BradC
3rd November 2021, 04:53 PM
(Cheap Chinese Crap).
This is half rant and half buyer beware.
Back in 2012 I bought a "Fuji Micro XG-SF3700" inverter generator from some dude on Gumtree. New with a warranty (he was importing them by the pallet load and selling them from his garage).
I spent some time properly running it in and load testing it and it did/does make a good honest 3.2KW into a resistive load. 'Lectric start with remote.
"Not light" (~30kg wet) and noiser than a Honda i2k, but it was ~$700 at the time. Purpose was the occasional camping use and power during prolonged outages.
Due to circumstances, it hasn't had a lot of use. Some 17h on it since new, but it has always done the important jobs (like run the Coffee machine and small split A/C when we had no power for 3 days).
We had a planned outage a couple of weeks back, so I dragged it out. It fired up ok. The original starting battery is long dead, an odd size and pretty much unobtanium but once primed up it started third pull (it has been sitting since 2018).
Put a 600W load on it (UPS & IT gear) and it did the job until I tried to fire up the coffee machine at which it died in protest. Fired it up again, let it run a bit and tried again. No go.
So I let it get us through the outage and waited for the weekend. Figured it was probably due a birthday, and when I popped the side cover off the cause was obvious. Split in the fuel hose ensuring the pump could get enough into the bowl to satisfy a <1000W load, but it soon sucked dry under duress. It had spent the previous couple of days slowly draining the tank into the "sound deadening" foam and leaking all over the bricks.
I thought I'd replace all the hoses given they're made from the same "fuel resistant" Chinesium. Every. Single. Fuel. And. Vacuum. Hose. On. The. Bloody. Machine. has one end bigger than the other. Most are 4mm -> 6mm, but one oddball is 4mm -> 7mm. Every hose. All of them!. The only ones that aren't are the crankcase breather and the vacuum choke.
Luckily there's a mob that make a replacement primer bulb rubber, and I've found a battery that fits, works and is actually available. But the time I've spent making up adapters for these damn fuel hoses is insane. I reckon I've added a kilo of weight to the machine just in adapters and hose clips!
While I had it to bits I pulled the top cover off to check the valve clearances, and they were spot on. I don't know and can't identify which Japanese motor this thing is a clone of, but mechanically it's actually pretty well built. I believe the weak points are the inverters, but I don't really have enough hours on it to comment. I will say the fuel hoses being made from petrol soluble rubber aren't ideal, and the fact it has obviously been put together as a "parts bin special" requiring custom hoses all over the shop is a "challenge". But still, I couldn't by a quality Japanese unit with even close to a similar output with electric and remote start for 6 times the price, so I'll deal with it.
I love my Chinese tools, and mostly I go in knowing there's stuff I'll have to do to fettle them, but this one is a doozy. Knowing my luck I'll probably get it all sorted and then the inverter will cark it.
This is half rant and half buyer beware.
Back in 2012 I bought a "Fuji Micro XG-SF3700" inverter generator from some dude on Gumtree. New with a warranty (he was importing them by the pallet load and selling them from his garage).
I spent some time properly running it in and load testing it and it did/does make a good honest 3.2KW into a resistive load. 'Lectric start with remote.
"Not light" (~30kg wet) and noiser than a Honda i2k, but it was ~$700 at the time. Purpose was the occasional camping use and power during prolonged outages.
Due to circumstances, it hasn't had a lot of use. Some 17h on it since new, but it has always done the important jobs (like run the Coffee machine and small split A/C when we had no power for 3 days).
We had a planned outage a couple of weeks back, so I dragged it out. It fired up ok. The original starting battery is long dead, an odd size and pretty much unobtanium but once primed up it started third pull (it has been sitting since 2018).
Put a 600W load on it (UPS & IT gear) and it did the job until I tried to fire up the coffee machine at which it died in protest. Fired it up again, let it run a bit and tried again. No go.
So I let it get us through the outage and waited for the weekend. Figured it was probably due a birthday, and when I popped the side cover off the cause was obvious. Split in the fuel hose ensuring the pump could get enough into the bowl to satisfy a <1000W load, but it soon sucked dry under duress. It had spent the previous couple of days slowly draining the tank into the "sound deadening" foam and leaking all over the bricks.
I thought I'd replace all the hoses given they're made from the same "fuel resistant" Chinesium. Every. Single. Fuel. And. Vacuum. Hose. On. The. Bloody. Machine. has one end bigger than the other. Most are 4mm -> 6mm, but one oddball is 4mm -> 7mm. Every hose. All of them!. The only ones that aren't are the crankcase breather and the vacuum choke.
Luckily there's a mob that make a replacement primer bulb rubber, and I've found a battery that fits, works and is actually available. But the time I've spent making up adapters for these damn fuel hoses is insane. I reckon I've added a kilo of weight to the machine just in adapters and hose clips!
While I had it to bits I pulled the top cover off to check the valve clearances, and they were spot on. I don't know and can't identify which Japanese motor this thing is a clone of, but mechanically it's actually pretty well built. I believe the weak points are the inverters, but I don't really have enough hours on it to comment. I will say the fuel hoses being made from petrol soluble rubber aren't ideal, and the fact it has obviously been put together as a "parts bin special" requiring custom hoses all over the shop is a "challenge". But still, I couldn't by a quality Japanese unit with even close to a similar output with electric and remote start for 6 times the price, so I'll deal with it.
I love my Chinese tools, and mostly I go in knowing there's stuff I'll have to do to fettle them, but this one is a doozy. Knowing my luck I'll probably get it all sorted and then the inverter will cark it.