Customer Reviews

APC Back-UPS RS, 540 Watts / 800 VA,Input 120V / Output 120V UPS System (Black)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Just know going in - if your equipment gets fried, they won't pay you a dime. They will blame it on anything from faulty building wiring to bad grounding and deny your claim. Why don't they just print '$500,000,000,000 WARRANTY' on the box - if they don't intend to stand behind their product? I had one computer system that was wireless and it's only link to electricity was through an APC battery. Lightning struck and it died and started to smell burnt. I sent in the claim and the unit & got what looks like their standard protocol - sorry, no replacement. The system was only worth $200 which is far less than our company spends annually on batteries. I won't use APC again.

I received my new UPS yesterday, plugged it in, turned it on and connected it with the USB cable. Although the Toolbar icon showed (100%), I allowed it to charge for 14 hours. It's beautiful!

There is more than just surge and spike protection and battery backup. Unlike others in its class, the Back-UPS RS 800 has Boost and Trim, Automatic Voltage Regulation (AVR). This gives over-voltage and brownout protection.

Caveat for Apple Mac users: Don't load the APC furnished PowerChute software. OS X 10.4, Tiger and OS X 10.5, Leopard recognize an APC UPS. Just connect them with the furnished USB cable. Then: Systems Preferences > Energy Saver > UPS > UPS and select one of three shutdown modes and adjust the shutdown parameter

I selected "Shutdown the computer when it has been on UPS power for:" and set 5 minutes. When I pulled the plug to simulate power failure, the Toolbar icon showed: 48 minutes of runtime and turned off my iMac in about five minutes. The other shutdown choices are "Time left on UPS power" and "UPS power level".

If you have questions about your individual application, visit the APC website and make use of their selection tool and complete specifications. I did and I'm more than happy with my choice.

This APC unit is built rock-solid and does exactly what we need it for: keep our machines up and running when the power goes out. With 4 battery backup ports (plus 3 surge only outlets) and very quiet operation, this is a must have accessory for anyone that uses their computer on a daily basis. Upon setting up this unit we lost power only days after plugging this in and we were able to continue our work and save our precious data before disaster struck. With the very likely possibility that an electrical surge can happen at any moment and cause a $15 surge protector to allow this deathblow through without the slightest resistance, you would be ill-advised to not have one of these protecting your investment(s)!!

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

This APC gives me 37 minutes of battery run time after a power failure. I have a Dell OptiPlex desktop computer, 19" Dell CRT monitor, cable modem, Vonage VOIP phone/network device and cordless handset connected to the battery supported sockets (add a power strip to extend number of battery supported sockets to run your very low wattage items). I bought this when priced at $79.95 plus $22.00 shipping. So, as I see it, this unit cost me at most $2.75 per minute of battery time. But, every time it is called into use, my cost of ownership goes down. It is worth every penny for the luxury of being connected to the Internet and Vonage service during power outages. Of course, I do not stay up and running the whole time, but power down my computer and monitor to conserve battery. The more things you connect to your APC, the more watts are consumed. I really need to upgrade to a flat panel monitor, less watts to operate. I live in Northern Virginia and we just had a power outage lasting half the day. This APC safely shutdown my computer, but kept power to my cable modem and Vonage voice service so I could use my phone. Remember, you have to provide battery power to ALL the hardware supporting your Internet connection and VOIP phone system. No matter what size of APC you buy, you will be glad you have one when the power goes out. Remember, you can also charge your cell phone, plug-in your radio, electric shaver, and other low wattage devices to take advantage of this device. Plus you get all the other benefits of having a surge protector and clean electrical power source for your expensive computer and network gear. P.S. I bought another one of these to replace my wife's aging APC Backups 280 Pro; glad I did, because the Amazon price went up and winter ice storms are coming. Look on eBay, I found a brand new one the other day for $85.

The good:
This back up device works very well. It has the automatic shutdown software and data surge protection as well.

The bad:
I have 8 of these deployed in my office currently and within 2 years I have had to replace the batteries for every unit. Batteries will cost you about $70 shipped.

Just since this backup unit went online about 10 days ago, it has gone into "catastrophic failure" mode three times with nothing more than one desktop PC plugged into it. When it goes into this mode, all power to attached equipment is shut off. Plus, the computer that was attached was in sleep-mode when each of the failures occurred. Although the lights indicate that not only is the unit inoperable, but the battery is totally dead as well. However, turning it off and then back on resets everything and the self-test indicates everything is working fine. This is a defective unit.

Do not purchase an APC UPS backup if you use SLEEP MODE on your computer because if the power goes out, the unit does NOT wake the computer and provides no power backup - the computer goes dead as if there was no UPS device attached. I am using a MacPro Quad 2009 and the unit does function properly when the power is removed and the computer is awake. But I place my computer in sleep mode every night and sometimes during the day to save energy.

So APC instructs me to leave the computer on all the time. Idiots. And APC claims to be a energy saving, green company on it's website but doesn't support energy saving measures like sleep mode.

APC provides nonsense customer service because they offered no solution to this very basic problem. Many computer users place their machines into sleep mode. APC cannot solve this problem and instead try to blame the computer manufacturer. I do not recommend buying any APC product and I intend to avoid this company's products in the future.

We live deep in the backwoods and we lose power often and without warning. I ordered and installed the (BR800BLK) 800VA APC Battery Backup to make sure that a desktop computer, sattelite modem, and wireless router would not crash between the time our power is lost and the whole-house backup generator comes on line, a time period of 30 to 45 seconds. The APC Battery Backup has repeatedly done exactly what it was supposed to do with no muss and no fuss. I did not install the software that came with the unit as I have no need for the computer to automatically shut itself down, so I cannot say whether it is good or bad.

Some times I cause my own blackout by turning the air conditioner on and iron my clothes at the same time. Also, before having this UPS, whenever I turned my laser printer on, the computer would restart due to a quick undervoltage. I haven't have any problem since I installed this unit and I have plenty of power even to connect my answering machine, DSL modem, and wireless router. So no matter what happens I'm always online.

I've been using the RS800 for almost a year and I highly recommend it.

This backup is a good value for the home office user. Recommend that you charge up the battery BEFORE you connect. Instructions were not logical-sequential on this issue. Also, recommend that you keep the box it came in. When I went to register it online, I could not locate the serial number. Later found it on the OUTSIDE of the box that it came in. Gee, that's different. Otherwise, its a good value and I recommend it.