Customer Reviews

APC Back-UPS Pro, 420 Watts / 700 VA,Input 120V / Output 120V UPS System

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Aesthetically, the unit is great. Its sleek and looks a lot better next to my modern equipment then its brother RS-500 that I've owned for several years. The LCD is a useful feature so that you don't need to log into a PC to view the UPS status.

I unfortunately had nothing but headaches. My first model purchased through amazon arrived in great shape and well packaged. The first step is to connect the battery. The leads are quite thick (for good reason) and APC left very little room inside for them. The terminal at the end of the wire that connects to the battery is too small for such wires, and simply snapped right off when placing the battery inside (due to lack of room, stiffness of the wires, and a horribly weak terminal). To continue testing, I had to solder a new terminal on.

Next, when I plugged the unit in, I noticed a noise coming from the circuitry. A high-pitched almost RF interference that is loud enough to irritate me several feet away. This noise occurs when plugged into A/C independent of the state of the UPS. Fed up, I set up an RMA with amazon.

Amazon is fantastic, and the new unit arrived a day or so later. Knowing about the battery lead limitations this time around, I was able to connect the positive lead and carefully adjust the leads and the battery so that it closed with minimal pressure on the terminals. Success.

When the replacement unit was plugged in, the same RF noise could be heard. Guess this proves that this model is plagued by this problem which is especially disappointing since its several-year-old brother is absolutely quiet. I could expect problems like this from the lower CS or ES lines, but the RS line was supposed to be enterprise level equipment.

I wrote this review as a warning for people to be very careful when plugging in their batteries an to advise that this model does emit this frequency noise 24/7, so if you are operating in a quiet office, it could get on your nerves, but if placing inside a server room, you won't hear it. Hopefully APC goes back to the days of better quality control because at this rate, it could be the last APC product I purchase.

This UPS is the best one I have had from APC! It looks great but also functions very well. We have our business in a area prone to brown-outs and so far it has kept the computers up without a issue, also wonderful that there is an alarm silence button on the front, so our people don't have to listen to the beeping for more than a second or two! Great features!

The backup has a nicely lit display that isn't too obvious until you push a button or the power goes out. As I'm using it, it has 4 small items including a cable modem, wireless AP, cordless phone base and home server. It says that it will power it for about 40 mins. but I haven't had it run out yet. It should shutdown my home server automatically but it hasn't gotten that long of a power outage yet. 40 mins is quite awhile for a PC but the home server doesn't have a monitor, although it does have 4 HDD's and runs all the time. Because the UPS has a display for all the basics of power usage and time left on the battery it should be ideal for these devices. I would normally put a UPS hidden but I have it next to the printer so I and see the status.

The master-slave outlets are an interesting idea that I just won't use because all my devices are on all the time. I've been thinking about getting another one for my desktop when my other UPS needs replacement because I could shut down speakers, TV Tuner, monitor and camera accessories. I'm not sure how much power+$ it would really save me but I like the overall idea. It probably could pay for itself if power costs go up.

I wish I had this six months ago. Power has been out so many times this winter and it has only been down once since I got it during a wind storm. If I have issues with runtime or extended power outages I'll update the review. Currently, I just have no complaints.

Purchased to use with my IMAC i7 quad dual-core with 16 GB ram, 1 TB drive and SSD. Also have 2TB external drive, Ink-jet all in one attached. Especially like the load graphics on the LCD screen. The graph shows a 50% load when everything is running. I used this UPS to replace another brand that was rated at a higher VA/W, though cheaper. That one started to cut power to my computer after one year if there was any power spikes. I will continue to use APC. Years ago I had a lower power APC brand UPS on a Windows machine that lasted 4 years before it began acting up. I went through a few off brands before I thought it was worth it to pay more for the APC brand. At $100 this one was a good deal, for me.

I was tired of replacing UPS units after a couple years because of toasted batteries, etc. This one is really far more sophisticated and according to the APC tech person who described it, it works differently than the other models, thus the battery inside will last longer since it wont be cycled as often as the other designs. Love the voltage and status LCD readouts.

I've owned this UPS for about a month so far. It reports two power events so far. One being a blackout for about 4 seconds and the other was a voltage surge. The voltage surge permanently damaged a TV which my roommate foolishly put on a power-tap instead of a surge protector and my HTPC probably would have suffered the same fate were it not for this UPS.

I have my HTPC, modem and router which use ~50 watts when idle. The UPS reports ~45 minutes of battery power for this configuration.

Pros:

- It works, saved my electronics during a surge and kept them running during a blackout.

- Respectable VA and wattage ratting. (~45min run-time @50 watts)

- No fan! Quiet (sort of, see notes)!

- The LCD is a nice feature to easily look at the status of the UPS.

- Good looking.

- APC powerchute is simple to use and seems adequate for non-industrial users.

Notes:

- Some other reviews are reporting a humming noise which I suspect is just transformer hum. There is a slight transformer hum in my unit, that can barely be heard when I'm less than 1 meter from the UPS. When I'm sitting on the couch (~2 meters from UPS) I can't hear it no matter how much I try to listen for it. However, my UPS is reporting a building wiring fault, which I suspect is the root cause of the problem and not something inherently wrong with the UPS itself. If you hear a hum, check the building wiring fault light, or if you know how to check for DC noise or ground loop faults in your wiring do so before blaming the unit as being faulty.

- Not really APC's fault but APCUPSD (3rd part interface) doesn't have working USB drivers for windows 7, so it wont work with this device.

I got this unit to replace an older UPS that had physically failed. I used super saver shipping and still received the unit in less than a week. I opened the box and hooked up the battery, which was fairly simple in this unit and put it online. No problems so far.

THIS PRODUCT IS ALL IT SAYS IT IS, AND MORE. I HAVE 10yrs. USING APC PRODUCTS AND WOULD RATE THEM, {EXCELLENT}.

E.H.S

I purchased four of these units to install at a customer location, over this past weekend. They arrived from amazon.com in record time, as always -- thank you PRIME and amazon.com for that. The units came in separate boxes, well padded, with the APC retail box inside. APC packaging wasn't exactly frustration free, but pretty good -- considering. After placing each of the units at their respective locations, I plugged them in. As the title says, 50% failed to work properly. One of the units refused to power up anything related to the battery side, the other wouldn't power up the "smart" ECO Master port. I tried everything and couldn't get them to work. amazon.com won't take them back because of a shipping hazard and you have to contact APC for assistance. Big pain in the back-side. After chatting with a representative, new units will be coming and no shipping -- but that doesn't solve the fact that 50% were BOB (bad out of box).

Other than that, they appear to work as defined. Not really familiar with this workstation line, most I only use SMART-UPS with servers and so-forth.

My recommendation is that you be aware that your unit(s) might not work at all outside of the box. Big problem, if you ask me and the reason for my ** rating.

Since this UPS outputs a modified sine wave when on battery, it cannot keep your computer running if you have a newer power saving power supply. The PFC of newer power supplies rely on true sine wave.