My choice of the Kipor GS2000 over the other offerings was based on my requirements and some real world practical experience.
We have a rural farm property getaway with no mains power or water connected, and basic accommodation in 2 x 40ft shipping containers. Early on we gabbed a cheap Kipor GS2600 as a temporary power supply whilst we got the place sorted. That was over 6 years ago. That Kipor was purchased new and has been mistreated for years without a single issue. Its left out in the weather; rain, hail or shine. It runs all day, gets regularly over loaded, run dry of fuel, never been serviced, runs like a clock and starts easily.
Its treated like a red headed step child, and still loves us after many years
Thats the primary reason I bought the Kipor GS 2.0; we've unsuccessfully tried pretty hard to inadvertently kill one Kipor by neglect, and the fact its cheaper than the others was an added bonus.
The Kipor specs on paper are almost identical to both the Honda EU20i and Yamaha EF2400iS.
All three gensets consume about 1ltr per hour at the rated capacity, although the Kipor has about 0.5 litre smaller fuel tank. I real world tested the fuel consumption and confirmed almost exactly the 1ltr per hour, or 3.5 run hours per tank at the rated 1600w capacity. The Honda and Yamaha consumption is about the same but their fuel tanks are 4ltrs, so will run 30min longer at the rated output.
I have a self syphoning lid attachment which will draw continously via a fuel line from any size or type of auxillary container (including fuel tanks, fish tanks, Sherman tanks, shopping bags or ice-cream buckets) The extra 0.5ltr capacity of the Honda and Yamaha is not enough to make any real difference anyway, so it isn’t an issue for us but of cause may be an issue to others.
The Kipor GS2000 is relatively lightweight (for a genset) and fits in the front tunnel boot of our 20.63.1, sliding it in sideways and standing it up once inside. Although the 2015 incarnation of the 20.63.1 has a significantly smaller tunnel boot and the Kipor, Honda or Yamaha would not fit in it.
The Kipors smart throttle works as per usual, and like the other two when called upon to provide a sharp thump from an appliance that pulls a high wattage (towards the rated output) it can occasionaly trip the overload. Running with the smart throttle switched off solves that problem, but uses the maximum 1ltr/hr fuel.
Our 20.63.1OB has an Aircommand Ibis aircon, which according to the owner manual is rated at 3.2kW cooling output (although the current web specs say 2.8kW)
I had the Kipor 2.0kW running our Ibis aircon on the van in realitively high 35deg ambient temperture to test it in the real world.
The forecast for test day was mid to high 30s and the van lives in my tin roof factory. As soon as the themometer hit 30deg inside the factory i started the Kipor, and turned on the Ibis. The BOM temperture outdoors was 35deg, so to make it as difficult as possible for the Kipor i sat the Kipor outdoors in the full sun for the entire test. The temperture at the generator according to a thermometer was 45deg in the sun.
I set the Ibis aircon temp to the minimum of 16deg to keep the compressor running constantly, and set the Kipor smart throttle off. This setting combo is the softest on the Kipor because it removes the variations of the smart throttle and the power thump of the compressor kicking in. I ran the Ibis on the Kipor at full throttle without any issues for exactly 2 hours, which allowed me to check the fuel consumption, which was exactly the advertised 1ltr/hr.
Fuel consumption is an issue, because we have the genset for the aircon, and only get about 5 hours out of the onboard tank. A full night of climate controlled bliss would require about 6ish litres at least so a 20 litres jerry wouldn't last to long in hot weather.
Most of what i done here and the results Ive found with my Kipor would apply almost identically across to the 2.0kW Honda and Yamaha models. Although every genset is subtly different, this hopefully provides some real world practical starting advice.
I then refuelled and setup the Kipor on smart throttle, and set the Ibis to a more realistic 25deg and started it Kipor. The Ibis which takes about 3 minutes to cycle the compressor from a start, but when the compressor kicked in after 3 minutes it knocked out the Kipor.
I reset the Kipor, turned off the smart throttle and plugged the Ibis back in. I let the Kipor run until the Ibis compressor kicked in and then after the compressor started, turned on the Kipors smart throttle. The smart throttle kept the throttle at full at that point because of the compressor draw anyway.
After about 30 minutes the temp in the van had dropped to the preset 25deg. The Ibis compressor started to cycle and the smart throttle on the Kipor kicked in and dropped the output.
The real test would come when the Ibis compressor cycled back on. After about 3 minutes the compressor cycled, the Kipor sprung into life and all was running happily …. continuing like that for the next three hours without a single hiccup. The Kipor was clearly happier when left to run on full throttle with the full draw of the Ibis, before activating the smart throttle.
The compressor cycled every 3 odd minutes for 3 odd minutes for the entire 3 hour run time, so the Kipors smart throttle survived getting thumped about 50 times by the Ibis compressor. The fuel consumption over the 3 hours was 2ltrs almost exactly, the same amount of fuel running without smart throttle, at full throttle for the 2 hours previously, so a 30% increase in output time with the smart throttle.
Prior to the Kipor (and Expanda) we camped with a tiny 2 stroke Honda 0.5kW genset, and only bought the Kipor purely for the aircon. For that reason I wanted the smallest lightest genset that would run the aircon without anything required in reserve; and the Kipor GS2000 fits that bill very well
Clearly a bigger generator of any brand would do it easier, and if considerably bigger also run other stuff at the same time. I personally don't need more, in fact I don't usually really need any mains power, the only power I actually "want" (not need) is to power the aircon. I noted from the specs that the Kipor GS2600 fuel consumption on the Ibis would probably be around the same as the GS2000 anyway.
