A very good catch on the DuroMax parallel kit no neutral issue. From what I can tell at 1:15 it looks like it is really meant for 250 volt use only and there shouldn't be a neutral pin on the 30 or 50 amp connection. Standard nomenclature if it was to be utilized in split phase mode it should be 125/250. My experience working in the electrical field when your 125/250 volt 50 amp plug tester is showing open neutral is bad news from the get go and you will end up frying up some 120 volt appliances. You can bond the neutral and ground at the parallel box, but the ground is only meant to carry fault current back to the generator to trip the upstream breaker to clear the fault and not the unbalanced load between the phases. Also, it will cause a potential shock hazard since no one would expect any current flowing through the ground connection. I think DuroMax dropped ball on this one for not having a dedicated neutral for 125/250 volt split phase operation. Great work and it might've save someone's RV from a potential electrical nightmare using the parallel kit. I've went through a few old school hard knocks and learned to test and verify before plugging in. Having a Power Watchdog inline to serve as extra insurance against those costly oopsies. After all we are human and we're not infallible. :-P
Thanks for sharing this Felax Chow very insightful and informative feedback. Most people don’t understand why I always have the surge protector on all my test. I’ve seen poor connection, reverse connection, open grounds, open neutral, you can’t just trust the manufacturers to deliver a fault free product. Thanks for watching I hope I earned your subscribe 👍🏾
@@GeneratorReviews oh yes, I've hit that subscribe button quite awhile ago. Learned a lot and getting good ideas on projects along what pitfalls you might run against. I am in the process of designing my electrical system for my class B upfit. What I have on paper is 1 kW solar and 15 kWh lithium storage at nominal 52 VDC. The further into the rabbit hole I get into, I am starting to go with Victron Energy gear and I might get their isolation transformer to electrically separate the shore power connection as extra insurance.
i think you could pluck a neutral off the 30A twist socket and run a neutral wire from each generator and parallel the neutrals into the 50A plug on the kit... not that hard of a modification and annoying you have to do that... but it's possible
Thanks for all your videos. They have been super helpful. New subscriber. Is there any advantage to getting 2 4500 watt generators as opposed to one 9000. If one goes you’d still have half the power?
In your (or the readers here) opinion, is it better to go with two smaller capacity portable generators in parallel, or one large capacity portable generator to perform a whole house back up power solution?
Hey Gavin! Thank you again for the great information! I have a question maybe you can help me with. I have 2 Duromax xp9000ih's and the Duromax 240 volt parallel kit that I will be using for emergency power to my main panel via 50 amp inlet box and interlock kit on the main panel. I have not tried them yet as I am still breaking them in. Do you think I will have a problem tripping my 3 GFCI circuits in the main panel because of the lack of seperate neutral wires on the generators and parallel kit? Thanks for your time and knowledge, Mike
It will work as long as you maintain the neutral bond on the generators. No respectable electrician will say this is is a good setup, but it will work. Since there is no neutral connection between the generators and the kit, your neutral is created using the ground wiring between your panel and the generators. This is completely against electric code, but it works. And it works because there are two neutral bonds. 1 in your panel and again at the generators. So what happens here? The missing neutral is effectively jumperer to the ground wiring. Unbalanced current between your 120V circuit legs in the house is going to flow on the ground wiring between your panel and the generators.
I ended up unbonding the generators easily and added neutral wires to the parallel kit which I plug into the 30a on the front panel. All surge protectors, afci and gfci breakers and plugs in the house run perfectly. Thanks for the videos! Mike in DFW
I'm a Duromax parallel kit user -- single generator but I added the kit as insurance against a 30amp breaker tripping while feeding my home. Most of my load side neutral current seems to return on the utility neutral, so I weighed disconnecting the kit's ground terminal. When I disconnected the ground, I have a couple of computer UPS units which did not react well by constantly cycling back and forth on battery. The batteries probably pick up something not right with the effective ground, so that leaves me with depending on the generator's bonded neutral to keep working. For standalone or separately derived, this is not an ideal solution. Also I believe if the neutral and ground were bonded on the load side, that #8 ground wire might be a bit under spec.
