Experience with "cheap" portable diesel gensets?

Looking for home backup power, and don't want to store a lot of gasoline on site. A portable diesel genset that could run off heating oil would be ideal. 3 kW ought to handle everything critical here, and under 200 lbs would make it easy to move.

There seem to be a lot more small diesel gensets around in the last couple of years, some in the $1000-1500 range. Haven't seen a lot of complaints on Usenet. Any comments on how good these are for home backup? Any good FAQs or review sites?

Thanks-

Theo
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