Well said Powderman. Your ,and my, needs are not the same as someone who maybe runs a generator a thousand hours a year, and it has to be able to run electronic equipment ect., etc.
You are talking bang for the buck, and for a guy who doesn't need a lot of bang, I think Harbor Freight stuff fills a lot of peoples needs. I'm afraid the little 800 watt generator isn't going to run your freezer, but you don't need a 3500 watt Honda either. I have a 3500 watt no name generator that I bought for $100 at a garage sale. The gas tank was rusty so I fitted a boat tank, and now it starts on the first pull most times, and has done gobs of good work for me. I just finished pouring a 20'X16' slab with that chiepo generator pulling my cement mixer, and it used less than 3 gallons of gas. That's a lot less than paying a minimum fee for electricity month after month.
I would imagine that the larger Harbor Freight generators are reasonable tools for the dollar too, and if you use the 20% discount cupon, they are not that expensive.
I kinda get tired of folks telling other folks that if they don't buy the absolutely most expensive version of whatever it is, they are fools. The real brand name snobs post on the optics threads. Several of the posters there insist that you have to have a $1000 dollar whiz bang scope on your handi rifle that you use on a nice sunny Sunday afternoon once a year to pop a bunny or two.
Even a young guy who cannot afford better than a Wal=Mart special and goes elk hunting in horrable weather can kill lots of elks with his chiepo scope, whereas the guy who is telling him that such a thing is impossible has probably never shot one. I know because I killed lot of them myself with the chiepest scope I could find before I could afford "the good stuff" Now when I can buy better scopes I'm too old to chase the wily wapiti.
Sorry for the rant.
