WEN 2800-Watt Dual Fuel Inverter Generator, Quiet, Portable, and Lightweight with Fuel Shut Off and CO Watchdog (DF280iX)

I recently upgraded to a camper with a microwave oven, requiring a more powerful generator than my trusty Yamaha. After thorough research, I opted for the WEN generator and I couldn't be happier with my choice. Surprisingly, this generator is not much heavier than my previous one, yet it delivers a solid 2200 Watts effortlessly. The quiet operation and first-pull start make it a dream to use, even in chilly weather as low as 16°F. During a recent winter camping trip, the WEN generator performed flawlessly, powering both the microwave and an electric heater without a hitch. The option for an "echo" setting ensures long-lasting use when full power isn't necessary. I also appreciate the thoughtful tip about using the generator's box for storage and transportation. Overall, I am thoroughly impressed with the WEN generator's performance and durability, especially after hearing glowing reviews from friends who own other WEN products. It's a reliable companion for any RV adventure, offering great value for the price.

I recently upgraded my generator to a WEN model for my camper, and it has exceeded all my expectations. Despite its power, this generator is surprisingly lightweight at 2200 Watts. The quiet operation and easy start-up, even in cold weather, make it a joy to use. During a recent winter camping trip, it flawlessly powered both my microwave and electric heater. The "echo" setting is a clever feature for efficient energy use. I also love the storage box tip for transport. Overall, the WEN generator is a durable and high-performing companion for any RV journey, providing excellent value for the investment.

I purchased a new camper that has a microwave oven. Unfortunately, my little Yamaha was too small to work the oven so I needed at least 2200 Watts. After considerable research, I decided to go with the WEN. I really didn't want to spend a ton of money for a higher wattage Yamaha. I've had ZERO issues with this generator. Its actually not much heavier than the 1100 Yamaha I had. It's just as quiet and it starts on the first pull! If you don't need full power it has an "echo" setting and it will run for a very long time. I recently did a winter camping trip and the temp fell as low as 16 deg F or more, the generator sat outside sheltered by the camper. The next morning I went to start it, first pull, bingo! She started right up! I just don't see how you can go wrong to use this as an RV generator and in addition to the microwave, I also ran an electric heater too without any issues. If you want to keep the gen looking good, don't toss the box and air bubble liner, use it to store and transport the gen. Cut small openings near the top of the box on the ends to insert your hands to carry it. Overall, I am very satisfied to have purchased this generator at a bargain deal! Also, another thing that sold me was talking to friends who owned other WEN tools/equipment and were very satisfied with the quality.

UPDATE Feb 12, 2015. This inexpensive generator is doing well. No power outages but to be ready I have: 1. Tested it up to 1500 watts running (space heater). No problem. 2. Tested it with my Samlex battery charger. This is an expensive 50 amp charger and so draws 500 watts max. In the ecomode the generator had no problems supplying that amount of power. I hope to run my furnace and sump pump off my deep cycle storage batteries with an inverter and so avoid having to run the generator all night or get out of bed at 2:00am during a hurricane to set up a generator. The issue is getting an inverter that can play nice with your house circuit wiring (bonded neutral), not simply running appliances directly plugged into it, which seems, so far, difficult for things like your furnace. I really should give this thing 5 stars but I am still bummed I can't get 240 volts to backfeed the house with two running in parallel. They should make that clear. My son in law is an electrical engineer, and he also assumed that could be done (He bought the Honda, and paid 2 1/2 times what I did. "What's the 2nd one for Dad? Spare parts?" Bah. Snarky kids.). So, more accurate advertising, please. Oh, about the noise. My original review stated they were noisier than I expected. It turned out I had the cover improperly attached (open at the base), and that defeated some of the insulation. With the case cover on properly, and in the ecomode, this is really not noisy at all. So, one very pleased customer here. ===================End of Update======================= Bought two when they were on sale. This is my first generator. I was planning on hooking two together and backfeeding into the house. That cannot be done because they produce only 120 volts. A big bummer. However, they arrived promptly and are very nicely made machines. I have only run one machine for a short break in but here is my experience: 1. Customer support: Good. I called about changing the sparkplug, since the manual doesn't discuss their new style of changing the plug via the opening on top of the case. Got a human who was very helpful without waiting. 2. Filling the crank case is a nuisance. Pour the oil in slowly or it will back up. Put tinfoil under the oil filler opening on the floor, and put some paper towels on top of the tin foil to absorb the oil that spills. That will prevent a mess. 3. Being an amateur, I spent most of my time fiddling with the grounding rod. (How do you make one of those?) I finally got it done. I used a green metal fence post from which I ground off the paint to make it conductive. A big nuisance. Then I lost, in the snow, the set screw for the ground connector as I hammered the post into the frozen ground. Good thing I had bought two ground wire connectors. It is now buried in 2 feet of snow under a collapsed bush. I'll find it when I need or next spring. In retrospect, rebar wold work fine. Lowe's sells the ground wire connector, the wire, and the rebar. 4. The generator started on the second pull in 24 degree weather. It powered a 1500 watt space heater without difficulty. 5. It is light enough to be easily carried. 6. It is a bit noisier than I was hoping for, but, not bad. Nowhere near the noise of other, albeit larger, generators. Other advice for amateurs. Be sure you have a gasoline siphon. I was surprised to find after the snow began, that my lawnmower gasoline cans were almost empty.

