We rank for the job, not for the press photo.

A 2 kWh box that can’t start your fridge is a paperweight, however good it looks in the render. This page is the rubric behind every money page. Read it once and you’ll know exactly what our rankings can and cannot promise you.

The short version

• We read the manufacturers' own US product pages closely, print the date we checked them, and leave a cell empty rather than guess at a figure nobody published.
• We have not run these machines through a winter in a lab we own, and we don't pretend otherwise.
• Recommendations are never sold, and no manufacturer sees a page before it goes up.

What “review” means on a new site

Let's be plain about what we did and didn't do, because this is the page where sites usually start lying. We do not have a warehouse of long-term teardowns, and we won't invent one. What we do have is the slower kind of work: manufacturer electrical ratings read closely, the failure modes buyers actually report (surge, open-circuit voltage, transfer-switch wiring), and the hard limits of each category. When we haven't run a unit through a season, we say so on the page. Street prices are copied from the US product page on a dated check, currently August 26, 2026, and they move with sales. A crossed-out compare-at price is what the manufacturer showed that day. Not a promise it comes back.

Every named Jackery, BLUETTI, and Anker SOLIX SKU carries the official product photograph from the manufacturer page, committed under src/assets/products/. The lifestyle photos (the garage, the basement, the kitchen, the driveway) are mood, and they never stand in for a product shot. If we can't get a clean official image, we don't feature the SKU, full stop. That's why you won't find a named HomePower, AC500, Explorer 1000, or F2000 card here, and it's a trade we'd make again.

Ranking factors

1. The job. Fridge + network, medical devices, a 240 V well pump, and whole-home HVAC are four different purchases. A page that crowns one “best solar generator” for all four is selling a trophy, not a machine.
2. Continuous watts vs surge. Compressors and well pumps care about the first second. When a manufacturer page lists conflicting surge numbers, we leave the cell blank instead of picking the larger one.
3. Usable watt-hours. Nameplate capacity is not the same as a 90% discharge on LiFePO4. We still quote nameplate, because that's what the cart shows, but the runtime estimates in our copy stay conservative.
4. Expandability and 120/240 V. A station that stays 120 V cannot feed a split-phase dryer, whatever the marketing says. Extra battery packs count only when they're a real SKU, not a coming-soon slide.
5. Recharge paths. Wall AC, your alternator, and portable panels with a Voc the station will actually accept. Series-wiring a pile of mismatched blankets is how charge controllers die.
6. Support and warranty. A four-figure brick needs parts and firmware years from now, not just a glossy app today. We prefer brands with a US product page and a phone number somebody actually answers.
7. Program quality. We feature 30-day-cookie brands (Jackery, BLUETTI, Anker SOLIX). We do not feature EcoFlow while the cookie is a 7-day risk.
8. Photography and sourcing. Official product photograph, specs and street prices dated, and unknown cells left blank. A blank cell in our tables is a finding, not a gap.

Who a page is for

Every money page carries a who-it's-for and who-should-skip pair, because the kindest thing a review can do is tell you to leave. When a $4,000 station is the wrong tool for your house, we say so and point you at whole-house generators or a smaller power station instead. If we got a number wrong, tell us at contact. Corrections are part of the method, not an embarrassment to it. The money side lives at the affiliate disclosure.