The Home Backup

Commission possible from Jackery, BLUETTI, and Anker SOLIX links. Same price to you. Disclosure

Method

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

A 2 kWh box that cannot start a fridge is a paperweight. This page is the rubric on every money page.

Updated August 26, 2026 · The Home Backup

Close-up of a portable power station’s AC outlets and 12-volt port on a scratched metal bench, with a yellow clamp meter and an orange extension cord.
Outlets, clamp meter, extension cord. Named-SKU photographs on money pages are official manufacturer product shots, not this bench scene.

What “review” means on a new site

We do not claim a warehouse full of long-term teardowns we did not do. We combine manufacturer electrical ratings, documented buyer failure modes (surge, open-circuit voltage, transfer-switch wiring), and category constraints. When we have not run a unit for a season, we say so. 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 will return.

Named Jackery, BLUETTI, and Anker SOLIX SKUs always carry the official product photograph from the manufacturer page, committed under src/assets/products/. Lifestyle photos in the garage, basement, kitchen, and driveway are mood only. They never stand in for a product shot. If we cannot get a clean official image, we do not feature that SKU. That is why you will not see a named HomePower, AC500, Explorer 1000, or F2000 card here.

Ranking factors

  1. The job. Fridge + network, medical devices, 240 V well pump, or whole-home HVAC are different products. A page that crowns one “best solar generator” for all four jobs is selling a trophy, not a machine.
  2. Continuous watts vs surge. Compressors and well pumps care about the first second. If 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 is what the cart shows; runtime estimates in copy are conservative.
  4. Expandability and 120/240 V. A station that stays 120 V cannot feed a split-phase dryer no matter the marketing. Extra battery packs matter only if they are a real SKU, not a coming-soon slide.
  5. Recharge paths. Wall AC, alternator, and portable panels with a Voc the station will actually accept. Series-wiring random blankets is how charge controllers die.
  6. Support and warranty. Four-figure bricks need parts and firmware, not just a glossy app. We prefer brands with a US product page and a phone number a human will pick up.
  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. Unknown cells stay blank (em dash in tables).

Caveats we will not sand off

Portable stations are not silent whole-home plants. Standby generators need permits, pads, and oil changes. “Home batteries” on this site are mostly expandable power-station ecosystems — not Tesla Powerwall. Rooftop solar is out of scope. Affiliate hops are placeholders until a network tracking URL is pasted; comparison CTAs still go only to /go/jackery, /go/bluetti, and /go/anker-solix.

Who a page is for

Every money page includes a who-it’s-for / who-should-skip pair. If a $4,000 station is the wrong tool, we say so and point at whole-house generators or a smaller power station. Corrections land at contact. Disclosure: affiliate disclosure.