If your power goes out, a portable generator is a great way to run household essentials like lights and refrigerators—not to mention an air conditioner or a fan.
Whether you opt for a traditional portable or the more efficient, quieter, and pricier inverter model option, you’ll end up with plenty of power to run most of the key appliances and systems in your home, according to Consumer Reports.
Even a midsized recreational generator suitable for tailgating, car camping, or van life can help to power some essentials in a pinch.
Keep in mind that portable generators of all kinds carry safety risks if you don’t use them properly. They produce carbon monoxide (CO), an odorless, invisible, and toxic gas.
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, about 85 people die each year in the U.S. from generator-related CO poisoning.
Many portable generator models now feature an automatic shutoff, a low-CO engine, or both to reduce, but not eliminate, these risks.
For this reason, Consumer Reports puts every gas-burning generator through a rigorous safety test.
“The majority of newly tested models make major improvements over older generators in terms of safety and still manage to deliver power reliably,” says Misha Kollontai, who has overseen CR’s generator testing.
Consumer Reports rated the best portable generators to power your home; the best portable generators for small houses, boats and RVS; and the best portable generators for camping and tailgating.
While safety is essential, CR’s performance testing ensures that a generator will work as promised when you need it most. To do that, CR’s expert engineers load up every model with a variety of essentials you might want to power during an outage, like a space heater, refrigerator, or window air conditioner.
(Check out CR’s guide to which size generator can power which appliances.)
CR makes sure the generator can handle the load it’s supposed to and also see what happens when a sudden spike in voltage hits, such as if, say, the compressor in your refrigerator kicks on when the generator is already close to capacity.
The best models take these spikes in stride, while others bog down or even stall.
CR also looks at how easy it is to move and use a generator, as well as how efficiently it uses gasoline and how long it runs on a full tank.
To see the results to their tests, click here.