Yamaha EF2400iSHC - 2000 Watt Inverter Generator

Jim Baugher,
Product Expert
Electric Generators Direct

We had a bad snow storm and my piece of s---- cheap costco off brand generator would not start. It was on year 3 and probably had 16 hours on it at the most. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. I ordered the Yamaha based on reviews. We had a terrible snow and ice storm in Seattle. But I ordered mine the first day of the storm and 3 days later lost power. I must say that I went with the GREAT FREE SHIPPING and it arrived promptly in 5 days.

But, here is my comment. It seems expensive to ship 2nd day air, but if I would have I would have not lost a lot of our food that needed to be refrigerated. The moral of the story is that you might want to consider paying for expedited shipping vs. FREE ground. My loss could have been avoided had I paid for 2nd day air shipping.

The generator is larger than I expected. It is at the point where it is heavy to pick up, but it can be picked up and carried by one person. Two is ideal. It is very solid and looks great too. The oil fill is easy to get at, unlike other brands. I would recommend purchasing for $29 a watt and amp gauge so you can go around your house and see what you want to plug in. In conclusion, you get what you pay for and if you want a generator that will last a life time, as TIMEX watches said, keeps on ticking, this is the one to get.

We had a bad snow storm and my piece of s---- cheap costco off brand generator would not start. It was on year 3 and probably had 16 hours on it at the most. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. I ordered the Yamaha based on reviews. We had a terrible snow and ice storm in Seattle. But I ordered mine the first day of the storm and 3 days later lost power. I must say that I went with the GREAT FREE SHIPPING and it arrived promptly in 5 days.

But, here is my comment. It seems expensive to ship 2nd day air, but if I would have I would have not lost a lot of our food that needed to be refrige... more

My Yamaha EF2400ISHC arrived in 4 days as promised. I was impressed since this was ordered and shipped during the 2011 holiday rush. Unit was surprisingly shipped in the factory Yamaha box, with little protection, though it suffered no damage in transit with FEDEX. Only issue upon unpacking was the right side cover (exhaust/air filter side) was incorrectly mounted at the factory. Removing and reinstalling the cover to correctly sit flush was a simple fix.

Adding oil & gas was followed by an easy 1 pull start. This is a very quiet generator, by far the quietest of the previous non-inverter guzzlers I've owned. Lifting the unit after it's full of fluids is manageable, but not easy. Wheels or a cart for frequent mobile use would be a wise investment.

Plugging into my RV travel trailer allowed full use of all the basics: battery charger, several lights, TV, fridge, water heater, & even the microwave. The only item that actually caused the Yamaha's speed to increase (beyond the almost inaudible low speed idle) was the microwave.

Now was the test...my Coleman Mach3 13,500 BTU rooftop A/C. After turning ALL the above items off, then initially running the low, then high speed fan settings, I anxiously moved the dial to low A/C. Though the EF2400ISHC quickly ramped up to what sounded like full throttle, the A/C failed to run. Bummer! Well, I have read plenty of reviews stating that "high efficiency" rooftop A/C units run as advertised. Mine clearly isn't one of those, so I'll be purchasing a smaller portable A/C for off-the-grid trips. All in all, if you have realistic expectations, this is one sweet little unit. I'm definitely a satisfied customer.

My Yamaha EF2400ISHC arrived in 4 days as promised. I was impressed since this was ordered and shipped during the 2011 holiday rush. Unit was surprisingly shipped in the factory Yamaha box, with little protection, though it suffered no damage in transit with FEDEX. Only issue upon unpacking was the right side cover (exhaust/air filter side) was incorrectly mounted at the factory. Removing and reinstalling the cover to correctly sit flush was a simple fix.

