Recreational vs Emergency vs Professional Generators

There are three overall Categories of Generators, Recreational, Emergency and Professional. Many generators can cross the lines and fit into multiple categories but here are the basic definitions.

Recreational Generators

Portable Recreational Generators are designed to be lightweight (under 100 lbs) , convenient, and with enough power to run lights and kitchen and camping gear. Often these generators will have small gas tanks to make them lightweight but this will limit the run time. Usually you can easily put one of these into the back of the SUV or trailer as you are headed out. They will often run two or three different items at the same time however large draw items like air conditioners and electic heaters will only be able to be run one item at a time.

The trend in Recreational Gensets has to make them quieter and lighter. Most of the new Inverter Generators fit into the recreational category.

Emergency Generators

Emergency generators usually have larger and engines than recreational generators and are designed to restore power to mission critical appliances like refrigerators, sump pumps, televisions and lights during a power outage.

Emergency generators will have larger gas tanks designed to run hours without interruption.

Emergency generators also break down into generators that are designed to be used by hooking them into your home fuse box (after disconnecting from the grid) and the generators that you will just use extension cords to power up the critical items in your house.

Professional Generators

Professional Portable Generators are designed to stand up to daily use. Often for contractors or builders that are working on projects before power is hooked up. These generators will work great as emergency generators or as a recreational generator however they are often significantly heavier and much more expensive.

Pro gensets are built with longer lasting components which allow them to hold up to being used on a daily basis.

Hour meters and GFCI outlets – are normally included. Since these generators are usually heavier they often come with lifting eyes which is a single attachment point that can be used with a lift to move the generator on or off the truck.

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