Several weeks ago my Honda EU30is Generator stopped producing electricity and started smoking. After taking it to the shop, it had to be sent back the generator experts who then had to replace both the Stator & the Inverter - which was very expensive.

Although the unit was over two years old, it had very little usage, probably about 100 hours in total. It is used as a backup in our cottage that we occasionally visit. The cottage is powered by solar and wind and very rarely requires additional power from the generator.

I had our installation checked by an electrician who said that it was fine, and agreed with our conclusion, that it was a fault with the generator. This generator was bought at the same time as another EU30is that was known to be problematic and had to be replaced.

I have been told by the generator experts that the problem could have been caused by running the unit in Eco mode. I mostly ran the unit in Eco mode because I understood from the manual that it was the correct mode to use if I was not using a large amount of power from the generator (most of my generator use would be drawing about 1.2Kw or less).

I was wondering if anyone had heard of problems like this, and what might cause them?