Adding oil & gas was followed by an easy 1 pull start. This is a very quiet generator, by far the quietest of the previo... more

Love this generator. The best advice I could give anyone here is to research first. We all have different needs. Stick with Yamaha or Honda and you won't be sorry as long as you buy all the power you need. I have a 3000 Honda and a 2400 Yamaha. If you live in my area I'll be glad to show you both. Research for just what you need. I've owned many and remember that if you need more power. This Yam 2400 seems almost as powerful as my 3000 Honda. The Yamaha 2400 has the same 171 cc motor as the bigger one and I do not know that it will last longer motor wise than the Yamaha 2000 with the 79 cc motor but is just purrs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Doesn't have to work long at allllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll and it will start most window ACs. ONE THING I KNOW IS THAT WE LOVE PLAYING WITH THEM....Good luck and stay with one of the two I told you about

Love this generator. The best advice I could give anyone here is to research first. We all have different needs. Stick with Yamaha or Honda and you won't be sorry as long as you buy all the power you need. I have a 3000 Honda and a 2400 Yamaha. If you live in my area I'll be glad to show you both. Research for just what you need. I've owned many and remember that if you need more power. This Yam 2400 seems almost as powerful as my 3000 Honda. The Yamaha 2400 has the same 171 cc motor as the bigger one and I do not know that it will last longer motor wise than the Yamaha 2000 with the 79 cc... more

I live in New England and my Yamaha EF2400ISHC performed like a champ. I have used my generator for camping, hurricane Irene and the latest freak snow storm. I have about 150hrs on this generator spark arrestor is clean, the spark is clean i think this thing will blow right by it's rated 500hrs starts on the 1st pull every time will be purchasing the EF1600 very soon this one is a little big for camping. Fuel consumption is better than described. In my opinion to make this the best 2000 watt portable inverter generator on the market today knurl the handles gripping those smooth handles with dirtysweaty hands in a word sucks that is my only gripe with this unit.

I live in New England and my Yamaha EF2400ISHC performed like a champ. I have used my generator for camping, hurricane Irene and the latest freak snow storm. I have about 150hrs on this generator spark arrestor is clean, the spark is clean i think this thing will blow right by it's rated 500hrs starts on the 1st pull every time will be purchasing the EF1600 very soon this one is a little big for camping. Fuel consumption is better than described. In my opinion to make this the best 2000 watt portable inverter generator on the market today knurl the handles gripping those smooth handles with di... more

I ordered this generator at the last minute ahead of hurricane Irene knowing that I would lose power. Six hours into the storm, trees were falling everywhere and the power was gone. Bad news about ordering so late was I wouldn't receive it until after the power was out. Good news was it was delivered when promised.

I took it out of the box, added gas and oil, then one pull of the starter rope and I had electricity. It was a little bit louder than I expected but still reasonably quiet. I ran my refrigerator, TV and some lights with no problem. Didn't seem to put any load on the generator. After about a half hour of running, the power was restored so I wasn't able to give it a good test but it will provide all the power that I need. With fluids it weighs about 80 pounds and being 63 years old, 80 pounds is a lot heaver than it used to be so I've ordered the wheel kit. It might be easier to lift if it had a different handle configuration.

Overall, good price, good service, it's a good buy.

I ordered this generator at the last minute ahead of hurricane Irene knowing that I would lose power. Six hours into the storm, trees were falling everywhere and the power was gone. Bad news about ordering so late was I wouldn't receive it until after the power was out. Good news was it was delivered when promised.

I took it out of the box, added gas and oil, then one pull of the starter rope and I had electricity. It was a little bit louder than I expected but still reasonably quiet. I ran my refrigerator, TV and some lights with no problem. Didn't seem to put any load on the ... more

Just got it a few weeks ago and finally fired it up today. One pull and it ran , pushed in the choke and it smoothed out . I bought a amp meter from reliance from you when I bought it to see what the start up currents and wattage surge was for my hand grinders etc so that I could see how it acted and responded it did great. Sounded a little clunky when it starts and surges but otherwise okay.

When I first started it up I had an oh crap moment since the overload light came on and nothing was plugged in and the AC light did not come on. I let it run for a few moments to see if it would go out with the idea I may have to send it back. I shut it off and restated it and the AC light came on and the overload light did not. Great it works.

