I've had the Predator 3500 for several years and use it frequently. I work on my own engines and can tell you from experience that the carburetor in the 3500 is awesome. If it has a problem, it's probably not the carburetor. I'm a big believer in only running 100% gas in small engines (because of carb gumming), but in a pinch I've had to run regular 10% ethanol gas several times without fuel stabilizer. It sat in the tank (and inside the carb) for an extended period of time. It fires right up for me just about every time. The only times it hasn't fired up, has been a failure of the ignition module. It seems like the voltage regulators burn up. They're designed for a heat sink, and I think that's one of the places they went cheap to keep the cost down. The modules are inexpensive though, so I keep a spare on hand. I'm watching your video because I want to upgrade to the 5K. I'm hoping it's built similarly to the 3.5.

Hi,good review. Just a heads up,propane forms water droplets when it combusts.Many who only use propane in their generators find out their carb bowl ends up with corrosion. They usually discover this fact after gasoline fails to start the generator and further inspection of the carb bowl reveals the problem. Best to run gasoline(non ethanol) with some stabilizer or cleaner on a regular basis,just alternate. Also good to become familiar with disassembling and cleaning the carb.

I am wanting a quieter generator and stopped by HF to purchase one of these today. I found out that they were $300 cheaper yesterday. Since I only wanted one and didn't need one, I decided to wait until they go on sale again.

Bought one yesterday with a 25% off any item coupon they emailed to me. Great deal. Run it on gasoline and propane to test it though. Always use 2 year fuel stabilizer since it won't gum up. New gas has less lubricity than the fuel from the past so I would recommend adding a little Lucas fuel treatment to protect the entire fuel system. I have used it for decades and it has never failed me. Marvel Mystery Oil is fantastic as well.

Love the tutorial, Thanks and a really talented camara man to catch all the angles.

People can say what they want about Predator generators for what they cost compared to the Honda’s if you take care of it they are great. My buddy has three 3500’s that are 10 years old and has used them everyday and they are still going strong.

Maybe some things to get into seeing you are going this direction with your other videos on the home backup power prep route anyway: 1. With the Bluetti stuff, try to run the whole kitchen off of the Bluetti. See how far each unit goes running your appliances and the fridge at the same time. Obviously you can't turn everything on all at once, but say can you get the fridge and toaster oven or the fridge and microwave to work at the same time or does it overload? I am thinking the smaller of the two you tested will overload easily, but the bigger one will be able to get some useful stuff done for preparing meals. 2. Run the same tests with this generator both on ECO mode and regular mode. A lot of people still have hard starting fridges, which yours does not seem to be, so I think you will be OK on ECO mode and the fridge while other people will have problems with it. I expect other things like the microwave oven and maybe even the toaster oven will be a problem with the generator due to large, abrupt changes in demand where the larger Bluetti will sail right through the tests. Also try these things with the Bluetti plugged into the generator. Part of this is to show what are limits and what are not limits with the generator and to see how much using both of these can better solve the issues you may hit powering your home and living in your home at the same time during a power outage. After all, food sitting in the fridge is only so helpful if your other stuff to prepare it to eat doesn't work. 3. Operating on this small scale of a generator, maybe show how well a window or portable AC works with this. I have run my small generator with an inverter based heat pump and it was fine as the inverter soft starts the motor and slowly ramps it up. An older / cheap window or portable "single stage" AC I expect will not work well with this generator due to hard starting, at least not without some modification to soft start. I have to wonder if one of these hard starting AC units will also overload even the bigger of the two Bluetti units. 4. Hook up a surge protector with the generator / outlet tester. Also hook up to the Bluetti. As a big reason to go for an inverter generator is clean power for electronics, show us what happens, especially as there is a label on the outlet of the generator stating this is a "floating neutral" generator while I don't see any label on the Bluetti. I found with my inverter generator even though there was no label, it is also a floating neutral generator, which is a NEC code violation to not have. A surge protector cannot work without a ground - neutral bond. What I did in my case was to make a ground - neutral bonded pass-through TT-30 adapter cable. The idea being don't chop up my long TT-30 cable as then it can only be used with the generator as it is against NEC codes to have two or more ground - neutral bonds. The bonded pass-through cable is designed to only be used with the generator. Maybe also something to show with your home transfer switch setup as usually those are hooked with with a ground - neutral bond in the system. If the Bluetti is ground - neutral bonded, then you may have actually violated NEC codes by plugging it into your transfer switch. In this case with the right equipment and a load, you may be able to show current flowing through the ground wire during normal operation, which is never supposed to be the case during normal operation. You could also try rigging up a GFCI in this case and show that it trips as it detects a differential over the neutral and hot wires as the ground wire would also be carrying a load at that point. 5. If you are really looking to show preparedness for an extended outage, what about getting bigger propane tanks? For this generator just to get up to the run time on propane as gasoline, you need to go up to 30 lbs. Also a good size for taking it to a local propane refueling station as some of these places have a minimum charge for refueling a propane tank. Maybe hook up to a 100 lb tank and have some extra oil so you can stop the generator and change the oil once the run time is reached. My generator actually shows current and total run time on the screen, which makes these maintenance intervals a lot easier to track. Getting back to propane, a particular idea I like for this sized generator is to have a couple of smaller, easier to use for anything tanks like two 30# tanks and then a single 100# tank for an extended outage. The idea with the two 30# tanks is normally you only end up using part of a tank in an outage and then the lights come back on. If you do other things with propane, you will likely only use part of the tank and a 30# tank is easy enough to move around and transport. So you can slowly draw one tank down to zero and then swap out for the other 30# tank and take the first back to be refilled. Only if things end up dragging on for a while do you finally pull out the big, heavy 100# tank and start cranking away. 6. With the Bluetti, it would be interesting to see you rig it up to some solar panels for your testing. Try to run on a day with that and only turn on the generator when you need to. 7. Take all of this stuff camping and see what all works out as a comfortable way of doing things without pissing off your neighbors too much / violating national park regulations. 8. Maybe get into grounding this stuff to house ground. Easy enough with a transfer switch, but for my extension cord setup, I ended up making a custom cable to carry the ground to house ground with lighted plugs so I can see when I have generator power and house power and when they are out. This is as in one plug has two cables coming out, a regular 3-wire cable going to another plug and a singular ground wire that went to a second plug with a light on it that only lights when grid power comes back. The thought I had is to have all ground and neutral at the same reference ground voltage. Just thinking, you have some good toys, I mean tools, to play with with real power outage use cases and even cases for a camping trip. Make some good use of this, see how it shakes out, and put out some videos.

