Portable Power for the Clueless

portable generator in use

We have to believe that at least some of the freelancers who regularly copied, reworded, and pasted information at the old eHow.com thought they were being useful in some small way. We know that our staffers who spent some time there tried to be good servants, only tackling "titles" in areas where they had knowledge or expertise. Others, sadly, were not so honest. We're talking here about the likes of Misty Faucheux, who leveraged all that knowledge she gulped down while picking up her BA in Communications to slap together "Kawasaki GE2900 Generator Specifications" for ehow.com, now languishing at HomeSteady.com.

Given that the product is a portable generator of the type that many households use during power outages, we assume that the OQ was most concerned about the power output of the generator, which is usually stated in watts. Most generator manufacturers will cite a continuous output rating and a "peak" output that allows for the brief power surge when an appliance starts up. Based on other generators, we'd guess that the GE2900 has a maximum output of 2900 watts and a continuous output of a few hundred watts less.
You can't get that information from Faucheux's post, however. No, Misty prattles about the generator's footprint, weight, output voltage, gasoline tank capacity, even the engine oil capacity ("0.2 gallons"). But  as for the critical measure of generator output? The best Faucheux can come up with is,

"The Kawasaki Portable Generator GE2900 features a four cycle, one cylinder overhead valve (OHV) engine. The engine runs on gasoline and is forced air cooled, which helps keep the engine cool when it is in operation. The generator produces up to 4 kilowatts of power, and the engine displacement is 10.4 cubic inches. Engine displacement refers to the total volume that the pistons can move through your engine cylinders in one movement."

Wow: talk about burying the lede! Not to mention that we somehow doubt that the generator's output is "4 kilowatts," otherwise it might be called the GE4300 or something similar. Truth be told, Misty clearly knows zilch about her topic, given some of these strange ideas about the generator:

• "This is a single phase generator, which means that the supply voltage alternates in unison..."
• "...it uses either one 230 V outlet or two 115 V outlets for power..."
• "The frequency of the portable generator varies from 110 V to 240 V,..."

Yeah, that's some knowledge, all right. Clearly, Faucheux was one of the eHow contributors who didn't limit their "research" to topics with which they were familiar. She's also one of the eHow contributors who has now earned the coveted (not) Dumbass of the Day award. Go, Misty...

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