We have a solid plan since we’re doing the full-time RV. So one of the essential parts of that plan we’ll discuss is our RV’s power source. You don’t know how long the power will go out if there’s a hurricane, and it’s also hot and humid, so you need to keep cool and keep everything powered on.
Buy DuroMax XP13000EH Generator on Amazon for $1299 (Save $200)
So the Duromax XP13000EH is one of the main components. It’s definitely better to have something like this and not use it or not need it than to not have it and need it. So, we may have gone overkill, but I’d rather have enough than not enough.
It depends on what you’re looking for and your needs, like an RV with two ACs and everything; if you want everything to run just like normal, you’ll need a little bit bigger. If you have the money, Duromax XP13000EH is a good choice, or you could go a little smaller; if you put soft starts in your AC systems, you will need less power. We don’t have those yet, so we go with Duromax XP13000EH.
Duromax XP13000EH Accessories
Duromax XP13000EH generator is a dual fuel which is gasoline or propane, weighing 234 pounds. This unit is heavy, so you’re not moving this around easily. It has handles you can lift and wheels on the side to roll it around. One of the things we liked about this one was dual fuel, so you have two fuel sources in case you run out of gasoline.
One thing here at the RV park, there are a lot of RVs with pro propane tanks on them. Yeah. So if you need fuel and a pinch, you can grab a propane tank off somebody’s rig that’s not here. We’re not advocating taking people’s propane tanks unless you have permission. The generator does run a shorter amount of time on propane and gives you a little less power, but it’s a cleaner burn.
And then you also have to think about the cost too. Gasoline price is no joke nowadays. If you’re running this on gasoline, you’ll be spending some money, and propane’s cheaper for what you get. So gasoline would go up your carburetors and be an issue. If you can run on propane, I recommend you do that. If you have to use gas, make sure to clean it out afterward.
It will come on a truck, like a tractor-trailer-type truck, when you first get it. Then, for assembly, it’s pretty straightforward. After that, you’ll have to assemble the actual transportation handles. You’ll see them in the corner, so you’ll put those on there. The battery that’s down and that comes unplugged. You’ll have to plug that in, and then you’ll have to put on the wheels and then take off the shipping brackets.
They have the shipping brackets on there, so you’ll take those off, put the tires on, and then you’re assembled and ready to go from that point. Except for it does, it doesn’t come shipped with oil.
So it does come with a baggie of some goodies, and it does come with a little funnel to add the oil to it, so that’s pretty awesome that they come with that. So you’re going to keep it from spilling everywhere. That’s one thing I’d like to mention; they also have the adapters for the actual unit.
It also comes with a toolkit, a spark plug branch, and wrenches, so you will only need a few tools besides what they give you. So, that was nice for them to include that.
DuroMax XP13000EH Features and Specs
First, you got the 120/240V 50A heavy-duty outlet on the main panel for the main outlets. So for us, this will be basically what we use for the RV. So that will be our main one. We also have a 120/240V 30A twist lock, 120V 30A twist lock, and 120V 20A standard outlet.
It also comes with a push button to start. It tells you when it’s charging and has a low light warning for oil. If it gets too low, it will auto-shutoff, and of course, all your breakers are for your AC breakers, for all the different outlets. If it trips, you just reset it back, and it also comes with a battery switch beside the low oil light, which turns your battery power on and off.
Then you got the idle control, so if you don’t have any load on the generator but have it running, you can put on the idle control, and it’ll amp it down. So it’s, it’s quiet. It just, it’s not since you’re not using any power. So that’s cool to have that switch, especially if you have no load on it.
Again, we got the circuit breaker on and off, a big old switch, which is nice. It’s like the one the whole you have in your house. If you need the power on or everything off immediately, flick that switch; you’re good to go. We have the multi-meter to display voltage readings on the right of the circuit breaker.
The display says everything, such as the meter settings, voltage, hertz, and hours run, and then we press the button to cycle information so we can bounce between those and look at what the voltage is, how many hours we’ve run it, which might be necessary depending on if you’re running gas or propane. For example, I’ve had this propane tank running for five hours.
I might have an hour left, depending on how fast you go through it and your energy usage. DuroMax XP13000EH is a 13,000-watt peak generator on gasoline, and it gives you the full 13,000-watt at peak, but you’re only getting a 12,350-watt peak on propane. You get a little less, but it’s still more than enough.
Then your running wattage on gasoline is 10,500 watts; on propane, it’s 9,975 watts. Again, way more than enough power; you’ll need to run a 50A RV. Did we mention the run time? DuroMax XP13000EH has an 8.3-gallon gasoline tank. So to give you an idea of how much we’re holding there and then running, you get about eight hours at 50% load. And then, for the propane, the 40-pound run time is six hours for 50% load.
So that gives you guys a good idea for fuel and power usage. Again, that’ll be a lot of testing of how much load you’re using per what you’re powering. You can tinker around with that to see how much time you can get via gasoline or propane. It does come with the regulator, and the propane hose already comes with it.