As a Florida resident and new home owner, I wanted to make sure that I had a generator that would be able to keep me going after a bad storm and while I was the proud owner of an old, loud open frame generator (we all know the kind) I was not a fan of the aircraft level of noise it made or the drag car level of fuel it drank just to run a few appliances. Thus the search began for a generator capable of running the few things that you actually need after a major storm and doing so with a level of efficiency that negates the need to keep 50 gallons of volatile gasoline laying around the house and while it's no Honda, it seems to work just as well. First off, this thing is quiet. It's not totally silent don't get me wrong, but I could easily mistake it for a idling push mower when it is running on eco mode and no louder than a small lawnmower when it is running full tilt. I have my generator hookup installed on the back porch and when running at full throttle, it is no more than a faint background noise when the doors are closed which is a HUGE improvement over the construction site level of noise the old generator produced when running. Power output is right around what it is rated for with one caveat to be mentioned. I noticed reviews were a bit mixed on this and I don't know if it's due to fluctuations in build quality or something as simple as altitude (I am at sea level) but after doing some testing recently I was able to get it to sustain around ~1850w of power output (tested with a watt meter) before the overload light would come on. That said, this little guy was working pretty hard to keep that up and I think this is where the only down side of this generator over the Honda really shows. While they are rated similar, the Honda has a much bigger engine inside it for the same power output ratings and one thing I observed with this generator is that it struggles with starting power for some appliances and devices that should be within the range of rated starting watts for this generator. I would be aware of that if you are going to use this to run multiple devices with high starting demands like a refrigerator, freezer, or air conditioner. It will do it, but I have to start the big devices first to ensure that they have enough starting power to get going. Gas consumption is something that I haven't really gotten a good grasp on even though I have about 15 hours on the generator as I use it for electric lawn equipment mainly and I have never filled it all the way up with gasoline. It seems to be pretty efficient but I will update this when I have the misfortune of needing to use it in a storm as I can get a good read on how long it will run on a gallon of gas when it is powering the house for an extended period of time. Build quality seems pretty good. No blemishes or issues that I have found. I did install an hour meter which was easy to do (and pretty cheap) so as to better track when maintenance needs to be done. Honestly, I wish it came with an hour meter built in but for the price vs the Honda it's not a big deal. Overall the generator has been reliable. Always starts on the first or second pull and I only had one issue with it suddenly not running but that was due to the low oil shutdown as I had it on the gentlest of slopes in the yard and I guess that was enough to shut it down so do keep that in mind. Needs to be perfectly level. My use case for this generator in a storm is to feed my main panel so I can run lights, fans, ONE inverter window AC unit (8000 btu), one full size refrigerator and one chest freezer. It seems to do this without issue. I originally was running a regular window ac unit but the compressor kicking on was a little too much if the refrigerator and freezer were both running. I did end up putting a NGK spark plug in as another commenter suggested. I didn't notice a difference but I'm 100% sure it's better than the cheap Chinese plug that comes preinstalled. I also installed the magnetic dipstick which I would consider necessary in a tiny little engine like this. There is so little oil in there you really want to make sure that the metal debris doesn't keep circulating back around and causing more damage. So if you are in the market for a small inverter generator that doesn't cost an arm and a leg this might be worth the buy. I would definitely recommend testing it hard and thoroughly after getting it to ensure that you got a good unit during the return window. Final word from someone with experience, DO NOT leave gas in the tank (especially regular ethanol blend) or the carb for any extended period. If you are going to use it every other week like me than fill it up with ethanol free gas and run the carb dry when you are done with it. If you are running it after a storm for days at a time, regular gas is fine just be sure when you are done you run it dry before storing it again. It only takes one round with old gas to ruin the carbs in these little motors leaving you with no generator when you need it most.

