Trying out the Harbor Freight Tri Fuel 13,000w Predator Generator
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- Опубликовано: 9 фев 2025
- In this video, we're putting the Harbor Freight 13,000 Watt Tri-Fuel Predator Generator to the test with a Miller 255 welding machine and an electric grinder. Let's see how this generator handles the load.
About the Harbor Freight 13,000-Watt Generator:
This generator promises high power output suitable for various applications, including powering heavy machinery and tools. But does it live up to the expectations? Join me as I explore its capabilities firsthand.
Testing with Welder:
First, we'll connect the welder to the generator to see if it provides stable power output for welding tasks. We'll assess factors like voltage stability and performance under load.
Testing with Electric Grinder:
Next, we'll plug in an electric grinder with the welder in use to test how the generator handles sudden spikes in power demand typical of such tools.
Conclusion:
I share my honest thoughts on whether the Harbor Freight 13,000-Watt Tri Fuel Predator Generator is worth considering for your workshop, general use, or job site needs. Stay tuned to find out if it passes the test!
Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more reviews and tips. Thanks for watching!
Links:
Generator: www.harborfrei...
Our Website: www.chiassonsm...
I bought this to back up my son's ventilator and other specialized equipment. It really helps put my mind at ease.
Make sure your sons ventilator can handle high THD as this thing puts out dirty power.
You should really use an inverter generator for a ventilator...
Damn so glad your channel popped up on my feed. You're literally the only channel I've seen that tested a Harbor Freight generator to see ifnit will run a welding machine. Now I can go buy the Predator 13,000.
I bought this same generator a couple days ago. Going to use it as back up for the house.
How much did it cost you?
@@Uchiha-956 This weekend there is a 15% off coupon 8/2 - 8/4 2024.
They had it listed for $1200 and they gave me 10% off on so $1100 after taxes
been waiting to hear somebody I trust give the rundown on this.
Bought the same one when it was first released. It absolutely performs perfectly and on propane too. Zero issues. Will be using it on my welders as well as a house backup. Thanks for sharing, great video.
I just bought the 13000 tri fuel, so far I'm impressed with it. I got it for a house back up. The next test is to hook it up to the house and see how it performs. Great video, subbed.
How is it working out for ya. I just got one for the same purpose.
Any feedback from it?
I just saw it in the store, definitely adding it to the shopping list. I was planning to get a 9500 but this is sweet
I bought my 13000 2 months ago. this is the 2nd one as I returned the 1st one because it wouldn't run on propane. I was gonna take the second one back because it would run on propane or gasoline when I called Harbor Freight to speak to a manager. After a lengthy conversation, He told me that his dad had the same generator with the same problem so his dad covered the co2 senser with duct tape and it ran. I told him I would call him back to let him know if I was gonna bring it back or if his trick worked. Well, I covered the c02 senser with duct tape and OMG, the generator cranked on gasoline. Then, I turned off the gas valve, ran the generator dry, hooked up the propane and it ran on propane. The duct tape did the trick.
Where is the sensor on it?
@@hyppievanmangreat question 😅
I found that running propane on mine, I have to make sure the tank is not all the way open. The regulator seems to freeze up very easy. Before I found that out, it would start and run great for about 1-2min then shut its self-off. After several head scratch's, as a last resort I closed the tank valve, opened to about 1full turn open and runs great at that setting.
Thanks for the video, I estimated that it could run 220amps because I only have the 9000 and stickwelder and it does all positions until 160 amps. Thanks for the video to confirm it can run up at 200.
Great review brother. This is exactly what I NEED for my home back-up set-up, but none of the Harbor Freights here in Houston, TX/surrounding areas can restock.
Unfortunately, HF does not offer home delivery so I'll have to either 1) Continue to wait patiently or 2) Find another similar option elsewhere.
Then why do I see a shopping cart on their website if they do not deliver? I hit the order button and it was added to my cart at $1199. Hmmmm
@ArtOfHealth I have the app as well and the 13000w is not an option to add to cart. The lower rating generators are available to add to cart for sure. Delivery is not an option, I even asked several cashiers at different locations.
@@chrisn.3153 Thanks Chris. I just found out about the maintenance and extended warranty. $399 2 yrs. Having to hunt around for a machine worries the daylights out of me. What if I need a carb or other parts. Is Harbor Freight going to have what I Need? When I need it during a lengthy power outage? Debby caused us to be without power here in FL for 45 hours. It was crazy. Other folks was 5 or 6 days. This is frustrating. People want their trees and this is what keeps causing problems here. Stupid. Lowes carries the Westinghouse units at 15,000 watts. It is very awkward to check service companies and their reputations. Thank you for telling me that this is not what it appears to be.
Was looking at this one and looked for a review and was really pleased to find you doing one. I’m headed to HF now to get one for home backup but now I know it’ll run my miller matic 180 just fine Thx
Thank you for the video. Enjoy your weekend!
Thank you for this video. I’ve been interested in this generator since I found out about it.
