# Weird harmonics coming from Honda EG5000X



## sysrq (Feb 23, 2014)

So I have this Honda EG5000X that we've had around for 20 something years, been a great backup generator, but as of lately its producing some weird power that noone understands when I explain it to them, so I'm hoping someone here can help. The engine runs well, and maintains speed, voltmeter shows ~120v and kill-a-watt meter shows 59.9hz which I'm not sure how reliable that meter is for frequency, but all I have. Now when using halogen floodlights, it runs fine, and lights shine bright, but anything else, and power suffers, motors, etc. One example was last summer, I hooked it to the evap. cooler on the house to try and provide some cooling in an outage, the cooler motor is only 3/4hp, and pulls about 8-9 amps, should be no problem right? The generator takes on the load fine, voltmeter still shows ~118v but you go into the house, and the cooler motor is very sluggish sounding, running at maybe 40%, and the cooler motor is mimicing the engine sounds from the generator outside. A second instance, I ran an extension cord over 100ft from the generator to a battery charger, and was charging the batteries on the RV, the battery charger was also humming LOUDLY, mimicing the noise from the generator. Neither of which mimics any noise from the generator, or suffers performance when connected to my Coleman 4000w generator. Any ideas what would cause this? Thanks...


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## Sears10/6 (Mar 3, 2014)

Sounds aside, I would look at the engine RPMs under load. Maybe take it to a shop and have them place a load test on it and see how the engine does under load.


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