Waited a year to review (about 100 hrs on the machine).. Ok, here's the deal. Take it from a retired home builder with lots of generator experience, if you plan to rely on this unit to make a daily living, (think food truck) I would save my pennies and go for the twice as expensive Honda only because they are proven to last forever. But, for any other application, especially camping, look no further than the WEN 56200i. Mine does everything it's advertised to do but no more. By that I mean, you cannot exceed the 1600 watt continuous or 2000 motor start surge max. So before you click "buy", know your wattage, especially the start up power of motors involved. Read the directions! I can keep mine in econo mode in my camper van and watch TV, run my small refer and a small fan if need be, all at one time. In this application, it only revs up for a second or two when the refer compressor kicks in and then right back down to a purr, Really quite. If I want to use my Keurig clone or the microwave, yes, I actually have to get out of my recliner and hit the switch to get out of econo for a few minutes. It can then easily handle these appliances one at a time. It's quite, sips fuel, fairly light and the motor never misses.Starts on first or second pull every time. The only drawback is changing the oil every 25 hrs, but it's easy to do. Just watch the price, Last year it went back and forth from around $485 to a low of $410. And oh yeah, never, never ever leave fuel in it unused for more than a month, or you will be looking for a new carb. Update, 6-11-21. Ok, so I’ve had this machine almost 5 years now and so, how’s it going? In a word, perfect. Probably about 500 hours and still runs like new. After the first few oil changes, I really think you could probably go around 35 hrs instead of the 25 called for because at 25 the oil is still amber in color. The only thing I would add to my initial review is that when you let it sit for a month or two, especially in the winter, you may have to pull the starter as many as 15-20 times to start. DON’T GIVE UP. IT WILL START. After that it’s back to the 1 or 2 pulls. Probably a gas in the carb thing. Anyway.... Still going strong and highly recommend.

I hope my experience will help you in making a better decision. In other words, never buy this product! My experience was as follows: 1) The unit arrived. I was happy. Unboxed it. Happy. I liked the color and style. A little heavy for my liking but I could deal. 2) Not so happy that oil did not come with it but understood the reason why not. Went to the store, purchased the correct oil. 3) Upon arriving home I consulted the manual on how to add oil for the first time. The manual clearly states put the generator on a level surface and fill the oil fill port with oil. This seemed alright. But to do this you need to REMOVE the side panel? Alright. I unscrewed the 3 screws and took the side panel off. No biggy, I guess I could deal but would make checking the oil before every run difficult. I am a patient individual. Then I noticed the fill port for the oil was basically 2 - 5 degree tilt from horizontal and the dip stick was tiny, basically the "max" fill level is at the point the oil would be dripping out all over the place. Not happy. Not having a funnel that would work for this, I had to go back to the store to buy a long neck funnel. 1 dollar, whatever. Back to home, made sure the gen was level, starting the fill process, but every time you take the funnel out to check the level the oil leaks out.... wow. An absolutely awful design flaw. 4) After filling it to half way to max, I decided any more would leak out anyways. So I cleaned up the mess, and went about putting the oil plug back in place. Well, that proves difficult as the threads were not exact. I am used to threading things in for work, but this was very frustrating. I didn't want to thread that plastic threads on the plug, so was very careful in trying to get it back in place. Eventually, after about 5 minutes or so of messing with it, I was able to find the perfect way of putting it back in place. Don't ask me to repeat that process though. Will probably take 5 minutes again. 5) The side panel doesn't go on very easily. The 3 little plastic slats that are suppose to hold the bottom of the panel are difficult to position correctly to slide back in. The "clips" at the bottom on the gen prevent you from getting the optimal angle to make this ergonomically feasible. 5) So, 3 design flaws so far, and I am ready to start the little guy. Well, that didn't turn out as planned. I followed the directions. It started after about 7 pulls. I turned the knob to the "on" position and after running for a minute.... "sputter".... "sputter"..... off. Hummmm. Alright, so I restarted it again.... nope. I pulled and pulled. No starting it. I let it sit over night and it started right up the next day. Great! I let it run for 10 minutes thinking that was the end of the frustrations. Nope. I turned it off, took it to my job site. I unloaded, let it sit for a few minutes. Tried to start it..... wouldn't start! Wow. Ok maybe it was flooded or whatever. I waited 20 minutes. Tried to start it.... nothing. 4th try attempting to start the bugger, THE HANDLE BROKE OFF on the pull cord! WHAT?! Only 30 pulls and it breaks right off? 6) I was done. Returned for a full refund. Had to pay for the boxing of this unit, no fault of the product or Amazon, but yet another expense attributed to bad engineering and testing. Another brand on my radar that wont have these incredible failures. And if I ever see this brand name again I will be sure to run very fast and very far away from it! Complete waste of your time, even for calm well mannered mechanically inclined individuals such as myself.