Did it a few more times and no over load light, tried my grinders etc and no problem then I hooked up a tool that drew 15.2 amps per the meter I mentioned to "stress" it and to be safe I put a multi outlet box with a circuit breaker, in line between the tool and the generator, that I use with this tool, and could rely on it "tripping " as it has before with this tool attached . Plugged it in and the generator put out and you could hear it rev up but no OVERLOAD and circuit tripping so I know it was putting out at least 15-16 amps.

Too bad the portability kit is so expensive and the cover. Let me know if there is ever a sale on them. Meanwhile I will make my own cart and I found that my Weber 26 inch grill cover works well to cover it , have to wait till it cools off.
Great manual, best I have seen for information and how it covers the procedure for storage about the carburetor drain plug etc. It showed that someone paid attention when they made this for the consumer and handy man engineer like me.

Your discussion on how it has a better rating then the Honda sold me on getting it even though it stretched my "budget". Thanks

Just got it a few weeks ago and finally fired it up today. One pull and it ran , pushed in the choke and it smoothed out . I bought a amp meter from reliance from you when I bought it to see what the start up currents and wattage surge was for my hand grinders etc so that I could see how it acted and responded it did great. Sounded a little clunky when it starts and surges but otherwise okay.

When I first started it up I had an oh crap moment since the overload light came on and nothing was plugged in and the AC light did not come on. I let it run for a few moments to see if it ... more

Our new Yamaha EF2400iSHC generator worked like a champ at our Relay For Life event this weekend. It had enough juice for four large powered speakers, a powered stage monitor, several audio mixers, two guitar amps two laptops, a fan and some lights. At night, the generator powered the stage equipment (minus the guitar amps) and two 500watt halogen work lights.

The cover is nice and will help keep the generator clean while being stored. One complaint is that it needs three hands to put it on because it pops off of one side while you're trying to pull it over the other side. I was always able to find someone to lend a hand.

Our new Yamaha EF2400iSHC generator worked like a champ at our Relay For Life event this weekend. It had enough juice for four large powered speakers, a powered stage monitor, several audio mixers, two guitar amps two laptops, a fan and some lights. At night, the generator powered the stage equipment (minus the guitar amps) and two 500watt halogen work lights.

The cover is nice and will help keep the generator clean while being stored. One complaint is that it needs three hands to put it on because it pops off of one side while you're trying to pull it over the other side. I ... more

I had been thinking about buying a generator for quite a while. Well I put it off too long, we had a major tornado outbreak in Alabama and our power was out for five days.We were able to cook on the grill and we still had running water but everything in the freezer was lost.

A few of my neighbors had the loud gas hog generators from places like Home Depot that you could here a block away.For several days there was no place to buy gas until the stations could get hooked up to generators. I wanted a very quiet generator that would use the least amount of gas and that would power my refrigerator-freezer and be able to have the TV my fish tank and a couple of CFL lights.

My wife wanted to be able to use her blow dryer after washing her hair in cold water. I bought the Yamaha EF2400iSHC and I am very pleased. This generator is very quiet and will power the things that I mentioned above. The hair dryer pulls 1800 watts so that would have to run by itself. The refrigerator,TV,fish tank,and CFL lamps will all run at the same time with the generator just at idle.

I have run this for about 5 hours to test it out and break the engine in.I then changed the oil and ran all of the gas out and put it away.This is a great machine for basic power outages.In my testing I hooked up a 500watt work light which is a quarter of its rated load and put in exactly 16 ounces of fuel.

The generator ran 48 minutes on one pint, thats equal to 6.4 hours on one gallon of gas! It is not as easy to carry as the 2000watt units but with its larger engine it does not have to rev up as much to provide the same amount of power. I like it.

I had been thinking about buying a generator for quite a while. Well I put it off too long, we had a major tornado outbreak in Alabama and our power was out for five days.We were able to cook on the grill and we still had running water but everything in the freezer was lost.

