Section
Learn: The Math, the Tools, the Method
Everything on Stout Outdoors runs on a small set of ideas: size things with arithmetic, compare on specs, maintain what we publish. This section holds the tools and explainers — and the methodology page that shows exactly how recommendations get made.
Tool
The Runtime Calculator + Sizing Guide
Enter your devices, get watt-hours, runtime by station class, and a size recommendation with the reasoning shown.
Read the guide →Methodology
How We Choose
The published process: spec sheets, owner data, warranty terms, price history — and the rules about what we never claim.
Read the guide →Explainer
Satellite Communicators, Explained
Networks, message latency, plan math, and total cost of ownership across three years.
Read the guide →Explainer
Electric Fridge vs. Rotomolded Cooler
The cost-per-trip comparison, with the cases where each technology honestly wins.
Read the guide →The one piece of math this whole site runs on
Watts are speed; watt-hours are distance. A watt is a rate — how fast energy moves right now. A watt-hour is an amount — one watt sustained for one hour. A power station's output rating (watts) tells you what it can start and run at the same moment; its capacity (watt-hours) tells you for how long.
A home refrigerator draws roughly 150 watts while its compressor runs, and the compressor runs about a third of the time: 150 W × 8 effective hours ≈ 1,200 Wh per day. That's why a "2,000" station (2,000Wh, before losses) runs a fridge for about a day and a half — and why a station advertised by its 3,000W output can still be empty by morning if its capacity is small. Both numbers, every time. Any seller who quotes only one of them is hoping you won't ask about the other.
The same discipline shows up everywhere here: cooler capacity in usable quarts after ice, sonar screens measured in real diagonal inches, satellite plans priced over three years of ownership instead of at the register. It's slower than a star rating. It's also the whole point.