How to Manually Reprime a Well Pump After an Extended Power Outage The power is back, the pump runs, and nothing comes out of the tap. Or the pump hums and the pressure gauge sits at zero. If your pump has lost its prime, it is pulling air instead of water, and it will not … Read more
Best Electric-Start Generator for Homeowners Who Can’t Pull-Start Pulling a recoil starter cord is harder than it looks. It takes a quick, forceful, repeated motion that strains the shoulder, back, and hands, and it gets harder in cold weather when the engine is stiff. For homeowners with arthritis, shoulder or back problems, limited grip strength, … Read more
How Many Watts Do You Need to Power a Rural Home During an Outage? The most common backup power mistake is buying a generator or power station without first knowing how much power you actually need. Buy too small and your well pump will not start. Buy too big and you overspend on equipment and … Read more
Generator Overheating or Shutting Down Under Load? Common Causes A generator that runs fine at light load and then overheats, stalls, or shuts itself off when you plug in something heavy is telling you something. Heat is hard on small engines, and ignoring it can lead to expensive damage or a generator that quits right … Read more
Best Power Station for Keeping a Refrigerator Running During an Outage When the power goes out, the first thing most people worry about is the food in the refrigerator. A well-chosen portable power station can keep a fridge cold through an outage without the noise and fumes of a gas generator, but only if you … Read more
Sump Pump Losing Power in a Storm? Battery Backup Options That Actually Work Storms that knock out your power are usually the same storms that fill your sump pit. That is the cruel timing of basement and crawl space flooding: heavy rain raises the water table, the grid fails, and the one machine keeping water … Read more
How to Keep a Solar Generator Charged During a Multi-Day Winter Storm A solar generator is great until the sky turns gray for three days and snow covers your panels. Winter storms are exactly when you need backup power most, and exactly when solar charging is at its weakest. The good news is that with … Read more
You start the generator, switch on the well pump circuit, and the generator’s breaker trips or the engine bogs down and quits. It is frustrating, especially when the generator looks big enough on paper. In almost every case, the cause is a mismatch between the pump’s startup surge and what the generator can deliver, not … Read more
You start the generator, switch on the well pump circuit, and the generator’s breaker trips or the engine bogs down and quits. It is frustrating, especially when the generator looks big enough on paper. In almost every case, the cause is a mismatch between the pump’s startup surge and what the generator can deliver, not … Read more
Waiting until a storm warning to prepare your backup power setup means competing with everyone else for generators, fuel, and supplies — and often discovering equipment problems at the worst possible time. Here’s how to get genuinely ready before storm season arrives. 6-8 Weeks Before Storm Season 3-4 Weeks Before 1-2 Weeks Before Regional Considerations … Read more