New Jersey homeowner eyes $300 generator savings, but commenters warn both models will guzzle fuel

A New Jersey homeowner weighing a $300 discount on a backup generator received an unexpected warning that either option could become surprisingly expensive to fuel.

Here's what to know

The Garden State homeowner took to Reddit's r/Generator community to ask members of the forum to "help me choose which one to get."

The original poster outlined two portable options: a $1,400, 9,500-watt tri-fuel Generac recommended by their electrician and a less expensive, 10,500-watt Westinghouse dual-fuel unit.

The OP explained that they had "spent months/years researching generators trying to understand them and I'm still at a loss. … I just want to know I won't lose my food in an extended outage, have WiFi, charge my phone, and eat hot chip."

The homeowner was chiefly worried about who would service the Westinghouse if that's the generator that they went with. Paying more for the Generac offered a service relationship with the electrician installing the interlock kit, who was Generac-certified and sold its generators.

But instead of focusing on the brand, the Reddit community urged the homeowner to first determine how much power they would need during an outage.

One of the top comments read, "Both of these generators are way more than you need to run what you're saying you want to power. Like more than 10x as much."

Another user warned, "You'll need huge amounts of fuel to keep either of these running. Get an inverter. They're better generators for home backup and they're far more fuel efficient. What you save [here] you're going to spend on fuel. Also, the inverters are much quieter."

A third commenter added, "It just comes down to load management. … The AC and space heaters are by far the biggest power hogs. Two space heaters would be around 3,000w alone. Remove those and you only will be using around 1,000w at most. These generators will be extremely loud and use a lot of fuel."

One concluded, "Don't worry about service. Just about anyone that works with small engines can fix most generator problems. To me the question you have to figure out isn't which one of these generators but what size generator. I think only you can answer that."

Where can I learn more?

When budgeting for a generator, you'll need to account for more than the purchase price. 

• A homeowner's 9,600-watt generator recommendation drew warnings about fuel consumption from commenters weighing its practicality.

• Another homeowner's $3,200 generator panic buy drew warnings about noise and costly fuel consumption.

• A dealer's $19,500 generator proposal prompted owners to suggest smaller setups costing less than $12,000.

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