WEN 2350-Watt Inverter Generator, Portable and Super Quiet with Fuel Shut-Off (56235i)

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.

This is my first experience with using a portable generator, so I can't compare it with anything else, but I watched this little powerhouse run an entire band for four or five hours off one outlet, never missed a beat (lol). Three electric guitars with all the pedals and effects, their amplifiers, an electronic keyboard, four microphones with "powered" PA speakers, and a huge mixer. I wouldn't have believed it unless I saw it. We use it "every" Saturday night, weather permitting, for an outdoor four-hour event, many times for a 4-hour Saturday "morning" event as well, sometimes Sundays. "Extremely" dependable. Our audience occasionally approaches us, commenting on how quiet our little generator is in "ECO" mode, where it runs at a lower throttle, and will use "about" a quarter of a tank over four hours. We have found that it likes Premium (91+ octane) gasoline, run it with the gas-cap vent "on" (clockwise), run out the gas in the carburetor when shutting it down, and change the oil every twenty-five hours (all per the manual), and yours should serve you well. We bought a second one, with a parallel-connect for extra output on the the "big" jobs, but so far that's been unnecessary.Made in America. Very pleased.

So far I’m very pleased with the WEN 56235i portable inverter generator. I own a Champion 4000 watt framed generator that I use to haul with me when boon docking with my 32’ travel trailer. Most of the time I would not need this generator, running off of solar power and the lithium battery bank I’ve installed in my trailer. The big problem of course is that if I wanted to run the A/C I would have to start up the big generator, which is plenty loud and weighs a ton. Loading it into the back of my Avalanche and unloading it really got to be a pain. The lithium battery bank inverter also didn’t have the capacity to start the A/C. I ended up purchasing a Micro-Air EasyStart 364. If you don’t have one of these on you RV A/C then you need to look into them. They electronic unit soft start the A/C on much less surge than normally required. I was even able to start the A/C on the lithium batteries with a 3000 watt (6000 surge) inverter. However, an A/C sucks the power so I still needed an alternative generator – but wasn’t sure if the WEN generator or any other inverter generator would be able to start and run my RV A/C (an older Dometic Duo Therm 13,500 BTU ducted A/C). With the Micro-Air EasyStart 364 I checked the running amps for the A/C. The meter showed about an 8 amp pull during normal run. That’s a hair of half of what the WEN 56235i can provide, so good to go there. The highest level I’ve seen the A/C pull on start up with the Micro-Air EasyStart 364 was 11 amps. That’ still within the running and well within the surge of the WEN 56235i generator. However, reading through the comments, some people mentioned that the WEN still wouldn’t start their RV A/C units. More searching around only told me that many many people are happy with this little generator and that next to a Honda, there wasn’t much better on the market. I placed my order and the generator came in yesterday. Today I read the instructions, followed them for start up and in short order had the generator running. Unlike many reports though, it took a few pulls to get the generator to kick over – nothing excessive or unexpected, but more than one pull. Not a complaint, just an observation. The pull start was very easy to pull with little resistance. I let the generator run for a few minutes to warm up as the instructions say to do. I shut all power off at the RV breaker panel, then plugged in the RV to the generator. When I flipped the circuit breakers back on the generator slowed down but only for a second and picked right back up. I was running with ECO mode off. Now the moment of truth, will the WEN 56235i start this older Dometic RV A/C? I flipped the thermostat to cool and lowered the temp. The Micro-Air EasyStart 364 did its part by firing up the A/C fan first. After about 30 seconds the EasyStart kicked on the compressor. The WEN grunted for a second and returned to normal running! Yahoo! It’s working! Out of curiosity I shut off the A/C and put the WEN into ECO mode. The little generator gets very quite when there’s just the normal RV power requirements on it. I do mean really quiet. I flipped the switch to turn on the A/C. The fan kicked in and the generator grunted then ran up to a higher RPM, but still fairly quiet. A 30 seconds later the EasyStart kicked in the A/C compressor. Amazingly the little WEN grunted, jumped up to speed, grunted slightly again and then leveled off actually running at a lower RPM than when on normal run mode instead of ECO. I flipped the ECO switch off and the generator increased in RPM. This means that the generator has more than enough power, not even running at full RPM to run my RV A/C. This is very pleasing to know. I’m very happy with the purchase. Instead of lugging my open frame generator around I can now use this little WEN generator, and still have most of the benefits. Of course the larger generator provided much more power, meaning I could run everything in the travel trailer on it. The noise and weight of that generator are simply not worth hauling around compared to the WEN. No I can’t run my RV A/C and microwave oven at the same time, but that’s a very small thing to give up for the light weight and quietness of the WEN generator. The only concern now is testing was done at 430ft ASL. Real use will be at 7,000ft ASL. Will the little WEN do the job up that high? I'll find out over the 4th of July and update my review soon after.

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