Hey Jim There is a fix you can add a neutral wire to your parallel kit and you should be using number 6 wire. If you’re powering an RV or a transfer switch you want to be bonded, if you’re using an interlock kit you do not want to be bonded but you have to add a ground. That’s probably why your UPS are acting funny. Thanks for watching
Is the genmax 50 amp plug on a 50 amp breaker so you can take advantage of all the amps available when connected in parallel? Or is it a 35 amp breaker so it only gets the max of 1 generator?
Hi Galvin, i had predator 9500 and genmax 9000iedc,both set on floating neutral for home backup through 50amp inlet, do i need to use bonding plug to make it bond neutral before parallel these 2 generator generators ? Or just leave it floating neutral?
Hi Gavin....:) Questions....? I have a Westinghouse 4500 dual fuel inverter generator for running my 30amp Rv, I also have a 50amp surge protector with a pigtail because I'm running power from a 50amp pedestal circuit. I have a soft start for my A/C as well. Does this generator have a neutral so I can use my 50 amp surge protector inline with my generator? I haven't tried running it yet with my RV. Hope this makes sense I'm a little nieve to some of this....;) Thanks
@@GeneratorReviews Yeah, I guess you're right. I was thinking if you plugged a bonding plug in L1 and L2 of the 120v outlets, it might work. But there's no wire to the kit so how could it? See, that's why you have a great YT channel and I just watch.😉
Thanks for your video! I bought a DuroMax XP12000EH about 2 years ago and got to put it through its paces last Oct after hurricane Ian. It worked great though I suspect that I lost a few electronic equipment either because it caused a power surge or FPL did when they restored power to my home. I wish I had known about potential power surge issues with generators way back when I bought this. From one of your other videos, I saw that I should replace my generator with an inverter generator to condition the power's sine wave (prevent surges). I've been considering the DuroMax XP9000iH but after watching your (this) video regarding the parallel kit; I'm not sure. You showed that the DuroMax parallel kit does not have a neutral wire. And you stated at around 3:19 that if you use a surge protector in your home that it won't work. What won't work? What's the impact of running this generator if there's no neutral. I'll admit that I don't fully understand that statement. Dammit Jim, I'm a Software Architect, not an electrician! :) Could you expand on this for me please?
@@GeneratorReviews So this generator, or at least when used with the parallel kit, is not meant to be used in back feeding a whole house. Is there a way to make it compatible? If not, what inverter generator can be use for such application that provides at least 9000 Watts? Thanks.
My first choice I think because of the 50a plug and the fact that I don’t have to have a parallel kit would be the Genmax second choice would be Duromax. They both have displays, dual fuel and remote start.
When you use these generators on your home is there a transfer switch that negates the bonded neutral or will I need to umbind it at the generator? If that’s the case then you want to use it for your rv do you have to rebond it?
The transfer switch and the Rv both require a bonded generator but the inlet box is the only one that has to be a floating neutral generator. I hope this helps Thanks for watching and subscribing 👊🏾💯
The second genmax sounds like the starter solenoid doesn't release the starter properly. It's hung up on the flywheel for a bit. What's your take on that?
@@GeneratorReviews i'm pretty sure they still have a 50 Amp parallel kit in some of the HF stores. I'll try to get a part number for you Gavin. SKU 58374 and ouch I just now realized that I've been exceeding the recommended limits (2x5500 watts) for that kit .... ruh roh. Now I have to regroup.
is it possible to make your own parallel plug for the predator or duromax like meeting the two 240v plugs together and still get the 50 amps? and if its possible would you make one and show how you did it and do a second part to this video?
