A month or two go I asked here if a Yamaha EF1000, which will produce 8a,
will start my refrigerator that draws 13a at startup.
The majority opinion was probably; the fridge probably doesn't need 13a to
start and the genny will probably produce more than 8a for a short time; so
between the two...

As it happens, one retailer claimed that Yamaha told them the EF1000 will
produce 3500w for 3 seconds, which is not supported on the Yamaha website.
I called Yamaha and was told that their website says it will produce 1000w,
so that is all it will produce. Eventually I got to the supervisor's
supervisor, who said that it will do 3500w, but they are not making that
claim anymore. (presumably they got complaints from people who didn't
understand what "3 seconds" meant.)

So I bought the EF1000. It will actually start my shopvac, which draws 16a
at startup. I haven't pushed it any harder, so I can't actually verify the
3500w, but it is good enough.
Alls well that ends well.

Incidentally, Honda told me the absolute max on their EU1000 is 1000w and it
will not start my fridge; I don't know if someone higher up would say
otherwise.