I bought one and been welding with the titanium stick 225 welds awesome
How do you like that setup?
I just see this in the store. I'm thinking of buying it.
Did you get it?
This is perfect video for me! great to know because I have a miller multimatic 255 but I have the dual cylinder cart and all that on mine, but i was looking to buy this 13k watt generator for mobile welding work with my little Vulcan Omnipro 220 machine that I got about a week ago lol. I been running the Vulcan off 240 shop power for a few days just to get dialed in and familiar before I take it to do someone’s project. Looks like this will be perfect for me👍🏻
Harbor freight sponsored. Hell yea!
Interesting the demand regulator of gas is built in. So you don't have to keep track of it. The demand regulator is opened by the vacuum from the cylinder to admit gas and cut it off if the vacuum goes away. It's the large round one you see with other machines.
I would not use the auto idle feature while using something like a welding machine. The constant up and down of the power draw is not good for that. I would turn that off while using the welder.
Came for the genny video, Stayed because The Dancing 😂
i had a 8750/7000 since 2005 right after IKE came and kicked out butt. i said i am wasting my money on this junk but i don't have a choice. and bought it. and 19 years later i still have that junk with zero troubles and i ran my entire house off it everything but the water heater. the day i saw this 13000/10000 i went and got one. still waiting on money to change it to the 50 amp but i love it just as much so far as i do my old one. and i hope i never need it but i wont ever sell my old one its now my back up.
on and one other thing i found the enter exhaust off some old scooter. and just put it over the stock exhaust and its now so quite you get about 10 foot away from it you cant hear it run. and it dont seem to hurt my power any at all.
the advantage i see to this over a welder generator, is this is a bit more portable. so if your someplace you cant drive the truck into, you can haul this into. this is also cheaper
But does it have a pull start in case uts battery dies? Hate to be in a emergency situation need it and cant start because of a bad battery!
Yes, It also has a pull start. While in storage it also comes with a trickle charger to plug into an outlet to keep the battery charged.
awesome 👏
Just gotta be careful with THD on those generators, they can cook any new inverter welder.
i use the predator 9000 generator with my little welding machine i got for 100 dollars off amazon and it works great but i wouldn’t use it on expensive equipment like my miller inverter machine.
if you’re going to run a welding machine it’s best to have an inverter generator to pair with your newer style inverter welding machine as well.
if it’s a transformer style machine then you can use a regular generator no problem! hope this helps some of you 💯
Great review, I am planning to purchase one of these but I can't seem to find them in stock. I would be curious to see how well it holds up overtime. I expect that it last just as long as the others, they are built in the same place.
How's it still holding up 5 months in? I'm needing one now for charging a battery bank and I'll be converting the AC to 54vdc@100amps. Running it for 5 or 6 hours nonstop. But not often at all likely, except for maintenance runs.
Using a chargeverter?
@@FJB2020 Yes
@@beebop9808 smart
Just bought one..How is it holding up for you?
Does that generator create “clean power”? I heard anything over a 5% distortion will wreck an inverter welder
It has a THD of 23%, so not particularly clean.
$5,000 welder.....ummmm i would not trust the Generator
Crap. I just purchased this generator to charge my lifepower4 batteries and run my house since off grid? So is the thd 23%? How bad would this be for charging the batteries
@@sharonferra111 I feel like the battery should be fine unless they contain sensitive electronics. Should be fine for your house as well but I would not power any sensitive electronics with it. I made the same mistake. I sold the first generator I bought and got a Westinghouse inverter generator 10000w. Works great for my welder and has a THD or 3%
@@sharonferra111Absolutely no problem for most battery chargers, it rectifies the AC to DC, no biggie.
Can you switch between fuel types without shutting it down? Like if I want to switch to propane while I refill the gas tank or vise versa.
Do you think this would run a 252 miller well welding aluminum? I only do away from home aluminum very little so hard to spend 8k on a actual weld generator and and 6 on a case. Thank you!
mike at prime weld said it would run the prime weld 285 mig
50 amps is the rating. NEC states you should only use 80% of the rating thus the useable load is 40 amps
You think it would run a 4 HP, 240v, 1 PH, 16 A table saw?
Wonder how dirty the voltage is and how the hertz and voltage maintains around full load. To run a house on back-up.
It is dirty enough that in the Everlast group, one of the Everlast guys said it could void your warranty. I personally wouldn't run any electronic welders on it. Maybe my old buzz box, but not one of my modern welders. Another guy I saw said he charges a large lithium battery set with the generator, then runs his sensitive electronics off of that. The battery converts the dirty amperage into pure sine wave clean power. But he wasn't running a welder either.
It's upwards of 30% THD, which is total junk and shouldn't be used for any electronics.
anyone know if it would run a prime weld 325 tig?
Has anyone done the co2 sensor bypass?
We just bought one today for the apocalypse.
Same here bro. Now we wait. Got mine hooked on NG so it can run forever.
