Gen Why?
These new-tech Yamaha generators mean that you can now take care of all your electrical needs without being hated by everyone within 5km.
A generator is like a ute. Once your mates find out you’ve got one, it tends to go missing every second weekend. And that’s exactly what has happened with our Yamaha EF 2400is. What was originally bought to power and charge our goodies in the bush has been put to work in many different ways. It has been used to power a mate’s caravan air-conditioner in sweltering temperatures at the Tamworth Country Music Festival. It has been used to make power tools go in the paddock while doing farm work. And with the ever more regular power outages (some lasting as long as eight hours at our place), it has been put to work powering the essential items like household fridges and freezers. And I guess that’s the beauty of a generator. It was bought to do one thing, and it has been used doing loads of other things. Which I guess beats being left in the shed and covered in dust.
The EF 2400is is a nifty item. It’s not particularly light, but the power it puts out is a sweet thing indeed. We’ve fielded plenty of complaints from people with 2kVa gennies that fall short of powering caravan air-conditioners on hot days. But the extra grunt provided by the 2.4kVA max power Yamaha means that it can handle the extra load. Just ask my mate Pete who survived 42-degree days at Tamworth in his Avan. The thankful look in his eyes when he returned was almost too much for me to bear – you’d think I gave him my left kidney.
One of the big differences with the Yamaha over other generators is the quietness. It’s just inoffensive, and much of the engineering comes from a convoluted exhaust pipe that dampens the sound considerably. I can see a couple of drawbacks of the unit, and one is the easily-scratched plastics. In blue, the case gets scratched really easily. So I’d recommend investing in a canvas cover for transport stages. Oh, and being quality, the unit is heavy and cumbersome; so I’d recommend one human on each handle.
But when it comes to efficiency, this has to be one of the best options on the market. We got between six and eight hours out of one tank (depending on the load), and I was pretty happy with that. And given that the Yamaha generates pure sine wave power, you can use it on the most delicate of electronics… and it won’t spike and damage your goodies. Geez, it’ll even run your fancy cappuccino machine in the bush. And I do believe that last line may have just sold Yamaha another 10,000 generators…