So you’re almost ready out of the box, except for the fuel. The engine size is 500 cc, 20 horsepower, and consists of a four-stroke. DuroMax XP13000EH does have a three-year warranty, so for any issues you have, you can contact the manufacturer, and they’ll hopefully hook you up. We haven’t had any problems with it yet so far.
One good thing about this that you want to look for when you look for a generator is the copper windings. DuroMax XP13000EH has hundred percent all copper windings in the unit. So you want to look for that.
Once you add those eight gallons of gas, you’re at the 250 pounds roughly, but the wheels and the handles make it pleasant. It’s almost like moving a wheelbarrow.
One thing you need to hear more about on generators is the total harmonic distortion the generator generates, which is between 12 and 20%, depending on your load. If you see a higher number, you don’t want to run sensitive electronics on it. If you got something important and sensitive electronic, you might want an inverter generator instead of this kind of generator. So now that we got a pretty good overview of DuroMax XP13000EH,
DuroMax XP13000EH Starting
It’s an easy hookup for propane and on the front for easy access. It got a rubber protective boot cover. You can see the flared end, so you get the hose that came with your generator. You screw it on its regular thread; you don’t have to put much pressure since it is flared. You could do it by hand and then, if you want to be safer, spray a little soapy water on the connection to see if it’s leaking and then hook the other end up to the propane tank.
What’s cool about DuroMax XP13000EH, down below the fuel inlet, there is the startup procedure and storage guide for storing fuel. And on the side here, you can see the little blue slip. This gives you the directions if you want to start it on gasoline.
I highly recommend you go through the list and go through each thing. Once connected to the tank, you can turn the propane on, and I don’t smell any leak. So the first thing it has to do is start with propane is turn the fuel switch to propane. Then, turn the battery switch ON and press the start button. Then you can start connecting your devices. It’s that easy and pretty straightforward. So let’s press the button and see if it starts.
Remember to purge the line before starting it. That’s why it didn’t start the first time, but once you have it purged, it’ll start every time. Once you start the generator without load, flip the idle control, which drops in rpm. So it’s basically on standby.
But once you have it running and you’re ready to go. You plug the stuff in before you flip the brake—either way. Since we’re using this for RV, we’ll still plug in our surge protector. Even though DuroMax XP13000EH has built-in protection, our surge protector will provide a little more protection. You should never plug the generator into your RV without your surge protector to ensure one hundred percent safe for the RV appliances and electronics.
Additional Information on DuroMax XP13000EH
After the first start, it starts pretty easy. Remember to purge the air out of the line for the first start. There are a few side notes that we wanted to mention of things that we might still need to remember that we want to tell you. DuroMax XP13000EH uses the engine oil that calls for 10W30. You can use conventional, synthetic, or blend.
We recommend synthetic engine oil because it has higher temperature ranges and gives you more protection. Adding on to that, DuroMax XP13000EH also does have a pole start down in the corner. So if your battery was dead or, for some reason, you couldn’t use the battery, you still can pull start it.
So no worries there, which is an excellent addition, and also you can get some accessories for DuroMax XP13000EH. One is a cover, and this one doesn’t come with it, but it’s an excellent little added value to you. Keep dirt, debris, and dust off when you’re not using it.
Another thing is the DuroMax XP13000EH is quiet. This generator runs around 74 decibels peak when you use it and varies with loads.
The idle mode drops down pretty low, so that was a pretty comfortable sound, so it wasn’t like killing my ears. It is also approved by EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and CARB (California Air Resources Board).
I spoke with the tech people about the engine oil, and they also recommended the synthetic. So that’s why I relayed that to you. But if you’re in an always hot area, you can go with a SAE30. But 10W30 is going to cover you for most situations. That sounds about right. Primarily you are using the DuroMax XP13000EH in different places.
If you’re somewhere cold, use the 10W30 because it gives you that good winter protection. It gives you that winter protection with the 10W, and then it’s synthetic, so it’s already thinner and provides more protection.
My Verdict on DuroMax XP13000EH
It’s not like we just got it to do a review. We use the stuff, and DuroMax XP13000EH is definitely practical for us, especially with our lifestyle—something we need to have.
So far, it is a strong and stable unit. Idles mode runs smoothly, has a lot of power, and is simple to set up and run. It’s noisy, but in terms of generator sound, it appears normal and not too noisy.
It is not just for hurricane or power outage preparedness but for off-grid or anything you want to do. DuroMax XP13000EH will give you the power to do a lot of things. If you want to go camping off-grid, you’ll still have full power.
You can run your air conditioners and everything else in your rig. So the manual does say 50 states approved the usage of DuroMax XP13000EH, but California’s a little picky these days. California might not allow anything like that.
Many reviews on Amazon say that DuroMax XP13000EH can supply power to their whole house during a power outage, and people are pleased with the performance. We also can power all our equipment in our RV without any problem, including our 2 ACs.
That’s all for now, and we will keep updating this review on DuroMax XP13000EH’s performance and reliability. Thank you for reading and if you want to read more reviews for the generator, just click the below:
Buy DuroMax XP13000EH Generator on Amazon for $1299 (Save $200)