Here’s something most generator salespeople won’t tell you: buying the wrong generator for Chicago winters isn’t just wasted money—it’s dangerous. When it’s negative fifteen outside and your power’s been out for two days, discovering your generator won’t start isn’t a minor inconvenience. It’s a legitimate crisis.
At EPM Motorsports, we work with small engines daily at our Chicago facility. We see what happens when people make bad generator choices, and more importantly, what actually works when Chicago weather gets brutal. Here’s what you need to know, minus the sales pitch.
Forget what the big box store employee told you. Your living situation makes this decision for you.
Standby generators sit outside your house permanently, connected to your natural gas line. Power goes out? They kick on automatically in seconds. You’re inside watching the lights flicker, and before you can complain about ComEd, everything’s back on. No trudging outside. No dragging equipment through snow. No fighting with a pull cord in a blizzard at 2 AM while your family freezes inside.
The real advantage in Chicago? They run on your natural gas line. Indefinitely. While everyone else is driving around during a storm looking for gas stations with power to refuel their portable units, you’re warm and comfortable. These cost $5,000-$15,000 installed and need licensed electricians plus city permits. For single-family homes with real power needs—furnaces, medical equipment, keeping everything running—they’re the only serious option.
Portable generators are the budget choice, but understand what you’re signing up for. They cost $500-$3,000, run on gasoline or small propane tanks, and require manual everything. Dragging them out. Setting them up. Fueling them repeatedly. Running extension cords everywhere or installing a manual transfer switch.
Perfect for apartments or powering essentials—fridge, a few lights, charging phones. Completely inadequate for keeping your house heated through a three-day outage when it’s fifteen below. And here’s the part nobody thinks about until they’re living it: every time you need power, you’re outside in whatever weather caused the outage in the first place, trying to start a cold engine with frozen hands.
Chicago winters destroy unprepared equipment. Period. We’re not talking about equipment rated for “cold weather”—we’re talking about gear that functions at negative fifty.
Cold weather kits aren’t optional accessories—they’re survival equipment. Battery warmers keep batteries at 80°F so they actually have enough power to start the engine. Block heaters maintain coolant temperature so the engine doesn’t seize trying to turn over frozen components. Without these? Your generator is an expensive lawn ornament when you actually need it.
This is the same reason we tell people about proper winterization for snowmobiles and motorcycle winter storage—Chicago cold doesn’t care how much you paid for your equipment. If it’s not prepped correctly, it won’t work.
Fuel choice matters more than capacity. Natural gas for standby units wins because it’s supplied continuously through utility lines and doesn’t degrade. Gasoline in portables goes bad in 30 days without stabilizer—and yes, people forget, then discover it during outages. Diesel for residential use? Don’t. Diesel fuel literally turns to gel in extreme cold. Not worth the headache.
Carbon monoxide doesn’t give warnings. Running a portable generator in your garage, even with the door cracked open, can kill you and your family within minutes. Not hours. Minutes. Exhaust goes outside, minimum 20 feet from your house, no exceptions. This isn’t paranoid safety theater—people die from this every single winter.
Back-feeding is illegal for a reason. Plugging your portable generator directly into a wall outlet sends electricity back onto the power grid. Utility workers trying to restore power get electrocuted. The only safe connection is a proper transfer switch installed by a licensed electrician. Shortcuts kill people.
The problem isn’t usually the generator itself. It’s maintenance everyone skips.
Wrong oil will stop your generator dead. When temperatures drop, engine oil thickens into sludge. The starter can’t turn the engine. The battery drains trying. Use winter-grade oil with the right viscosity, or don’t expect your generator to start when it’s cold.
Dead batteries are the number one failure point. Cold weather murders battery capacity. Keep terminals clean. Portable owners: use a battery tender. Standby owners: verify your built-in charger actually works. Battery near the end of its life before winter? Replace it now, not during an outage.
Carburetors fail in cold and from neglect. Many portable generators still run carburetors that gum up from stale fuel or won’t function in extreme cold. If your generator has carburetor problems, get carburetor cleaning and rebuilding done before winter—not while your house is freezing.
Test runs aren’t suggestions. Once a month, start your generator and run it under load for 20-30 minutes. Circulates oil. Keeps seals from drying out. Confirms it actually works. Equipment that sits idle for six months fails the one time you need it. Every time.
If you own a single-family home and need real backup power—especially if anyone needs medical equipment or you can’t afford frozen pipes—get a standby generator. Yes, it’s expensive. Yes, installation is complicated. When Chicago gets hammered by winter storms and power’s out for days, you’ll understand why people pay for automatic backup.
If you’re in an apartment, condo, or just need essentials covered during shorter outages, a quality portable with a proper transfer switch works. Accept that you’ll be refueling manually in terrible weather, storing gasoline, and only powering priorities.
At EPM Motorsports, our work with small engines—from ATV repairs to winterization services—means we know what actually keeps power equipment functional in Chicago’s conditions. The technical details aren’t optional when temperatures hit negative double digits.
Don’t wait until you’re sitting in the dark, freezing, to figure out your generator doesn’t work. Test it now. Prep it correctly. Make sure it’s actually rated for Chicago winters.
Need straight answers about small engine maintenance or winterization? Reach out at (773) 207-3730 or email info@epmmotorsports.com. EPM Motorsports serves Chicago with expertise that keeps equipment running when it actually matters.