Yes, Mine is working great. Check out the diagram on post 123 www.powerequipmentforum.com/threads/duromax-xp9000ih-pk-parallel-box-question.25478/page-7#post-96403
Is there a parallel kit with 120/240 ? I would like to pair 2 inverters to power my house... looking for a pair that will give me at least 12K watts. Is there any combo that will give me that ?
Do not remove the bonded neutral when using Duromax kit. That is the only way the unbalanced current from your 120V home circuits is returning to the source. If you float the neutrals, there is no path for that unbalanced current, so it will flow on the hot 120V legs and cause over/under voltage on your home circuits. The severity of that over/under voltage depends on how unbalanced the loads are. Every time you turn something on or off in the 120V home circuits you will be changing that imbalance. These kits should not be sold without neutral wiring. It is irresponsible how they were allowed to sell them.
this is dangerous AND BE CAREFUL ABOUT ANY MODIFICATIONS, current is NOT supposed to flow through the ground during normal operation... DO NOT plug the parallel kit into your home without paralleling the neutral from each generator into the neutral of the 50A socket on the parallel kit.... use #8 stranded wire MINIMUM for your neutral as each generator puts out 30A and #8 is good for 40A continuous, you can get a neutral off the 30A twist socket by wiring a custom plug
You gotta charge money for watching these videos as we all are learning so much.😁 Where is the link to that Progressive Industries 50amp lighted plug? Nice asset to have.Thanks Gavin
@@electriccuts i’m still working on my website the ones I sold are the ones I buy and then I sell them. If you see one I review and you wanna buy it just email me
If your home needs two 9,000 watt generators in parallel to keep you going during a power outage then why don't you just get a dedicated home backup generator that runs off of natural gas? Am I crazy?
I went with the two 9kw portable generator due to the high cost of dedicated home backup plus install and permits. I also get the flexibility of taking it with me when traveling.
@@michaelslack6891 made my own, was just saying they need to make one also the ground and neutral are tied together on the predators so one or the other gets you the same unless you unbond the neutral from the ground on them
A very good catch on the DuroMax parallel kit no neutral issue. From what I can tell at 1:15 it looks like it is really meant for 250 volt use only and there shouldn't be a neutral pin on the 30 or 50 amp connection. Standard nomenclature if it was to be utilized in split phase mode it should be 125/250. My experience working in the electrical field when your 125/250 volt 50 amp plug tester is showing open neutral is bad news from the get go and you will end up frying up some 120 volt appliances.
You can bond the neutral and ground at the parallel box, but the ground is only meant to carry fault current back to the generator to trip the upstream breaker to clear the fault and not the unbalanced load between the phases. Also, it will cause a potential shock hazard since no one would expect any current flowing through the ground connection.
I think DuroMax dropped ball on this one for not having a dedicated neutral for 125/250 volt split phase operation. Great work and it might've save someone's RV from a potential electrical nightmare using the parallel kit. I've went through a few old school hard knocks and learned to test and verify before plugging in. Having a Power Watchdog inline to serve as extra insurance against those costly oopsies.
After all we are human and we're not infallible. :-P
Thanks for sharing this Felax Chow very insightful and informative feedback. Most people don’t understand why I always have the surge protector on all my test. I’ve seen poor connection, reverse connection, open grounds, open neutral, you can’t just trust the manufacturers to deliver a fault free product.
Thanks for watching
I hope I earned your subscribe 👍🏾
@@GeneratorReviews oh yes, I've hit that subscribe button quite awhile ago. Learned a lot and getting good ideas on projects along what pitfalls you might run against.
I am in the process of designing my electrical system for my class B upfit. What I have on paper is 1 kW solar and 15 kWh lithium storage at nominal 52 VDC. The further into the rabbit hole I get into, I am starting to go with Victron Energy gear and I might get their isolation transformer to electrically separate the shore power connection as extra insurance.
i think you could pluck a neutral off the 30A twist socket and run a neutral wire from each generator and parallel the neutrals into the 50A plug on the kit... not that hard of a modification and annoying you have to do that... but it's possible
@Gavin's Garage. You are a wealth of knowledge. Thank you sir!
