I have had many of these generators over the years, consider the following information a supplement to the owners manual.
Never run you generator in any type of sand or soil that would allow it to slowly sink into the dirt. If it does, the internal on/off switch, which is located very close to the bottom of the generator, might get a grain or two of sand in it and might get stuck in the off position. If you look at this closeup of the switch you will see the plunger on the left side of the switch. You push it in through tight tolerances to turn the generator off, and when you rotate the external dial to on, a small spring in the switch pushes the plunger out. If there is sand in the switch, it can not be pushed out by the small spring causing the generator to be in the off position even though the dial on the outside says it is on. The generator will be running fine, but the next time you go to start it up, there will be no spark.
When it won't start, you will be tempted to keep trying the on/off dial to see if it starts but each time you rotate it, it will push the plunger back in. The solution is to put the generator in the on position and tap in the area of the switch with a mallet and occasionally try pulling the pull cord. After a few minutes of taping, hopefully the switch has vibrated out. If that does not work you will have to disassemble the generator and take apart the switch and clean it. If you want to carry a spare switch you can order one here Boats.net Honda Switch.
This switch seems to have been redesigned in 2015. I have not had any experiences with the new one but it seems better built.
Always carry a spare pull starter assembly with you. You probably only get about 300 pulls out of one of these until the rope breaks and leaves you high and dry. If you don't want to spend the money to keep one of these as a spare, you can just take some pull starter rope with you and rebuild it in the field, but my guess is, you want to be able to fix the problem ASAP so pony up and keep a spare. When you get home, you can rebuild the broken assembly when time is not so critical. An even better thing to do is to inspect the rope before you head out. If there is any sign of wear then replace it ahead of time.
Here is some basic data on what you can expect your fuel consumption to be when using the Honda EU2000i generator. The graph represents the usage of a single generator where as the data chart shows what consumption will occur as several generators are linked together. The 2000i is really only capable of 1600 watt continuous output.
