Harbor Freight Predator 9500 Watts Inverter Generator Running a 5-TON AC

Gavin, many thanks for the “go with 50amp if you want to parallel down the line…” Thats what I’ll be doing - thanks

Excellent video, Gavin... my brother and I were just talking about the Predator line of generators and which one we should get to run a house in times of emergency.. you are right on time!

Thanks for another great video. I like how you showed the power of the generator. Having it connected to your house control panel, is really the only way to utilize all the power it has. Having the Micro-Air East Start (Soft Starter) is a must, for any AC system. I finally got around to installing the 368 on our 3-ton unit. It works great. I'll share the details, in the comments, on your East Start video.

Great video! This generator has been tempting me. And I already bought a soft start for my 5ton a while back. Haven't installed it yet. My plan is to maybe get this generator and install a natural gas kit. Gasoline is scarce after a hurricane. Right now I have a 6k diesel. Ran it with 3 window units after Ida, but ended up leaving town after a few days. Didn't want to do the gas station juggle for two weeks.

Absolutely, 50 AMP always! Great video as usual, thank you for all of your effort and the great content.

Awesome thank you, after this storm in Florida this will be useful. Making a run to Harbor Freight :).

Gavin, This is priceless information. Even though I do not have this particular generator, I do have one with the same wattage output and features. All I need to do then is get kitted out for the electrical hook up. Thanks for putting out this video!

Thanks for the good info on running the AC just what I was looking for.

Very interesting! I have a 12k a-Ipower genny with a 4 ton & 2 ton a/c units. I would connect just the 4ton since that cools the downstairs where everyone stays. For winter I have natural gas and have both 120v air handler fans configured in with my 50amp inverter to give me full heating coverage in the winter time. Thanks for demo!!

Hello Gavin. Thank you for another great video. The demonstrations and info are awesome.

Gavin, I received 50 to 30 watt adapter last week. I finally had time today to try it. Works like a dream! Thank you so much its powers the house basically with one predator 9500. I have two predator 9500s. Your other video about augmenting a Duramax parallel kit came in handy. I did have to build onto it. I couldn’t find the materials that you had. So I had to improvise. And I am in the process of finishing that up. As soon as I finish that I’m sure I will be able to parallel and use the air-conditioning unit without the soft start kit I hope? I mean two 9500s, should be more than enough to run a house. Thank you again for your wisdom and insight. You sure do make it easy for the average guy to understand how all this works!

Thanks Gavin, don’t know anything about electrical work, just got my predator and at least now I have a guide on what to buy and how to proceed to make it work with my a/c which is why I bought it in the first place. You earned a sub 👍🏼 also bought that magnetic dipstick, I saw it on other videos and thought it was worth mentioning

I don't know why but I really enjoy watching these videos!

awesome, love that display box you got plugged in there I wouldn't need it but its fantastic for your videos. Have a good one ;)

That's very cool. The problem would be finding gas in a grid down situation

Excellent demonstration as usual. Hindsight was 20/20 in my part, I highly recommend a 50 amp generator input for your home. The materials cost now days is not that much compared to 8+ years ago, you can scale up if your needs change. The only limiting factor is your generator supplying the power, however in a grid down situation using less is definitely more when it comes to fuel consumption. If you're handy, I highly recommend that you build and install a digital electric monitor for both L1 and L2 next to main breaker panel for the generator input. That way you can monitor your energy usage in your home real time and staying within the power limits of your generator. For those who have grid tied solar, normally you have to disable your solar feed when on generator mode. If you're able to segment the arrays to bite sized pieces, most 120/240 inverter generators will accept and synchronize to it. In order to pull it off, your static load has to be more than what your solar is able deliver to your isolated home "grid" thus having a real time energy monitor comes to good use. I was able to run my 2.5 ton HVAC and critical loads in the house supplemented by my 3.2 kWp solar subarray. I did have to drop the thermostat to the lowest set temp so that the power load was constant while the solar subarray was online; if the A/C cycled off for any reason, it would've tripped the generator offline and put it into overload fault. As long as sun was still out, the generator pretty much ran at almost idle speed in ECO mode. I was able to ride it out for 4+ hours with A/C when it was 96°F outside with the feels like temperature around 119°F and hardly used any gas. My neighbors was not too thrilled about it to say the least...

I was looking at the power smart 4400 watts .looking forward of seeing that one on your show

this is ONE OF BEST VIDEO i have ever seen . Thank you

Super cool!! We love Harbor Freight and your videos-new subscribers here!! Thanks-Zack & Linda

Awesome thanks for real world numbers!!