Customer Reviews

1500VA Battery Backup with LCD

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I initially purchased this unit because it was available under Amazon Prime and I wanted to save on shipping. However, now it is the ONLY unit that I ever buy. I am responsible for purchasing decisions for our IT/MIS Department and we use this model on EVERY workstation that we have in the company. I also use these on all of my electronics at home (TVs, audio and video components, XBox, PS3, etc., etc., etc.). With over 200 of them in place, at home and at work, they have never failed me. The LCD provides useful information about the amount of time remaining, the load on the battery, and any events that have taken place to impact the unit. They can also be used with the Personal Edition of PowerChute which is very helpful on a computer. Overall, this is a great unit and worth the few dollars more than the ones without a display.

The purpose of this unit is to: 1) supply power for a limited time in the event of power problems (blackout, brownout, overvoltage, etc.) so that you can perform a manual, controlled shutdown of your equipment, and 2) perform an automated shutdown (actually, perform a "hibernation" shutdown) if you are not present. But BEWARE: if you have a larger system, one that takes more than two minutes to complete its hibernation "save" process, the UPS will shut power off before the hibernation process is complete leaving you with no checkpoint recovery. You will get a Windows shutdown but any running programs will probably lose data. This is because the time that the UPS allows for hibernaton to complete is FIXED at 2 minutes and there is no way to change this. I discovered this problem during testing and APC's tech support confirmed this limitiation and recommended that I buy one of their "Smart-UPS" systems instead which has an time allowance that can be set. Just test your "time to hibernate" before you buy, and consider what may happen if you upgrade to a larger system down the road.

The first and foremost function of a UPS is to provide clean power to your systems. The secondary is to provide a short interval to shut down the computer.

A UPS is NOT a generator alternative. You should NOT attempt to run your computer on the UPS longer than it takes to shut the system off.

If you want to run your computer during a total blackout, get a Honda generator.

This unit does what it is supposed to do. It gives you ample time to close any and all applications and shut down your computer. Use it for one system.

This is not so much a review of the APC item but rather Amazon's sellers. I originally ordered this item in early April. It arrived late April. When I opened the box it was clearly NOT NEW. ALL NEW APC UPSes come with a large yellow label informing the user to connect the positive terminal as this needs to be disconnected in shipping. The plastic wrap is always securely around the power cord, this unit (and its replacement did not have either of these. Furthermore, there is always an inspection register tape showing date of manufacture and software version as well as several tests the unit should have passed. This tape is supposed to be neatly taped to the bottom of the unit.

In both shipments (remember one was a replace for the first one about which I complained) the items were scratched. The plastic was not properly wrapped and there was NO YELLOW label warning about connecting the positive power terminal. Finally both register tapes showing date of manufacture were over three years old. The first one read 2006 the second was 2008.

To Amazon's credit they replaced the first one very quickly and paid for return shipping. I have simply requested a full refund on the second one as it seems that I am not going to get a NEW unit. Twice is my limit for trying.

Basically look over the packaging very carefully and check all the items I mentioned in this review.

Purchased two of these a year or so ago. They work well, but the one I use with my computer gets very, very noisy when there is a heavy load. It is really, really annoying. I'm giving it away to Goodwill and will replace it with a newer product from someone else.