power outage in Sacramento. Just enough to power a 1 kilowatt fluid filled heater and keep us from freezing. Great memory of my wife and I and 4 kids huddled in one room…just enough to keep us nice and toasty. Crazy loud… Thank God we were one floor up from the generator running down stairs outside! Was great until it ran out of fuel at 3am in the morning. 😂
The engines in these things are actually pretty tough. They are based on a design from Yamaha which they produced up until very recently, primarily for developing markets. They often have cast iron cylinders and dual main cranks. They will sometimes have issues with assembly lube clogging the idle jet, causing them to run too fast. The noisy waveform is pretty typical of a brushless AC generator.
Genny fans would do well to search YT for “James Condon” – although I think it’s mostly 4-stroke he deals with, there’s a bit of everything if one looks around.
Fun starts when you buy 3 phase generator and try to put bigger load on only 1 phase. Then two other phases get much higher voltage than it should
I got 1. I also have 10 car batteries in my house for lighting and phone charging. It comes with a plug that’s 12 volts and 6 amps with battery jumper cables clamps which is awesome. However I did a emergency electrical service with it for the first time.. I plugged in a hammer drill and tried to use it. Soon as I plugged it in and pulled the trigger to start the hammer drill the generator died and couldn’t handle the load. So I figured let it run and actually warm up for 15 mins then tried again and I had to very slowly every time pull the trigger to get momentum in order for it not to big out and die so easily. Also tried to plug in a bigger size 1000 watt Keurig coffee machine and it couldn’t handle it.. but it can handle a 500 watt Amazon heater which can be life saving. Soo.. I give it a 5.5 out of 10 stars. Hopefully this info helps