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CarGenerator Review
After watching a couple of webinars on the generator that connects to the battery of your vehicle I bought one. You can check it out online at
CarGenerator.com
After making the necessary connections to the battery and the generator itself I connected and proceeded to check that it was working. Ran a fan and later a space heater just fine.
I noticed that the volt meter on the
top of the unit did not show any reading. In fact, it didn’t even light up. I call the customer service number and explained the problem. She connected me with Jonathan Schloo, the owner, whom I informed of the problem. We discussed this a bit. I was able to get the readings on my phone by Bluetooth. Per his suggestion I follow up Immediately with an email (6/30/24). No response from them. I followed up with another email on July 5th. Still no response.
At this point, while the generator works, except for the volt meter, I can’t give a recommendation to purchase the CarGenerator because of the lack of follow-up. On the webinar on the YouTube channel RV Electricity by Mike Sokol Jonathan stressed how they were there for customer support. Well, apparently not in this case. 3🌟🌟🌟generator and 1🌟for customer Service follow-up.
UPDATE: CarGenerator replaced my original unit as the voltmeter was not working. Dealing with the CEO Jonathan Schloo was a good experience. Widen he learned of the problem and might inhappiness he totally took ownership of my concerns and sent a replacement unit.
The replacement unit performed perfectly. My model is the 1500 watt version and I’ve used it several times to gauge how it would perform. I used the provided watt meter to observe the numbers.
I certainly like the customer service provided by CarGenerator and Jonathan.
As a side story I made my own battery to Anderson connector cable. I used a set of 500A battery clamps and 2/0 cable. The Anderson plum is the 175A version. Now I can use an alternative vehicle when needed.
Thanks Jonathan for a fine produce and superior customer service.
We are very happy with our decision to purchase the Car Generator for our camping needs. We have not been big boondockers up to this point. Buying a heavy gas or propane generator was just not a good solution for us. We wouldn't always need it. However, we were easily able to go 3 days without hookups, and used the Car Generator the first time at a Harvest Host location one evening in the rain. It could not have been easier to use, especially for the first time. Customer service was very helpful after we ordered on a Promotion and they made sure we would receive our Car Generator before we left for the summer. We learned so much during a recent 2-part RV electric webinar hosted by Jonathan Schloo from Car Generator and Mike Sokol from RV Electricity. This really helped us realize this was a great solution for our needs. No mess, no smell, super compact and lightweight. We highly recommend this product.
We probably aren't the typical reviewers. We don't own an RV and we don't live anywhere with frequent, storm-related power outages. However, we do tent camp several times a year and when I do, I prefer having certain luxuries (large fan for the tent during the day, bouncy house for the kids, espresso in the morning). Scoring a site with electric is difficult and expensive and these sites aren't always as pretty as tent sites. Using a gas-powered generator requires maintenance I don't feel up to and is loud, stinky, and expensive. With my car generator, we can now have all of our conveniences anywhere we go! And if we ever have something big happen, like an earthquake here in sunny SoCal, it's also comforting to know that between our car generator and two hybrid cars, we'd still have plenty of power for our important home appliances. Plus, the customer service is TOP NOTCH! I didn't know how to hook it up at first. I was grounding it in a bad spot so it wasn't generating the power I needed. Jonathan was super responsive, kind, and helpful. Really, it was the best, most personal and friendly help I've ever gotten over a product. I'm a very happy customer and can't wait for all of our summer camping trips!
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.