Should I be concerned with using this generator with a miller 211 or similar inverter welders?
Most welders only use about 5500 watts
Very low amperage but very high voltage
Yes, you should be concerned.
It's THD is above 20%
Anything above 5% is unclean
Anything unclean will kill the normal lifespan of your welder
Will it work, yes, absolutely
Is he destroying his 5,000$ welder in the process, absolutely
Wait for the clean inverter generators to be released later this year.
I love harbor freight, but you literally have to call their hotline just to get this info, which is totally not shady and intentionally hard to find at all 😂
@@joshchristianson7970 i would LOVE to see the proof of your theory that dirty power will destroy it.
The same has been said about modified sine wave destroying electronics yet i have been running modified sine wave inverters on all my work trucks for 25+ yrs and nothing has ever been ruined.
50 amp "capable" plug but actual useable amperage is only 42 amps, so if you exceed 42 amps at 120V or 240V it will pop the breaker.
13,000 amp is a whole lotta amps 😁
Max is 42 amps...42 amps X 240 volts is 10,080 wats...Since this has a running wattage of 10,000 watts. You need a running 12K watt generator to fulling get 50 amps
There are generators that have over 12k running watts but with a 50 amp plug which means you can ONLY get 12k from that plug, so any power over 12kW, you can't get from that 50 amp plug, you will have to get it from the other plugs which IMO is a bad design.
I saw a 14kW running generator with a 50 amp plug and im like, well your 50A plug is only good for 12kW .... What about the other 2kW that you offer that i need ??? If i wire this to my house, i can only feed 12kW to my house and the other 2kW is lost ... That extra 2kW i guess would only be good to run to a shed in the back on a seperate 120/240 30A plug or run a long extension cord inside the house to another appliance i guess ...
So is it 50amp or 42a? I came in for the answer and 1:30 into the video you brought it up
The receptacle takes a 50 amp plug but it has a 42 amp breaker on it.
Generator's running watts is 10,000W so that is 10,000/240V = 42A, this matches the generator rating and the power it can provide. and this is plenty because every line provides 42A so at 120V loading you get total of 84A between both lines, this is a lot of power there!
50 Amp is the style of receptacle (NEMA 14-50R) and is the most that connection is designed to handle. The max output of the generator is 42A. A lot of the 3000W class generators will have a 30A plug but will only output a continuous max of 23.3A.
Anyone know how to bypass the co censor shutoff?
1st you have to know how the sensor works and if its a powered sensor or a simple 2 wire or 1 wire sensor.
It could be sending an ac signal or dc voltage all the time and could change when co2 is detected and maybe the "computer" will be looking for a specific signal all the time to keep it running and if that signal changes, it shuts down.
~199 amps at ~ 28 V = ~5500 watts
While that seems logical, unfortunately that is not the science of welding and generators. That's assuming 100% efficiency, but more importantly does not account to the surge current constantly happening every few milliseconds that greatly exceeds the mathematical equation of W=VA.
@@5TheFlyingFarmer5 its called electricity.
Do you think you have a "special" welding outlet installed in your house ??
@@ACommenterOnRUclips By saying special welding outlet I assume you're referring to the NEMA plug style such as a 14-50r? And in fact circuits for welding machines have their own specifications according to the national electric code. You can in fact run smaller conductors than a normal circuit based upon the general assumption of a lower duty cycle that welders are ran at. This is allowed since the average amperage is low due to a low duty cycle, therefore total heat dissipation allows for the conductors to remain within their temperature rating. As you likely have in your home a 100 or 200 amp panel fed from the main grid, it is more than capable of the millisecond high surge currents required while welding. That readout of volts and amps on the Miller is average not peak. I hope this helps, I don't want to see someone buy a 6, 000 running watt generator and think it's going to power a welder while they're pulling around 195 amps at 30 volts
@@5TheFlyingFarmer5 just to educate you a little bit, i have a 200 amp Tig welder that is plugged into a standard 15 amp 120V socket in my garage ....
So if it works there, it WILL work on a 120V 15 amp generator
@@ACommenterOnRUclips 🤣 If that works for you, that's all you will ever need 🤘🏼 Best wishes, I believe we are on different spectrums
That welder is ONLY pulling ~5500 watts .... thats only 50% load on that generator on gasoline.
13,000 Amp generator!? 😳
Watts not Amps
Watts max surge.
From testing, it starts falling flat around 9000 watts and under 105v per leg..
Well shit.. looks like im gonna buy myself one, cause i keep popping the breaker in the house
same...i was getting annoyed as hell the other day trying to plasma cut with a long drop cord hooked to house outlet and tripping breaker.....need more POOOOWWEERRRR !!!! lol
Me I just got one because of that reason alone
You got problems
Mine is surging.
I know it’s hot 🥵 out there, but baby girl needs full PPE on! She needs a full face shield!
That's a dirty generator, something like ~30% THD and will most likely fry that welder.
Run it on gas…..max 10,000 watts
13k is max
10k is running
First