We have a rural farm property getaway with no mains power or water connected, and basic accommodation in 2 x 40ft shipping containers. Early on we gabbed a cheap Kipor GS2600 as a temporary power supply whilst we got the place sorted. That was over 6 years ago. That Kipor was purchased new and has been mistreated for years without a single issue. Its left out in the weather; rain, hail or shine. It runs all day, gets regularly over loaded, run dry of fuel, never been serviced, runs like a clock and starts easily.
Its treated like a red headed step child, and still loves us after many years
Thats the primary reason I bought the Kipor GS 2.0; we've unsuccessfully tried pretty hard to inadvertently kill one Kipor by neglect, and the fact its cheaper than the others was an added bonus.
The Kipor specs on paper are almost identical to both the Honda EU20i and Yamaha EF2400iS.
All three gensets consume about 1ltr per hour at the rated capacity, although the Kipor has about 0.5 litre smaller fuel tank. I real world tested the fuel consumption and confirmed almost exactly the 1ltr per hour, or 3.5 run hours per tank at the rated 1600w capacity. The Honda and Yamaha consumption is about the same but their fuel tanks are 4ltrs, so will run 30min longer at the rated output.
I have a self syphoning lid attachment which will draw continously via a fuel line from any size or type of auxillary container (including fuel tanks, fish tanks, Sherman tanks, shopping bags or ice-cream buckets) The extra 0.5ltr capacity of the Honda and Yamaha is not enough to make any real difference anyway, so it isn’t an issue for us but of cause may be an issue to others.
The Kipor GS2000 is relatively lightweight (for a genset) and fits in the front tunnel boot of our 20.63.1, sliding it in sideways and standing it up once inside. Although the 2015 incarnation of the 20.63.1 has a significantly smaller tunnel boot and the Kipor, Honda or Yamaha would not fit in it.
The Kipors smart throttle works as per usual, and like the other two when called upon to provide a sharp thump from an appliance that pulls a high wattage (towards the rated output) it can occasionaly trip the overload. Running with the smart throttle switched off solves that problem, but uses the maximum 1ltr/hr fuel.
Our 20.63.1OB has an Aircommand Ibis aircon, which according to the owner manual is rated at 3.2kW cooling output (although the current web specs say 2.8kW)
I had the Kipor 2.0kW running our Ibis aircon on the van in realitively high 35deg ambient temperture to test it in the real world.
The forecast for test day was mid to high 30s and the van lives in my tin roof factory. As soon as the themometer hit 30deg inside the factory i started the Kipor, and turned on the Ibis. The BOM temperture outdoors was 35deg, so to make it as difficult as possible for the Kipor i sat the Kipor outdoors in the full sun for the entire test. The temperture at the generator according to a thermometer was 45deg in the sun.
I set the Ibis aircon temp to the minimum of 16deg to keep the compressor running constantly, and set the Kipor smart throttle off. This setting combo is the softest on the Kipor because it removes the variations of the smart throttle and the power thump of the compressor kicking in. I ran the Ibis on the Kipor at full throttle without any issues for exactly 2 hours, which allowed me to check the fuel consumption, which was exactly the advertised 1ltr/hr.
Fuel consumption is an issue, because we have the genset for the aircon, and only get about 5 hours out of the onboard tank. A full night of climate controlled bliss would require about 6ish litres at least so a 20 litres jerry wouldn't last to long in hot weather.
Most of what i done here and the results Ive found with my Kipor would apply almost identically across to the 2.0kW Honda and Yamaha models. Although every genset is subtly different, this hopefully provides some real world practical starting advice.
I then refuelled and setup the Kipor on smart throttle, and set the Ibis to a more realistic 25deg and started it Kipor. The Ibis which takes about 3 minutes to cycle the compressor from a start, but when the compressor kicked in after 3 minutes it knocked out the Kipor.
I reset the Kipor, turned off the smart throttle and plugged the Ibis back in. I let the Kipor run until the Ibis compressor kicked in and then after the compressor started, turned on the Kipors smart throttle. The smart throttle kept the throttle at full at that point because of the compressor draw anyway.
After about 30 minutes the temp in the van had dropped to the preset 25deg. The Ibis compressor started to cycle and the smart throttle on the Kipor kicked in and dropped the output.
The real test would come when the Ibis compressor cycled back on. After about 3 minutes the compressor cycled, the Kipor sprung into life and all was running happily …. continuing like that for the next three hours without a single hiccup. The Kipor was clearly happier when left to run on full throttle with the full draw of the Ibis, before activating the smart throttle.
The compressor cycled every 3 odd minutes for 3 odd minutes for the entire 3 hour run time, so the Kipors smart throttle survived getting thumped about 50 times by the Ibis compressor. The fuel consumption over the 3 hours was 2ltrs almost exactly, the same amount of fuel running without smart throttle, at full throttle for the 2 hours previously, so a 30% increase in output time with the smart throttle.
Prior to the Kipor (and Expanda) we camped with a tiny 2 stroke Honda 0.5kW genset, and only bought the Kipor purely for the aircon. For that reason I wanted the smallest lightest genset that would run the aircon without anything required in reserve; and the Kipor GS2000 fits that bill very well
Clearly a bigger generator of any brand would do it easier, and if considerably bigger also run other stuff at the same time. I personally don't need more, in fact I don't usually really need any mains power, the only power I actually "want" (not need) is to power the aircon. I noted from the specs that the Kipor GS2600 fuel consumption on the Ibis would probably be around the same as the GS2000 anyway.
on another thread, Im not going to tell that your Honda probably did alright because the Heron draws a little more than the Ibis ....... Ill just let you stew, without knowing that