Honda EU20i

I purchased a Honda EU20I online...This was my second Honda generator ...Surprise surprise the first Generator was an original ,but guess what the second one was not..We moved from Nt to Qld and we did not notice that the latest generator was rated at 220 volt and also had a 10 amp outlet instead of 15 outlet.. At the time we purchased the online generator , we again decided to free camp...This did not work out ..
We decided to have our generator serviced by our local dealer, as we had not used it for quiet some time....We were then advised that our generator did not have a serial no and was not up to Australian a standards..We now have a generator that cannot be serviced by any Honda dealer...The dealer advised us that this was the second generator that had the same problem..When we purchased the generator we paid nearly $1800 ...We contacted the company that we purchased it from...They are willing to change the 10 amp outlet to a 15 amp outlet..The deal is we live in Qld and yes they will pay for the pickup but we must pay for the return to Qld..At the end of the day, we do not have a Generator that is up to Australian standards.

I am a retired Honda Dealer, so I know this product well, I was selling this model back in the late 90’s, and I can confirm that this is a great product. What a lot of people don’t know is that this Honda has a ‘burst output mode’ that enables it to start for example a Caravan Airconditioner with ease.
My EU20i is now just over 10 years old and still starts first go and runs like new. I have just completed a service and all that was required was oil, air filter, spark plug and replacement of some of the fuel lines which although ok were getting a little hard with age.
Great product, you will not be disappointed.

This has been the best investment ever $1500 approx in 2004 with free freight to Central Qld, and in the 13 years since this fantastic generator has never let us (family of 6) down. We only run it couple of times a yr, pull it out fill with fuel and pull the cord, it runs all night. Runs big french door F&P fridge, 215lt chest freezer, plus spotlight and internet modem simultaneously. convection microwave too but we do unplug freezer to run it temporary. All on eco mode, no problems. This item should be in everyone emergency kit for qld storm season. We have taken it camping couple of times also. Would never be with out it.
Size, economy, reliability, ease of use makes it a 5 star and Ladies best mate in power outages when husband's away.
Thank you Honda!

Have a 12 and 8 year old pair of eu20i bought new, rarely run them together but that works well.
Run one for 14 hours a day, 8 weeks a year at idle or just above to power a cabin with tele, lights and small water pressure pump (requiring a decent jump in power) and the usual personal chargers.
Switch off the pressure pump and it runs a 3kva (output) inverter split system as well as the tele and lights.
Get about 13 hours per tank or 5 hours running the aircon.
Always service them myself, change oil and clean air filters annually and that"s about the top level of my mechanical ability.
Have found that replacing spark plugs with decent brand plugs every 3-4 years keeps the fuel economy and power delivery at best rate.
Replaced the pull cord once but that was self inflicted, you must not pull the cord straight up as it will fray the cord when striking the body of the generator as you pull. Not hard to avoid.
Was initially frustrated with it when using 12volt because the revs had to be full but learnt it will still provide 240v as well, just a bit of power management is necessary.

I live in Weipa in Cape York. Had an EU10 for years and it was great. Bought an EU20i in April and it ran fine for 4 hours then started running rough and stalling. Tried everything to fix it. Sent it to local service dealer who could not fix it. Honda warranty was useless and rude. Sent it back to seller who was good enough to replaced it with new one. Guess what - ran for 4 hours and started playing up same thing. Finally sent it out of town to another service dealer who advised of spark plug cap recall on Honda EU2's. They now said it is fixed but am waiting to get it back and try it out - 6 months after I bought it...

I bought my eU20i from the Hobart dealers, paying more than I would have on-line to keep it local. Bad move. The generator started first pull, as I expected, having owned and abused an eU10i for 12 years without it missing a beat. It had even been in sea-water 10cm deep and still ran after a simple flush down with fresh and a days wait for ity to dry. It still works really well even if a little rusty.

But I digress. The eU20i soon stopped again, strange since the dealer said it was full of fuel. My advice is to check everything. New ULP and away she went. All good until we ran the aircon in the van as a heater a week later. After a couple of hours it started running roughly then stalled. Started again first pull and behave itself until I turned off the load. On idle it ran roughly, surging, then coughed and died. It now repeats the trick whenever it goes back to idle from hot running. There was no shortage of fuel in the tank.

The dealer couldn't find any fault so I've now got an untrustworthy machine. It runs better on E10 fuel, despite being told by the dealer to not use it. (The manual says it's OK). Now I carry the old eU10i as well for reliability, hoping the 20 will either die properly or fix itself.

Replaced my EU10i camping generator, which had run faultlessly for 7 years, with the larger EU20i. Purchased from the Generator Place in Queensland (exceptional service - ordered late Sunday night and it was at my front door in Adelaide Tuesday morning). As per previous model this generator starts first time every time, is very easy to start, great on fuel and is very quiet. Have used Honda generators a lot as a tradie on sites and would highly recommend them to any buyer.

Nearly 2 years ago we purchased the new Honda 20i, it ran fine for the first 6 months and now won't run any longer than 2 hours.
We have taken it for a service, didn't fix it, have just taken it for another service and if it doesn't fix it this time I will be contacting Honda directly ( I honestly believe the older style Honda generators are better) !!

Brought a Honda 2kva from the "Generator Place" Brisbane with extended 5 year warranty.

Worked extremly well, consider though, I was only using it intermittently for when the wife and I were camping and then only to backup my solar system.

At the five and a half year mark the circuit board died, replacement cost $1400.00 dollars.

After almost 2 years, I am happy to say that I am very happy with my Honda EU20i. The oil that it takes is the same oil as in my other Honda products that I own. Very reliable. Not as noisy as my neighbour's generator of similar size (he has a cheaper brand). It cost more, but it a better generator. I would buy it again.

