Now it's Aldi (UK)'s turn to offer an inverter generator

[Johnny B Good]

Hi to everyone, particularly those in the UK.

Aldi have started selling (as of last Thursday) a 1800/2000W Workzone branded inverter generator. It's almost three times the price of Lidl's PGI 1200B at £289.99 but it does offer almost twice the power rating. Equivalents elsewhere can be a hundred quid or more making it not quite the bargain of the decade but, nevertheless, a reasonably low price for what it promises.

Unfortunately, the two examples I tried fell far short of the PGI

1200B's excellence and I gave up after returning the second unit (21.3Kg is a bit of a strain for me to be manhandling it in and out of my car boot (trunk)).

I won't bore you with the details since you can find my review on Aldi's website here

Just scroll down towards the bottom and expand the "Customer Reviews" section. You can't miss it unless you're a fan of the TL:DR school of ignorance.

TBH, I'm surprised they published it since I used my usenet nym and invalid email address rather than a real one. :-)

[Jeff Layman]

Maybe because you often criticised Lidl and one of its products in your review? They'd probably have published it if you had signed it "M Mouse" with an mm@disney email address!

[Brian Reay]

Yes and no. They have Aldi in some areas and use another name in others- Trader Joe's for example.

[Johnny B Good]

I guess the AI algorithm used to vet the 'review' doesn't understand "Reverse 'damned by faint praise'".[1]

I suspect the "AI" only flags up reviews containing derogatory expletives. I reckoned an unemotive tone with subtle phrasing would stand the best chance of getting past the AI's "Bad Taste" filter. :-)

[1] The damning part referred to Lidl's mismanagement of their stock (no doubt pleasing Aldi no end) whilst the praise was for the product's ability to survive such treatment relatively unscathed, in this case a Parkside PGI 1200 B2 where the oil level wire could temporarily be disconnected so it could be started up to let engine vibration 'unstick' the float sensor and/or a simple lifting (only four retaining bolts) of the 'lid' to access the various plug/socket connectors round the back of the inverter module to fix any that have come adrift.

As I mentioned earlier, both of these common show stopping faults are easily remedied using the supplied 'tool kit' if you know how. Just find the 19m 50s youtube video on the PGI 1200 B2 and view dean handley's comments to reveal 'The Knowledge'. :-)

Pity about the shit 'scope. The mains voltage waveform looked flat topped when, in fact as a real 'scope would show, the 'flat tops' actually have a slight downward slope.

[Johnny B Good]

Just refreshed the web page and my 'review' has disappeared. I guess they must have reviewed it and didn't like what they saw (or maybe it was because of my invalid email address).

Looks like I'll have to submit another review with my real email address. I certainly need to refresh it seeing as how I decided on trying out a third generator which, apart from the rather pronounced bogging down to a 900W load, seems to behave like an inverter genset should. However, it does drop quite a bit of voltage going from no load to 900W (235 down to 225 volts with an initial dip down to 206 volts before recovering to 225 volts - quite shit really, compared to the Parkside

1/1.2KW unit).

I'm undecided about whether it's worth keeping hold of. I noticed three cermet multi-turn pots poking out of the inverter module's potting compound which may allow it to be properly fine tuned if I can find the adjustment info on the 'net.

Incidentally, I took some SPL measurements and obtained a 65dBA SPL at

23 feet (7 metres) when driving the 900W test load. It was maybe 1dB quieter on no load. Unfortunately, I don't have anything to make up a full 1800W test load to hand right now so couldn't run the SPL test at max loading. I suspect it'll only increase by a dB or two on the half load figure.

It seemed a little quieter than the Parkside unit and I was going to fire the Parkside genset up to collect comparative figures but SWMBI started complaining about the noise (on behalf of, but unrequested by, the neighbours) so that test will have to wait for another day.

[Johnny B Good]

====snip====

I'm currently testing my third Workzone inverter genset...

I found a "Big Clue" in the form of workshop manual, not for this generator but for a similar one. The example inverter genset in question being a Powerhouse PH2700PRi. The "shop manual" shows a schematic of the wiring which represents the inverter module as a reasonable facsimile of its physical form (topologically speaking).

Zooming into the page reveals a total of four multiturn pots (the same number as used in the Workzone inverter module). The trimpots' functions are handily labelled as "voltage", "balance", "current" and "overload". Presumably the four trimpots on the Workzone inverter module apply to the same adjustments. The only snag is that the modules are far from identical in layout so any further progress will be a 'suck it and see' exercise. I've already cleaned the sealing compound from the trimpots (RTV silicone?).

My first test will be to locate the "voltage" pot followed by the "balance" pot which I guess relates to the shoddy response to a 50% load increase from no load eco-idle state (compared to the Parkside unit, the response is execrable - The Parkside unit doesn't bog down to a 90% load from zero load before increasing the revs - it just does the right thing).

Well, I finally got my chance to run the Parkside this afternoon and log some SPL readings. At about ten foot away, I was getting 65dBA no load and 74dBA at 865W (86%) load. The corresponding figures for the Workzone unit were 69 and 70 dBA (zero and 860W (48%) load).

TBH, after mulling over the SPL figures, I'm more inclined to just get my money back... Again! However, I think it might be worth experimenting with those presets - after all, I can hardly make it much worse than it already is!

Well, I found the "voltage" pot ok[1] but couldn't find the "balance", which I think must be to set the eco-idling speed, so it's going back as "Unfit for Purpose" for a full refund tomorrow. I'm not going to try a fourth unit. "Three strikes and you're out!" seems so appropriate in this case. :-(

I have to say that if I didn't have the Parkside inverter generator to demonstrate how an inverter genset is supposed to behave, I might have convinced myself that such transient load behaviour was simply a normal feature (downside) of an inverter genset always running in eco-throttle mode for lack of an eco-throttle option switch.

I can well imagine how anyone new to the operation of a backup generator might not realise just what a piece of junk this Workzone inverter genset really is. Thankfully, that little 1KW Parkside unit just about suffices for my essential needs so I can afford to wait for Lidl to put a larger Parkside inverter genset on 'special offer' over the next year or so. :-)

[1] For anyone interested in adjusting the AC output voltage on their 1800/2000 watt Workzone inverter generator, the pot in question is the topmost of the four (revealed by undoing the four screws that fix the control panel to the case). Trust me, the engine vibrations make such adjustments rather tricky to say the least of it.