Which power station will run my appliances?
A station is two numbers, and only one of them is on the box in large type. Watts decide what you can switch on; watt-hours decide how long it stays on. The machines below are grouped by the second, because that is the number that does not change when you change your mind about the appliance.
Each card links to that machine’s own record, where every figure carries the tier and the date it was verified on. Some of these brands publish no surge ceiling at all; those cards say so rather than showing a floor this site worked out for itself.
Already know the machine and want to know how long it lasts? The runtime calculator puts any of these records against the same list of loads.
Under 500 Wh 7 machines
Phone, laptop, router, a string of lights, a CPAP for part of a night. Small enough to carry in one hand, and too small to argue with a heating element.
500–1,500 Wh 8 machines
The size most people are looking at when they say "power outage": a fridge overnight, the internet up, and one high-draw appliance at a time if the inverter is big enough.
1,500–2,500 Wh 8 machines
Enough energy for a day of essentials and enough inverter for a motor load — an RV air conditioner, a washing machine, a well pump — rather than only for electronics.
2,500 Wh and up 3 machines
Whole-circuit territory. These are heavy, they are expandable, and they are bought for multi-day outages or for a small off-grid system rather than for a trip.