While living in Tacoma Hills, we have had the power go out a handful of times, and each time we talk about how we should get a generator. With so many choices and different costs of generators, it has eventually always fizzled out and become a “We will get one before it happens next time…”
Well, this last time was the same as the next time, and due to timing, I was already at Home Depot when the power went out, when Nicole had called me. With that being said, I parked the truck again and went back in to find a generator.
They had a few options, more or less a “this should be enough power”; and a “this one will power your whole house and then some.”. Seeing that they do not have a return policy on generators as they don’t want people using it for a day then returning it, I opted to get the biggest one as I would rather have more power than not enough.
I ended up with a Ryobi 6500-Watt generator (Model: RY906500S), and while I have a lot of Ryobi tools, it would not have been my first choice for a generator brand. It was the only brand they had in stock.
They loaded in my truck, I got it home and unloaded, and set it up, and it started with the first pull. It’s a bit louder than I expected, but once inside the house, you can’t really hear it anyway, so I guess whatever, especially since when we are using ours, so are most of the other residents in Tacoma Hills, so the noise all bleeds together. I ran a few extension cords inside, one to the fridge, one to some fans, the Apple TV, and a TV, while another line to the Internet and server. I went and topped off the 6-gallon tank before, and it was still running at 3 am when the power came back on.
All in all, it does its job, seems well built (Outside of what some reviews say), and I am looking to have an electrician come and wire up the house so next time we can plug in without all of the extension cords.