Thanks 😊
You are the Generator King, thanks for the videos!
Thanks 🙏🏾
Thanks for all your videos. They have been super helpful. New subscriber. Is there any advantage to getting 2 4500 watt generators as opposed to one 9000. If one goes you’d still have half the power?
Thanks 😊
In your (or the readers here) opinion, is it better to go with two smaller capacity portable generators in parallel, or one large capacity portable generator to perform a whole house back up power solution?
One larger you’ll thank me later
Which unit do you prefer out of the three? Genmax, Duromax or Predator. Trying to decide between one of these or the Duromax 1300. Thanks!
I prefer the GenMax dual fuel, 50 amp plug and it’s the only one with oil filter screening plus so many more features
Hey Gavin! Thank you again for the great information! I have a question maybe you can help me with. I have 2 Duromax xp9000ih's and the Duromax 240 volt parallel kit that I will be using for emergency power to my main panel via 50 amp inlet box and interlock kit on the main panel. I have not tried them yet as I am still breaking them in. Do you think I will have a problem tripping my 3 GFCI circuits in the main panel because of the lack of seperate neutral wires on the generators and parallel kit? Thanks for your time and knowledge, Mike
I haven’t tried it yet but I think you should definitely try your setup before needing it in a real power outage. Let me know the results
It will work as long as you maintain the neutral bond on the generators. No respectable electrician will say this is is a good setup, but it will work. Since there is no neutral connection between the generators and the kit, your neutral is created using the ground wiring between your panel and the generators. This is completely against electric code, but it works. And it works because there are two neutral bonds. 1 in your panel and again at the generators. So what happens here? The missing neutral is effectively jumperer to the ground wiring. Unbalanced current between your 120V circuit legs in the house is going to flow on the ground wiring between your panel and the generators.
I ended up unbonding the generators easily and added neutral wires to the parallel kit which I plug into the 30a on the front panel. All surge protectors, afci and gfci breakers and plugs in the house run perfectly. Thanks for the videos! Mike in DFW
I'm a Duromax parallel kit user -- single generator but I added the kit as insurance against a 30amp breaker tripping while feeding my home. Most of my load side neutral current seems to return on the utility neutral, so I weighed disconnecting the kit's ground terminal. When I disconnected the ground, I have a couple of computer UPS units which did not react well by constantly cycling back and forth on battery. The batteries probably pick up something not right with the effective ground, so that leaves me with depending on the generator's bonded neutral to keep working. For standalone or separately derived, this is not an ideal solution. Also I believe if the neutral and ground were bonded on the load side, that #8 ground wire might be a bit under spec.
Hey Jim
There is a fix you can add a neutral wire to your parallel kit and you should be using number 6 wire.
If you’re powering an RV or a transfer switch you want to be bonded, if you’re using an interlock kit you do not want to be bonded but you have to add a ground.
That’s probably why your UPS are acting funny.
Thanks for watching
Can this kit be used for the 9500 inverted Duramax generator??
No, I don’t believe it will
Is the genmax 50 amp plug on a 50 amp breaker so you can take advantage of all the amps available when connected in parallel? Or is it a 35 amp breaker so it only gets the max of 1 generator?
It’s a 50 amp breaker.
That’s why when I use it solo by itself I usually use a 30 amp four pin
30a x 240v= 7200
Hi Galvin, i had predator 9500 and genmax 9000iedc,both set on floating neutral for home backup through 50amp inlet, do i need to use bonding plug to make it bond neutral before parallel these 2 generator generators ? Or just leave it floating neutral?
The only time we have to worry about bonded is when you’re trying to use a surge protector or charge an EV car
Thank you, i have to connect neutral on both generator although it's floating ?
