Cheap generators...

[Papa Lazarou]

For those of you who just have to take fridges/curlers/tvs/pool cleaners with them this year I thought you be interested that our local B&Q is selling a small two-stroke generator for £49.99.

Less than £50 for cool beer and fresh bacon all week?  Bargain!

[rcutler]

Careful the cheap 2-strokes will not run much. Start up is the main problem.

my 750watt generator had trouble running the fridge two years ago.

Remember JPChenet and Paddy are taking down a huge generator for us to share. Give him a PM although you have to be on MB.

[Andy Zarse]

Both Bob U and myself own £49.99 generators and they both worked handsomely last year. Ours quietly ran a large freezer, 6 lights, CD/radio, phone chargers and assorted other odds and ends and it performed faultlessly. It also used less than five gallons of fuel in five days. It depends on your requirements but we were very impressed.

[Jay (Team Cannonball)]

We also had one of those fifty quid numbers, and it did power our fridge adequately until the Saturday night until it had some electrical fault on the kill switch. All the kings men couldn't put genny back together again.

It is now sitting in my garage awaiting a more thorough repair by myself before this year. It is currently sitting beside my mini moto which has been awaiting a tyre change for about the same length of time. There aren't enough weekends in the year, may'be if we had a four day week I might find time to fit in all these little jobs.

Oh and try finding a tyre shop that will change mini moto tyres (which is impossible by yourself unless you can squeeze 200 pounds by hand, using a tyre iron only results in scratching expensive rims). Eventually I found a motorcycle dealer that would change it rather than laugh at it and call me a big kid. In the end I pretended it was for my imaginary kids just to save the embarrasment.

[Snoring Rhino]

We hired a Silent running 1.4Kw 4 stroke honda genny (about £700 to buy) last year from Rapid hire in Wokingham, about £40 then for a week, a worth while option if this is the only time you use a genny, plenty of grunt (make sure its covered by you house insurance), Costco have some good deals on .8kw 2 strokes, similar prices to B&Q but with their no quibble garentee (return it at any age with the receipt and keep up your membership and they will refund or credit to recipt value). 

[rcutler]

Bit like the Argos Rental Service we use occasionally then 

[Snoring Rhino]

Bit like the Argos Rental Service we use occasionally then 

Hum, new tent, camp bed, and other repackagable items...................

[sceetum]

I see screwfix have a Wolf Power 720w generator for sale at £50 including delivery. Anyone know if it is any good. Would it power a fridge or a tv and satellite box?

[DelBoy]

Don't know much about these things, but I would rather go fo something like this one:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/WESTPOWER-2-6Kw-Portable-Generator_W0QQitemZ7606775852QQcategoryZ46412QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Enough power there for the electric kettle as well.

These people also have a 950W model for £45.

Del

[rcutler]

Don't know much about these things, but I would rather go fo something like this one:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/WESTPOWER-2-6Kw-Portable-Generator_W0QQitemZ7606775852QQcategoryZ46412QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Enough power there for the electric kettle as well.

These people also have a 950W model for £45.

Del

A 4 Stroke doesn't require loads of oil in the fuel either. a 2.6Kw will power a TV, Sat box and a Fridge easily!

[Lorry]

Noisy though.

Look at digital generators on Ebay like this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/54dB-NEW-SILENT-SUITCASE-DIGITAL-GENERATOR-1kVA-230V_W0QQitemZ7607728053QQcategoryZ46412QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[Robspot]

Despite their description as SILENT, these generators are still noisy, we had the slightly larger 2000tc model last year. It is quieter than the 2.6kw as Lorry says though.

Only problem with ours is it broke down on the saturday so we had no cold beer at all on the sunday 

[Robspot]

Oh, whilst working it did easily cope with 2 fridges (one with a freezer compartment) and a stereo. Used about 1 tank of fuel a day but we did have it on all the time.

The joy of taking that first ice cold beer out of the freezer box is something to behold 

[DelBoy]

Noisy though.

Look at digital generators on Ebay like this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/54dB-NEW-SILENT-SUITCASE-DIGITAL-GENERATOR-1kVA-230V_W0QQitemZ7607728053QQcategoryZ46412QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I looked at these as well - the thing that put me off was the 5 hours run time on part load - that would probably be nearer to 4 hours.

Del

[Robbo SPS]

OUR " Silent " 3 KW unit hired last year, but by sunday night it was dieing basdly and very noisy.