I bought this several months ago, but only just had a chance to use it this past week while camping, and I couldn't be happier with it. I'll detail my thoughts below in an organized manner. Decision to Buy Before buying, I compared similar units from Honda and Yamaha. All the units are very similar. All support parallel operation (pairing an identical generator for double the effective power), an Eco mode (throttling down to save fuel when the electrical load is low), and have almost identical panels: 2 3-prong 110v, 2-prong DC, and parallel jacks. The only difference being the WEN panel includes a USB port, which I liked. Physically, they are all very similar (again). The Yamaha is the lightest at 44 pounds (dry), followed by the WEN at 48 pounds, and the Honda at 48 pounds (I saw some specs where it listed 50 pounds, but I'm going off Honda's website specifications). All are approximately the same physical size (dimensions are rounded) WEN: 18"x18"x11", Honda: 20"x17"11", Yamaha: 19"x18"x11", making the WEN the smallest overall and the Honda the largest. But honestly, they are so close in size, it didn't matter to me. I found a great video on YouTube where a guy recorded each in identical circumstances and compared the sound. The Honda seemed the most quiet, but both the Yamaha and the WEN were only marginally louder. If they were not being compared side by side, I doubt most people would notice the difference. That leads us to price, where there is a clear winner: WEN. It's almost half the price of either the Honda or the Yamaha, giving it true bargain status. Given they are so similar, and the WEN includes a USB port, it was an easy decision for me. Criticisms / Negatives The most common criticism/negative comments is around the filling of the oil. In my opinion, it could be easier, but it's not as big of a deal as some reviewers have stated. The panel comes off fairly easily after removing 3 bolts (they are nice bolts, not cheap ones). I put a rag around the fill port (just in case) and used a funnel with a flexible neck (rather than the included one). It went fine. I did spill a bit, but the rag contained the small mess easily. By the way, there is a reason the oil fill port is positioned like it is: It protects against overfilling (because the excess just runs out). If you follow the instructions, you will be fine. Some reviewers commented on shipping damage.packaging. I had no issues with shipping and/or packaging. Mine arrived in an intact box with absolutely no damage to the unit whatsoever. Other negative reviews involved claims the unit did not output the rated power. I did not place the unit under any significant load, so I can't comment on that (sorry!). What I'm Happy About I bought the unit mostly for camping and such, and to have on hand at the house in case of emergency. For the camping aspect, it worked flawlessly. It charged several phones and a tablet simultaneously, in addition to running a small music amplifier (~25 watts), and charging an RV battery. I ran the generator for at least 4 hours a day for 4 days, mostly charging the RV battery and small electronics - all on the single gallon of gas in the tank! I estimate the run time at 16-20 hours with the very minimal load I had on it. This is most excellent and exceeded my expectations. In fact, I may not replace my RV battery, and just use the generator instead. I found the unit to be very quiet overall. If I was within 100 feet or so, I could hear it, but it was not bothersome at all and ran very smoothly with minimal vibration. I also found the unit incredibly easy to start. Open the vent on the gas cap, turn the switch to choke, and it started within 2-3 VERY easy pulls every time. The only exception was the very first time I started it after adding oil, which took several pulls (probably to get the gas into the carb). Conclusion I love this unit and very heartily recommend it. My suggestion is that if you truly need a lot of power, either buy 2 and run them in parallel (which is about the same price as the Honda or Yamaha), or buy a larger generator. I say this NOT because I think the unit can't put out the rated power, but rather because running any generator close to the rated limit is just not a smart idea.