Purchased to have backup power for essential home appliances (refrigerator, gas furnace etc). Tested out my unit and it worked well. This product is by far the best solution for someone looking to have emergency power on hand. Would of given it a 5 star review but experienced 2 issues. The strap locking clip broke that helps hang the device from your car. Nice if it had been metal instead of plastic. Bought the unit during a promotional sale and was supposed to get the Furnace plug kit. Never received it. Upgraded furnace myself using items from local home improvement store. Even though i had these issues, would still recommend this product. It provides essential power without the need for storing fuel and maintaining a large generator.
Only had to use it once so far seens to work really well. I was suppose to get the Furnace plug kit for home or cottage with it but I never received it.
I like the fact that I don't have to carry separate fuel for a regular generator.
Well built quality product but if I had to do it over again I would have purchased The 1500/3000W so it could run my 1/3 hp sump pump rated at 9.8 amp. I was under the impression that the 1000/2000W Could handle such a load because the sump pump only runs for about eight seconds with just over 900W At start up for a split second and 800W for the remainder of the eight seconds. I even tried hooking the car generator directly to a deep cycle 12 V 105 amp hour battery that is fully charged at 13 V and the car generator will not run my sump pump. The sump pump and battery are one year old and the sump pit is crystal clear clean. My plug-in amp meter shows that the pump is using 10A.
Yes it really works, I tried it before we went to Mexico. We feel safe now!!
We had to buy an adapter 50 to 10 AMP for our 5Th wheel but now the connection is easy.
Thank you Jonathan for your great support
The product meets all my expectations. Bonus was the great technical support for getting it to work with my furnaces setup. I live in a condo which does not permit gasoline generators (nor probably any other than battery). However, this works and meets the associations concerns.
Bought my unit a year ago to use with my Airstream travel trailer and had not had a need to use it until now. I went to a 4 day music festival with only dry camping options and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try out the Cargenerator. Set it all up and something was wrong. Not having familiarized myself with the operation as well as I should have before leaving home I was a loss as to why I wasn't getting any charge back in to my battery bank.
Since I was in the hills of southern Tennessee the internet connection was not great and I couldn't research possible fixes to my problem. So, I was able to put in a call to the company as a long shot to hopefully get some help. It was incredible to me that the owner of the company answered the call and was able and wiling to help me diagnose the problem. Customer service, for the products we buy on the internet, is so often lacking or not existent but this has been a wonderful experience that I could have never imagined. Jonathan helped me figure out that my problem was not the Cargenerator, which worked flawlessly, but instead was actually my Smartplug 50 amp to 20 amp adapter. After he diagnosed the issue and helped me find a work around, he contacted Smartplug and got me in contact with the right person at the company to get a new adapter that will work for my application.
Wow! Thank you Jonathan. Great product and top notch customer care.
It can power my house with the jeep wrangler hybrid,got to gently close the hood for the jeep to let you use the hybrid mode and disconnect the door wire for the jeep to run more than 30 minutes.the 1500 watts car generator run my vitamix blender and a 100w fridge at the same time.plus lights
The mark of Character
Good Character in business and life is everything. Jonathan’s quick response and gracious attention to a customer speaks volumes for the character of him and this business. Oh, by the way the product is wonderful. Works as described.
Such a simple elegant solution to back-up power - you’ll be using it in minutes.
I set up the unit for a test run with our RV. Instructions were good/helpful, but I am unsure that it will provide enough wattage to keep my bay of house batteries charged when dry camping/boondocking.
I purchased this to use on my 2019 Chev truck for camping. I easily connected to the battery, started the truck and then pulled a controlled 900Watts easily out of the inverter and used this power to charge an EcoFlow power station. It will do 1000Watts but wanted to keep it just under the max. This works perfectly for my camping and remote needs and the Dry use is well built into the accompanying case including very well built cables. I look forward to further using this in the coming weeks camping and all summer and year. Dave C. Thank you.
After I submitted my first review I was contacted by Car Generator to let me know the furnace plug was on its way. Received it today. Thanks for the great customer service.
I haven’t had a chance to try it, but it looks well made and the instructions are very straight forward. Delivery was fast and it was well packaged.
Very well constructed device, and tested out well. Should fit the bill for temporary backup power. Order was delayed 7 days, since it was out of stock.
Unit arrived today. Looked like a brand new unit. Did a preliminary test and used the supplied watt meter. Tried a 5 hp shop vac. The unit powered the vac. Did not leave it plugged in for more than 15 seconds as the power draw was over 1 kw. Voltage drop went down to 13.1 V DC under this load. Static voltage with no load was 13.8 - 13.7 V DC. Plugged in a fluorescent trouble light with two separately switched bulbs. Under this load, the drop in the DC side was 13.7 V DC. Power consumption from 1 to two bulbs went from 9 to 25 watts. Vehicle is a 2020 Chevy Silverado 3 liter Diesel.
For it's intended purpose I'd say it's a pretty snazzy unit. I would suggest a glorified cup or eye hook to hold the S hook on the end of the strap instead of that thin screw. The S hook is not as secure as I would like it to be. I believe this is important because the strap is for all intents and purposes the lid that holds the jumper cables in place when they are stowed.
What a nice change from a smelly, heavy, expensive gas generator! As a fulltime RVer, this is a great product to keep my RV battery charged when boondocking...or during extended power outages, which is why I purchased it.
While researching generators as backup for my travel trailer a found the Cargenerator. No need to carry gas cans, monthly exercise and very lightweight. I purchased the 1500/3000w unit to be able to run microwave, toaster and coffeemaker while boonbocking. Tried the unit when it first arrived and it preformed beyond my expectations. Very easy to install and setup. I can also use the Cargenerator as a backup to my house during power failures.
I had some difficulty at first because the inverter on my RV had a wrong setting. I called CarGenerator Support. They were very friendly and helpful. They helped me diagnose the problem and told me how fix it. Since then, the CarGenerator has performed perfectly at charging my two 100ah lithium batteries and since my car is almost silent when idling, I don’t bother or upset anyone while charging!
I’m very glad I bought this generator.
Works as advertised. Great addition to my boondocking arsenal of 550W solar, 300AH Lithium Batteries, 3000W Victron Inverter,
Champion 2000W generator, etc. Tested it out yesterday and will charge my batteries and powers my inverter which in turn powers my hole 25’ AS Globetrotter. Only will plan to use it if it rains/cloudy for several days and my solar is running behind in keeping my batteries charged. I highly recommend a CarGenerator and Jonathan was very helpful.
I decided to look into CarGenerator since our need was to recharge my lithium batteries and occasionally run a microwave when boon docking. Our generator worked well but was loud, weighed 100 lbs, and took a lot space in the truck bed. We purchased the 1000/1500 watt model which turned out to be slightly underpowered for our Progressive Dynamics Converter. Fortunately, our Chevy 2500HD’s alternator could support 1550/3000 watt model which worked perfectly. Jonathan, the owner of CarGenerator, was extremely helpful in answering my questions. He called to confirm the installation went well and identified that I needed to activate fast idle on the truck to increase to alternator output. Unbelievable service for a great product.