Hi Gavin....:) Questions....? I have a Westinghouse 4500 dual fuel inverter generator for running my 30amp Rv, I also have a 50amp surge protector with a pigtail because I'm running power from a 50amp pedestal circuit. I have a soft start for my A/C as well. Does this generator have a neutral so I can use my 50 amp surge protector inline with my generator? I haven't tried running it yet with my RV. Hope this makes sense I'm a little nieve to some of this....;) Thanks
You just need a bonding plug for your generator and you can and should always use a surge protector
amzn.to/3xtXjwv
So does paralleling the generators give you double the power?
Yes that is correct
Can't help but wonder why Duramax didn't provide the neutral connection. Could you use a bonding plug on the Duramax?
Since there’s no actual cable going to the parallel kit The bonding club would be useless
@@GeneratorReviews Yeah, I guess you're right. I was thinking if you plugged a bonding plug in L1 and L2 of the 120v outlets, it might work. But there's no wire to the kit so how could it? See, that's why you have a great YT channel and I just watch.😉
Thanks for your video! I bought a DuroMax XP12000EH about 2 years ago and got to put it through its paces last Oct after hurricane Ian. It worked great though I suspect that I lost a few electronic equipment either because it caused a power surge or FPL did when they restored power to my home. I wish I had known about potential power surge issues with generators way back when I bought this. From one of your other videos, I saw that I should replace my generator with an inverter generator to condition the power's sine wave (prevent surges). I've been considering the DuroMax XP9000iH but after watching your (this) video regarding the parallel kit; I'm not sure.
You showed that the DuroMax parallel kit does not have a neutral wire. And you stated at around 3:19 that if you use a surge protector in your home that it won't work. What won't work? What's the impact of running this generator if there's no neutral. I'll admit that I don't fully understand that statement. Dammit Jim, I'm a Software Architect, not an electrician! :) Could you expand on this for me please?
The surge protector needs to see a bonded neutral to ground in order to work properly
@@GeneratorReviews So this generator, or at least when used with the parallel kit, is not meant to be used in back feeding a whole house. Is there a way to make it compatible? If not, what inverter generator can be use for such application that provides at least 9000 Watts? Thanks.
If you had to pick one , which one would you pick ?
My first choice I think because of the 50a plug and the fact that I don’t have to have a parallel kit would be the Genmax second choice would be Duromax.
They both have displays, dual fuel and remote start.
Is it true that the Duramax has a CO2 shut off so if I have it my barn it won't keep shutting off do you know about that thanks
It has a CO monitor shut off if you put it in the barn it will shut off the generator
Between the Genmax 9000 and Duromax XP12000EH, which would you recommend for a 2000 square foot home?
The Genmax 9000 is an inverter generator and would provide pure sine wave power to your home and would be quieter.
When you use these generators on your home is there a transfer switch that negates the bonded neutral or will I need to umbind it at the generator? If that’s the case then you want to use it for your rv do you have to rebond it?
The transfer switch and the Rv both require a bonded generator but the inlet box is the only one that has to be a floating neutral generator.
I hope this helps
Thanks for watching and subscribing 👊🏾💯
The second genmax sounds like the starter solenoid doesn't release the starter properly. It's hung up on the flywheel for a bit. What's your take on that?
After watching it again sounds like I should’ve turned the choke a little sooner but since I had the camera in one hand
Gavin, you are DA MAN!
Thanks man!
@@GeneratorReviews i'm pretty sure they still have a 50 Amp parallel kit in some of the HF stores. I'll try to get a part number for you Gavin. SKU 58374 and ouch I just now realized that I've been exceeding the recommended limits (2x5500 watts) for that kit .... ruh roh. Now I have to regroup.
Great parallel video. Thanks 👍
Great generator split phase connecting video .Keep us preppers informed of how they are wired in parallel to get the most power out of them . 😉🤙
is it possible to make your own parallel plug for the predator or duromax like meeting the two 240v plugs together and still get the 50 amps? and if its possible would you make one and show how you did it and do a second part to this video?
