Customer Reviews

APC BE550R 550VA Back-UPS ES 8-Outlet Battery Backup System

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

At first, I thought this thing was the tops. It performed well in several power outages/fuse problems/spikes (I'm in a 1939 building & my office has mostly original wiring). After about 8 months, half of the plugs quit working altogether. I moved my important stuff to the other 3 plugs and took everything else off backup. We didn't have a power outage for a long time, so I don't know when the backup quit working on the rest, but it doesn't work anymore, although the alarm still sounds and the power light is still on. But anything plugged in will shut off with a power loss. Overall, I've owned it less than a year and a half. At this point, it's a very expensive extension cord. But the price has gone way down (it's less than half what I paid) from when I purchased mine. Either way, I'm paying more and going for a different brand for the replacement.

After having my computer shut down in several blackouts I ordered this item, which seemed to be a good deal in terms of price/capacity, especially with Amazon's free shipping policy. Well wouldn't you know it, the day after I installed it, we had three "quickie" brownouts, each only lasting for a minute or two, and the computer, cable modem, and printer all kept on merrily humming along due to the battery backup system. I am ordering another one for my home theater, particularly the DVR which takes quite a while to reset itself after it gets powered off.

I own 5 of these BE550 units and every one of them has failed at one time or another. APC has replaced 3 of them at no cost (to their credit), but to no avail. They will work fine for 6 months or so and then, without warning and for no apparent reason, they begin beeping, indicating that there is no power supply, when in fact the electrical supply is fine. I believe these units have an inherent flaw in them and I will not buy another APC product. I need a reliable product - not a piece of garbage that won't last and fails without warning.

This is my fifth APC device in about 8 years, three of them are still in happy service. Basically I use them as an insurance policy to save work and quickly shutdown and not to worry about runtime (as long as I have few moments to save work and shut down.) And for this unit, it provides battery backup for my VOIP service.

This is my highest VA unit so far, but only have a VOIP unit, router, network switch, and cable modem plugged into it. I wish a few more of the outlets allowed for larger AC adapters; I just have to buy 1 foot extenders to allow them to fit. Of course it might also be nice to have all 8 outlets with battery backup (as I have other power strips for the rest of my equipment), but four is fine. I have yet needed to use the backup part (there haven't been rotating outages in the Bay Area this summer...)

On this specific model, I am not using USB shutdown since I don't have it plugged into a computer. In other similar units I have used, I simply do a plug-n-play and tell Windows XP to Hibernate when the battery turns on. It's easy and simple.

I bought this thing to feel safe... and now I do. It's great for sensitive recording equipment as the plug was pulled out accidently during a session and we lost no data...

it was MORE than worth it right there...

These things are a no brainer once you realized the headache they can save you...

I bought this mainly because sometimes the power will just go out for a second or a few minutes. I have my tower, LCD monitor, wireless router, modem, and a cordless phone connected to it. Works great so far, definitely recommended if you need it for similar needs.

I live in Birmingham, Alabama, and we have more power failures than you'd see in third-world nations. Sometimes several times a day, we lose power for long enough to interrupt communications equipment. So the APC BE550R 550VA Back-UPS ES 8-Outlet Battery Backup System is a reasonably priced solution to a really annoying problem.

It's not powerful enough to keep things running for long, but as a power condtioner, or as an effective measure to prevent shut downs due to momentary losses of power, it's proven to be well worth the price.

If I have any complaint, it's the annoying alarm tone that sounds every few seconds as long as the power is off. There should be a way to silence that thing!!

Excellant Back-up system's,4 yrs.I used a back-up 350VA system
w/windows XP and it still works great, Recently upgraded to the
550VA system because I now run a Windows Vista Ultimate, Highly
recommend this Back-Up System.

We have this mounted on the top rack of our console unit. It fits in with the other unit and works well protecting the Flatscreen, DVD, VCR and Xbox.

This has been a very solid and reliable UPS for me, despite the fact that I've almost certainly overworked it in terms of what's plugged in to the battery-backup portion of the device. This thing has powered my fairly powerful desktop PC, two LCD displays, wireless router, and a second lower-power PC (my home storage server in the closet) during an outage, long enough for me to shut down normally on both machines. Given the listed ratings for this device, I'm impressed!

I've also had the device for a couple years now, and my periodic tests of the battery indicate that it's still working well! I know others have experiences longevity issues, but in my experience this appears to be a very well-built and trustworthy UPS.

Note that the plug configuration on this UPS is well thought out, with three normally spaced plugs per side (one side being surge-protection only, the other being battery backup), and one plug with more space per side for use with a brick or other, larger plug.