I agree. I have both, and the 1000 is 1/2 the weight and considerably smaller. As long as you're not trying to run an A/C on a generator, I would go for the lighter, smaller genset.
bearsnob wrote: Get the 1000 for camping. It weighs half as much as the 2000, uses half the gasoline, and will power all of the things on your camping list. Then get a Champion 3500 watt generator for $199 or less the next time they go on sale. Use that one for emergency power at home. It will power a lot more things than the 1600 watt Honda 2000 ever will. Total price for both generators will be less than one Honda 2000.
Finally went out and bought the Honda 1000i as we are going dry camping for the first time this weekend and we expect to do a lot more of it.
What I wanted to report is that I ran an extension cord into the house while testing and plugged my house fridge into it and it ran without any problems. The 1000i didn't change a note and acted like nothing was even plugged into it. Fridge was running just fine. Even ran fine turning it down to Eco mode. I also plugged in a couple fans and no problems.
My fridge is less then 6 months old, very energy efficient and no compressor so that's probably why.
Anyway, just wanted to update that the 1000i (for me) will be able to act as an emergency backup power for the house and will at least keep food cold in the fridge.
If you ever need a little more than the 1000i for emergency backup power for the house - remember that two 1000i's can be paralled together - so just get another one and parallel it with your original one.
An interesting side note is that two 1000i's paralled together produce more steady power than a single 2000i. 2000i -> 1600 watts, 1000i -> 900 watts, so two 1000i's will provide in the range of 1800 watts. I wouldn't be surprised if two 1000i's will power some RV air conditioners when a single 2000i wouldn't.