Nice review of this new generator. Than you for sharing. I anticipate new equipment to work flawlessly so would be interested in annual review(s) to see how it works for you over the next few years of use. I have a 16 year old Honda(open frame) and would love a "quiet" generator.

What's the number of the NGK plug you mentioned?

Great review. Hey next time weigh your tank before and after just to see exactly how much propane was used.

one major thing i noticed you went right by the ground ! shouldnt this be grounded in the field ? nice explaination .

Did you ever get a chance to see how long a 20lb tank will last under med load?

So I usually just run extension cords from the generator to my different appliances. Could I plug in a surge protector that has multiple outlets into the generator and then plug the extension cords into the surge protector?

You don't need to push the start button again. If it doesn't start the first time, it will try several more times.

One year old 5000 with under 400 hours total use. Fuel selector valve defective. Discovered when float bowl stuck and could not turn off fuel! It even leaks in the propane position! Knob is not loose. Can feel detents as it is switched. Will have to add a cutoff valve. Otherwise, the thing will leak gas. Will it be burning propane and gasoline at the same time?

The manual says the break-in period is 30 hours no more than 75% load.

Hmmm, I had the same starter issue with my new Predator 5000, where is seemed that the starter didn't engage the flywheel on a few occasions. I wonder if there is a defect in the starter system.

does it use a standard 1/4" quick connect propane fitting?

So use a 30 lb tank you get longer and propane

will it start without the battery, just pull start?

Why is it "more safe" to have the propane cylinder farther from the generator? It seems to me that it's easier to trip on and break the propane line when it's farther from the generator. Also, if it leaks "over there", it will leak when it is closer. "Just, you know, for safety" would be to check the connections for leaks with soap & water or a leak detector. Don't believe and propagate everything you hear; turning the tank on quickly causes absolutely no issues whatsoever. There is nothing in the regulator or the generator which would stop the flow of gas if you do. The only way the flow would be stopped is if you invert these newer OPD tanks. What are "sensitive electronics"? - certainly not devices with switching supplies in them like computers, TVs, Blu-Ray players, phone wall-wart chargers, etc. that can accept any kind of AC -noisy or not- from 90-265 volts. So I get 18 hours of run time on a full tank of gasoline and 10 hours on 20 lbs. of propane regardless of whether it is fully loaded or lightly loaded? You say you can scroll through the display to read different "data sets" - so, the screen has a history function showing a whole data set for each individual parameter it displays? How would one hook up the "travel trailer" connection to a transfer switch, since this is a 120V output only, and household transfer switches would be 240V?

Is that a standard quick connect or a proprietary connector? What is the black thing between the hose and regulator? Is it really needed? I want to mount one of these on the back of my RV and plumb it in correctly.

they need to drop the price so i can afford it. at $1,200.USD. i will pass.