Just unpacked. Started first time. Hard to fault. I bought from Generator Place in Brisbane (I'm in SA). Delivered in 2 days. They gassed and oiled it. Great service. Instructions clear. Good deal as well. Very quiet operating. If I had to buy another generator I would buy a Honda.

I use an Eu20i to provide power to our caravan which is permanently parked in a bush setting. I run(some at the same time, but mostly not), a small box air-conditioner(800watts), a toaster oven(1350 watts), a small microwave(1100watts), a small fan heater(1000watts), a 25 amp battery charger(400watts), a whipper-snipper(400watts), a bar fridge(60watts) plus other smaller loads e.g. the van lights, LCD TV, electric blankets, pedestal fan, range hood etc. N.B. All these figures are input wattages of the appliances, not output. I check all of these with a plug-in Power Meter available from Jaycar or Bunnings. Three of them are in use in our caravan.

I have occasional overload trips of the generator, but not many. During summer with the air-con running, a brand new spark plug helps avoid this.

After years of good reliable service but with an ever-increasing oil leak which a large Brisbane dealer repeatedly refused to fix under warranty - their story was that the oil filler cap was leaking/not tightened properly, I took it to a Capalaba workshop out of warranty and had the problem fixed properly after a 6 week wait for parts from Honda Australia - Cost: $312.

It turns out that the problem was quite rare - the oil level switch assembly was not fitted properly to the crankcase at manufacture and was leaking oil. After years of operation at low oil levels, the timing belt was found to be brittle and cracked in numerous places and needed to be replaced as well. Honda Australia had only one of the three parts required and the workshop back-ordered the others for a promised 5 week delivery, which turned into 6 weeks.

I am now happy that my generator is operating as well, or even better than it ever did. It would have been better had Honda Australia maintained adequate stocks of spare parts for their best-selling generator or helped their dealers more in maintaining some reasonable inventory of parts.

I've had the eu10i and I've had the eu20 I for over 5 years we travelled around Australia for 5 years in our traveller van and used it to run our ctek battery charger to charge our batteries when there wasn't enough sun for the solar panels to do the job we found it very reliable easy to start and very quiet I recommend the Honda generator to my friends

Having spent many years living on cruising boats and motorhomes I got see and use many brands of generators, at the end of the day most of them were a waste of money, some of them could not maintain any serious output without cooking the electronics, others were just sheer dogs to start while others were so noisy that you needed shift anchor to get away from them. Needless to say many of them ended up in the dump bin.

Coming back to the Honda, over a fifteen year period only parting with them when selling the yacht or motorhome, I could leave my boat unattended for many months at a time and when it came time to start the little EU20i it would start almost immediately, from then on all that would be needed to start it was to ease, note 'ease' the starting cord out and it would start instantly.

In motorhomes I used one for six years 3-4 times times a week to run the air conditioning which claims to have rating of 2.3 hp the Honda ran it a full capacity with ease in the eco mode.

All I ever had to do to it was change it's oil and wash the air filter, I have never had need to change a spark plug or to have it serviced.

Knowing how to balance the power load is important though, do not expect it to like running the air conditioner and the electric hot plate at the same time.

It is light enough to manhandle easily and a delight use, it would take a lot of convincing to get me to buy another brand.

Had four of them first to run solo i run two together parallel now, The generator is by far the best. Honda oil on the other hand is up with the worst mineral oils, I suggest using a synthetic oil. On another note honda are a terrible company don't ever expect them to get to it quickly, or to honor their warranty. Paid extra for extended warranties instead I should of bought toilet paper

Had a panic on its first outing in that it ran perfectly for 30 minutes then started spluttering, then violent shaking, then cut out!! My fault, didn't turn the breather valve to 'ON' so the vacuum caused fuel starvation. Other than that, has performed well. Low noise, stable power - even on 'Eco' with a variable load. You just forget it's there. The only gripe is that a fuel gauge would be useful, but after 5 hours use it still had plenty of fuel in. A friend of mine has the LPG conversion on his and talks about the very extended run time, very clean oil, and little smell from the exhaust. Certainly recommend.

Bought a EU20i 4 year ago. Thought I was buying a premium machine but had to pay a premium price. Inverter caught fire just out of warranty. Just as well I was near it. It would have ended up as pile of plastic and maybe a bush fire. The hardest work the thing ever did was run a750 watt drill It cost $851.45 to fix Very expensive holes. The Honda dealer said might be able to do the job at cost Didn't happen Won' t buy Honda again

I'm surprised by my Honda EU20i , it hasn't done much work in the 8 years I've had it, I haven't used it for 18 months , put in new fuel ,started ok ,plugged in the small fridge that it runs when we have a power failure , but this time it won't start the fridge ?

I've tested my 20i Honda generator several times on full load/output with the eco-throttle switched off and a full tank of fuel.
I can't get any more than 2.5 continuous operating hours, and that's on a good run.
This is significantly below my expectations, what was discussed with me in-store before the purchase and also below Honda's published specifications of at least 3.4 hours.

The generator is practically new - only 3 months old.
I recognise that I'm testing it hard but I bought it for Cyclone Season (I'm based in Cairns) and having it under-perform in this way does not instill me with a lot of confidence if I have to use it in an emergency.

I've emailed both Honda customer service and the store where I bought it several days ago but as yet no response.

Just purchased a Honda EU20I second hand, looks good runs good but no power out put. Contacted Honda dealership who told me it would cost over a thousand dollars to fix . More than it is worth . So if the generator stops producing power may as well throw it away. I don't have a warranty so not sure what to do with it. Boat anchor maybe.