A few of my neighbors had the loud gas hog generators from places like Home Depot that you could here a block away.For several days there was no place to buy gas until the stations could get hooked up to generators. I wanted a very quiet generator that would use the least amount of gas and that would power ... more

So I did a ton of research on inverter generators specifically for camping and running my 13.5k BTU AC unit. This rig rocks! Not only does it run the AC without a hitch at 5300 feet, but I also had all the lights on the DVD player going with 26" LCD, 400w receiver, a subwoofer and speakers, the campers inverter charging the batteries and we even ran the microwave at the same time.

It was only about 70 degrees out, but I will never run all that stuff at the same time. It was just to test it out. The Yamaha website says that it can only start a 10k BTU AC unit for some reason... But I had no issues doing all that. It is super quiet even at max load.

It's about 75lbs, but that's very manageable for a grown man. Even my 115 lb girlfriend picked it up and was moving it around. I can't wait to get camping!

Electronic Generators Direct was amazing and shipped on Monday and I got it on Thursday! The Yamaha site has free 2-day air shipping but good luck with being in a state that you don't have to pay sales tax on.

Did I say I can't wait to go camping?

So I did a ton of research on inverter generators specifically for camping and running my 13.5k BTU AC unit. This rig rocks! Not only does it run the AC without a hitch at 5300 feet, but I also had all the lights on the DVD player going with 26" LCD, 400w receiver, a subwoofer and speakers, the campers inverter charging the batteries and we even ran the microwave at the same time.

It was only about 70 degrees out, but I will never run all that stuff at the same time. It was just to test it out. The Yamaha website says that it can only start a 10k BTU AC unit for some ... more

After doing a lot of research on inverter generators and watching YouTube videos of them in action I decided to purchase the EF2400ISHC primarily because I was looking for a "quiet" power production solution. I also own a loud Troy-Bilt 5550 watt continuous 8550 watt surge output generator.

Now for the generator itself. After reading through the manual and following all the steps the generator started up on the third pull and settled into a nice idle. I decided to "break-in" the generator by applying a 10.2 amp load (Portable refrigerated AC unit). At first the throttle ramp up was not quick enough and the AC unit shut down. I tried several more times and switched to the other outlet and eventually the generator response time shortened enough to allow the compressor motor to kick in without the AC shutting off. Since I was interested in fuel consumption I let the generator power the AC at max cooling for about 30 minutes. Then I added a ceramic heater at the 800 watt setting (6.7 amps) and it ran that as well with the AC unit on max. So in fact it does as advertised (16.7 amps) and actually ran 16.9 amps total with no overload light.

I did momentarily try to set the heater to the next higher level, while the AC was still running, and I briefly got the overload tone before I switched back to the 800 watt heater setting. I left both the AC and heater run for another 10 minutes together without issue.

With the generator producing full output it was easy to speak to someone right next to it. If I walked about 35-40 feet away it was easily quiet enough to hardly even notice. For those of you shopping for a generator please be aware that decibel levels are on a logarithmic scale. A 3 decibel increase is about 41% louder. Therefore, 58 decibels (dB) is 41% louder than 55 dB. Also, another disconnect between Yamaha advertising and the owners manual is the max rated dB level. Yamaha advertises this generator at 53-58 dB. The owner’s manual says that this generator's maximum decibel output is 60 dB not 58 dB. However, as stated above, this is a quiet generator.

Finally, ElectricGeneratorsDirect shipping was prompt and arrived in excellent condition. They boxed the original manufacturers shipping box into a slightly larger one. When FedEx delivered it, the larger outside box had some gashes and gouges, but the factory sealed box on the inside was unscathed.

After doing a lot of research on inverter generators and watching YouTube videos of them in action I decided to purchase the EF2400ISHC primarily because I was looking for a "quiet" power production solution. I also own a loud Troy-Bilt 5550 watt continuous 8550 watt surge output generator.

Now for the generator itself. After reading through the manual and following all the steps the generator started up on the third pull and settled into a nice idle. I decided to "break-in" the generator by applying a 10.2 amp load (Portable refrigerated AC unit). At f... more