Customer Reviews

APC 1300VA Battery Backup with LCD

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have owned 7 or 8 UPS's from several mfg's mostly APC and this is a well designed, fully featured unit. Like all Back-UPS models, it has a square wave 115 VAC output which is fine for any device with a switching power supply. This would be most any modern electronic device and all PC's. If you want a sine wave output get a Smart-UPS. I have two Smart-UPS 750 XL's with extra battery pack for 3-4 hour run times on two different PC's at home.

I bought two of these Back-UPS 1300VA units from Amazon at the lowest price I found with free shipping (very important with these heavy items). One is for my HP EX475 MediaSmart Home Server, cable modem, router and switch. The other one is on my home entertainment center with several DVD's, Comcast DVR, VCR, Bose radio, other stuff and a 50 inch Toshiba plasma TV. The Plasma TV pulls 500 watts and with several of the other items running I show 18 minutes run time. The Home Server rack shows 60-80 minutes run time.

The UPS display was a key reason why I bought these units. It provides everything you would want to know about the UPS and the attached load. The UPS is attached via USB cable to the Home Server so it can notify my PC clients and shutdown properly. Very cool.

I have the power loss beeper turned off on both units to avoid bugging me. This can be done with a display button sequence.

We bought two of these for use with two new computers (DELL Studio XPS 435) and when we tested them, we found that the UPS would not power the PC. Upon researching the issue, we found that the new PCs have power supply units, like those in many new PCs, which have circuits to implement power factor correction (PFC) as part of compliance with Energy Star 4.0.

Unfortunately, PSUs with PFC are not as forgiving of the step-approximated sine wave of this type of UPS. We will now order a different model. According to the APC website, APC UPS models which do output a Pure Sine Wave include: Smart-UPS, Matrix-UPS, and the Symmetra Power Array.

If you are shopping for a UPS to accompany a new PC, double check that the PC can support a "Stepped wave." If not, get a different model UPS. If you cannot find that information, my suggestion is to check the PC product info for the Energy Star 4.0 rating, and if the PC has that rating, go with the Pure Sine Wave product lines mentioned above.

I have this UPS protecting my 52" LCD tv, the dvr, stereo, xbox 360, and wii. The display is very informative, and easy to use. It tells you exactly how much power is being used, and how much run time you would have if the power were to go out. The display shuts off after a minute or two, and can be reactivated with the touch of a button. The UPS itself has a quiet fan, and is narrow enough to sit next to my entertainment center and not be an eyesore. With the setup I mentioned above, it never exceeds 70% with all the electronics on. Overall a great purchase, and at the time I bought the UPS Amazon was the cheapest location available.

This unit has worked flawlessy through two blackouts. The LCD readout is a nice feature. I use it to monitor the input voltage for potential brownout conditions. During blackouts, knowing the amount of remaining battery time is great because it allows you to turn off equipment to see how much your backup time will improve. After I shut down my computer during a recent power outage I hooked up a fluorescent table lamp to light our family room. According to the UPS it said it could provide power to that light for 4 hours. I don't know how accurate the stated time was but I do know we got 3 hours of backup time before the power came back on.

Simply, this is the best investment I have ever made for my computer and home entertainment center.
I found out about these at my doctor's office, I noticed that all of his terminals were protected with an APC
Living in a rural area means many 10 second blackouts about every other day. This device not only protects your equipment but, let's you run it for a short time with the power out.
Plus, no more resetting all those clocks!
Research which size is right for your equipment. This unit runs a small entertainment center through one 90 min movie in a blackout. A 3000va model would work well for those giant plasma TVs. My next purchase will be the 1500va model for my upstairs computer.
Everyone with a computer or home entertainment center needs an APC under the cabinet.

I purchased this to backup my home entertainment system. The rural electric coop that supplies my power has numerous brief outages during heavy summer storms. I wanted to prevent my satellite system (among others) from losing it's mind as well as allow time for my HD DLP to do a proper cool down.

The unit was a breeze to set up right out of the box. I have had several outages and it has worked perfectly.

The down side: The first few weeks it had an annoying electrical smell. Kind of like burning phenolic. But, the odor did eventually go away.

The reason I purchased a UPS is because I have a large amount of brownouts where I live. Usually the power goes out for as much as 10 seconds at a time. I wanted a UPS that could keep my equipment working for the period that the power was out, even if that time was extended for up to 20 minutes.

I have owned one UPS before and it was also an APC. It was pretty old school, but did the job so I thought I should stick with what I know works. The equipment I have connected to this UPS is:

-home WinXP Media Center PC used in the living room as a TV/TIVO
-HP external hard drive (320GB) for movies, recorded TV, and music
-TrendNet router
-Zoom cable modem for my Internet and TV connections
-22" LCD TV/PC monitor
-cable signal amplifier
-compact stereo speaker system (subwoofer & right/left)

In over 1 month of ownership, I have had 3 brownouts and experienced NO loss of function for any of these devices. None of my devices even "know" that they are receiving power from this UPS. I was worried because I read it uses a modified square wave and that some computers don't work well with that, but I have seen ZERO bad effects from my PC running off of this UPS. Once I was watching TV on one channel and recording on another and, again, there was no interruption at all.

Something to note: The maximum number of backup outlets is 6 so you can't keep more items up than that during a power outage. The other outlets are for surge protection. I don't use them because I have other surge suppressors. Another neat feature of this device is the APC software that comes with it. My PC seems to work well with it. The software starts when the PC starts and can tell you some of the same things the front panel on the APC tells you. The front panel of the APC actually shows what voltage it's running on and how much load is present.

Amazingly, I have never gone over the first segment of the load bar; it has three segments total. My PC is the only item that makes it hit that segment, however; the other devices don't make a dent in the load visually (even the HP external hard drive doesn't make any load appear). I find that strange since I am using a 550W power supply and have two TV tuners and other cards in that PC. I assumed the load bar would at least hit the halfway mark. But this means that the whole setup could run for up to 29 minutes with no power (after full charge) according to the literature, which is amazing!

This is just a fantastic product and for a reasonable price when compared to other large voltage uninterrupted power supplies.

We have never used anything but APC products for our home office battery backup needs.
Their products are well made, they perform as specified, and they have longevity.
And Amazon.com is awesome!
Best service, best price, easy ordering, and incredibly fast delivery!

I ordered this box last week after losing an external hard drive to disk failure. The PC Tech at my local retailer suggested getting a UPS system to keep my hardware safe from power noise and surges. He recommended this unit - but his company was out of stock. Amazon's price was about 10% higher - but I did not want to risk losing more hardware so I bought it.

The unit was easy to setup and to integrate with Windows XP Professional. It has software that can be installed to monitor your pc. It automatically runs a self-test every two weeks to check battery and system performance. A manual self-test can be ran within the software as well. The software has a meter that gives an estimate for battery power to run all devices currently connected to the battery. The unit also has a nice LCD display that is not too bright, Users can check system status and voltage information with the press of a button.

Unit has been running now for about 5 days. It is very quiet and although heavy, it takes up very little space. Also, I have not noticed the burning smell that some folks have mentioned in other reviews of APC UPS systems.

So far so good. If unit continues to perform well - I will purchase another unit for my home entertainment center.

This unit did not work out of the box - APC rushed a replacement on an RMA immediately after we contacted them - without waiting to receive the bad unit, and paying for all shipping. Problem solved. APC rocks!!!!