Yes that is a possibility and yes I can show how to make it great idea by the way💡👍🏾
I'd really like to see a video in on that too
I would love to see that!
Yes, Mine is working great. Check out the diagram on post 123
www.powerequipmentforum.com/threads/duromax-xp9000ih-pk-parallel-box-question.25478/page-7#post-96403
Is there a parallel kit with 120/240 ? I would like to pair 2 inverters to power my house... looking for a pair that will give me at least 12K watts. Is there any combo that will give me that ?
They do have a few but brand specific the Honda and Duromax both has a 120/240 kit I haven’t found a universal One yet
Very good 👍 what are the prices of the Duramax and the Genmax
Check out the links in the description I have all the prices and the links to them
So if I use this parallel kit that has no neutral and plug to my house inlet, do I still need remove the bonded neutral in the generator?
Great question
You shouldn’t have to since the neutral is not bonded but you still running all that power on one ground
Do not remove the bonded neutral when using Duromax kit. That is the only way the unbalanced current from your 120V home circuits is returning to the source. If you float the neutrals, there is no path for that unbalanced current, so it will flow on the hot 120V legs and cause over/under voltage on your home circuits. The severity of that over/under voltage depends on how unbalanced the loads are. Every time you turn something on or off in the 120V home circuits you will be changing that imbalance.
These kits should not be sold without neutral wiring. It is irresponsible how they were allowed to sell them.
this is dangerous AND BE CAREFUL ABOUT ANY MODIFICATIONS, current is NOT supposed to flow through the ground during normal operation... DO NOT plug the parallel kit into your home without paralleling the neutral from each generator into the neutral of the 50A socket on the parallel kit.... use #8 stranded wire MINIMUM for your neutral as each generator puts out 30A and #8 is good for 40A continuous, you can get a neutral off the 30A twist socket by wiring a custom plug
You gotta charge money for watching these videos as we all are learning so much.😁
Where is the link to that Progressive Industries 50amp lighted plug? Nice asset to have.Thanks Gavin
Thanks 😊
Find that thanks button and sponsor a video 👍🏾
If i connect 2 genmax 9000 can i get 62amps?
You will get 12500 watts at 52 amps 240v
@@GeneratorReviews but the 50amp breaker will trip by 50amp how can I get the full power?
How do you get all your generators? Do they send them to you?
I get sponsored by Genmax and the predator and Duramax already sold.
@@GeneratorReviews you sell the generators??
@@GeneratorReviews what website?
@@electriccuts i’m still working on my website the ones I sold are the ones I buy and then I sell them.
If you see one I review and you wanna buy it just email me
@@GeneratorReviews what is your email address?
If your home needs two 9,000 watt generators in parallel to keep you going during a power outage then why don't you just get a dedicated home backup generator that runs off of natural gas? Am I crazy?
99% of people who need this owns trailer business like food trucks and this Barry gets them by
I went with the two 9kw portable generator due to the high cost of dedicated home backup plus install and permits. I also get the flexibility of taking it with me when traveling.
@@cleverman86 👌🏾💯yep best route
@@GeneratorReviews so if I'm running 2 Duromax 9000 generators on parallel for home backup I can't use surge protection? Is it safe?
@@motoboss5250069qew perfectly fine
Can you parallel the genmax and the predator?
Yes I can
now i want 2 genmax ;)
Hey G'
Very informative vid👍🏾
Thanks 🙏🏾
over a year and still no predator 240v parallel kit
Get the Duromax parallel kit and add 2 neutral wires easily.
@@michaelslack6891 made my own, was just saying they need to make one
also the ground and neutral are tied together on the predators so one or the other gets you the same unless you unbond the neutral from the ground on them
Bye bye Duromax!
How long to charge an ev???
It really depends on the amperage you’re using and the EV itself