Portable Generators
The Better Lawns & Garden team offers advice on how to pick the best portable generators for your needs.
Bottom Line
About
Editor's insights
Westinghouse
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Portable Generator with Remote Electric Start
Bottom Line
If you’re in the market for a reliable and convenient portable generator, you may not find a better one than this Westinghouse model.
About
The push button electric start is much easier than pulling a string to start it, and it also includes a remote start key fob, which works from up to 109 yards away. It has a powerful 420cc 4-stroke engine that’s air-cooled, and has a 6.6-gallon fuel capacity to allow for continuous use of up to 18 hours. It’s the perfect portable generator for commercial projects or even powering your home in times of need.
Editor's insights
While this portable generator is extremely reliable for using tools requiring electricity on a job site, most customers rave about how it saved them during times of emergencies. During powerful storms causing electrical outages, customers were able to rely on this generator for many hours, and sometimes even days, to power their homes and allow them to continue living the same lifestyle. The fuel consumption is great, it’s simple to operate and easy to move around, even though it weighs about 200 pounds. Some of the complaints customers have is with the construction of the generator, which can seem unsturdy, but this mostly depends on how you intend to use the generator.
DuroStar
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Gas Powered Portable Generator
Bottom Line
If you’re in need of a portable generator to help you out in an emergency situation, but still have a tight budget to work with, this DuroStar generator is ideal.
About
This is a 7 HP engine with a maximum AC output of 4,000 Watts, includes a 4-gallon fuel tank and can operate for around 8 hours continuously on a 50% load. For being a budget generator, this one is extraordinarily quiet with an operation sound of 69 decibels. And while the generator is somewhat compact with dimensions of 20”x27”x22”, it weighs about 90 pounds, so it’s not the lightest item when it comes to portability.
Editor's insights
Plenty of people have relied on this DuroStar generator to get them through tough storms that have knocked out their power for consecutive hours at a time. When you have the expectations of getting a basic generator that gets the job done without having a lot of bells and whistles, you’ll be much more satisfied with it’s performance. It’s perfect for powering an entire home or even just using it when you need electricity to power your tools for DIY projects around your house. There aren’t many critical complaints from customers about this product, especially when you consider the price and how it’s designed to be used.
Briggs & Stratton
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PowerSmart Series Portable
Bottom Line
This compact portable generator has plenty of uses and may be one of the quietest generators you will ever own. It’s perfect for handling various DIY projects, RV camping and even tailgating.
About
The 1.5-gallon fuel tank capacity offers up to 10 hours of use at 25% load. The StatStation LCD display is also a convenient feature to show you any maintenance reminders, current power being used, how many hours the unit has been used for and more. It also has a parallel connector so you can connect another generator to it, giving you even more power without having to use another outlet.
Editor's insights
Customers are often surprised at how many items can run off of this generator without increasing the load significantly. Many people used this generator during powerful hurricanes that knocked out their power for several days. It was reliable enough to allow them to power all of their appliances with ease, and was quiet enough to not bother neighbors or create an uncomfortable living situation. Being a smaller portable generator, you may have to refuel it every few hours depending on the load, but this should be expected in most cases.
