Honda eu 2000 i and gas

[Terry Forshier]

Last weekend my wife and i took our two grand daaughters out for an overnight. they are 9 and 11 and always like to spend a night on the boat. Now it is HOT this time of year in Naples and we are always glad we can use the HONDA 2000 to run the AC at night when anchored out. Now to the point, we did our day and anchored up. Started the generator, closed up the hatches and went below for som Ac and some game playing. Racko and Rummy are 2 favorites. Anyhow, at around 10 pm the generator ran out of gas. (not full to start with but I wanted to run out the gas, then refuill before turning in so the Ac would run most of the night) anyhow, I went out refuled with brand new gas from the gas station that day. Well, guess what, the generator would start but surged and stopped. then finally ran with the choak on, then with 1/2 opn then surged and surged and stopped. After about a half hour of this and I had enough. It was nearly 85 now in the boat and the humidity was creeping back in and I was soaking wet. No breeze what so ever. However off to the west I could see lightening strikes from an offshore thunder cell.
Well, we pulled anchor and motored to home where we came into cold AC and crisp sheets.
The next day I started the generator again. Surge surge surge. Stopped. I drained the tank, put new HIGH TEST fuel in. Still surged some but not as bad. Added Stabelizer, ran much better. But when I hooked the shore power cord in it surged and died or would run the water pump for the AC but not the compressor. The AC would try to start, overload then, the pump would run but the compressor no. It "rests, a few minutes then trys again. It would get enough power to over come the innitial start up.
So I downloaded the manual on line. and saw how to clean out the carborator for storage. Did that , refiled and put in additive for stabelizer, then started. So far 20 minutes on the boat and all is running.
The moral is new gas can be bad. as a side , my lawnmower acted the same way last week surging etc. Guess that is the next project.

[Joe Kern]

Terry- I know this has been a topic  before but remind me the size of your a/c unit again.   Still thinking about the Honda 1000 versus 2000 and the thought of running the AC continues to be enticing if I knew it would work. 

[Terry Forshier]

I have a flagship 16000 AC. aI will say the main reason that convinced my wife we needed the Honda 2000 was the thought of a cool nights sleep in the summer, at anchor. I know many on this board tout the 1000 but for me the small difference in price and the ability to run the Ac was a no brainer. Incidently it will fit in the locker. Yo0u need to slide it sideways a bit and then up under the combing. Terry

[Lance Jones]

Got to love that ethanol!

[Ken Juul]

Terry,
I know you keep you boat at home so your visits to marinas may be less frequent than many.  Quite a few of the marinas in Va now carry ethanol free gas.  It is supposed to have a shelf life of at least 6 months, but I add stabilizer anyway.  Cheap insurance.  You may want to call around locally to see if ethanol free is available near you.

[Ron Hill]

Terry : As I recall Honda recommends 89 octane not hi-test (93 oct). 
I'm not too sure how many Watts your AC draws, but wasn't there a tag on your Honda cautioning to run the generator on the "hi" setting for only about 30 minutes?  The remainder of the time should be run on the ECHO (lower rpm) setting? 
A thought   

[Ken Juul]

I stumbled across a listing of ethonal free sites on the Boat US page.  Think you need to be a member to see them so I copied them on the attachment.