Customer Reviews

APC Back-UPS XS1500VA Battery Backup

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I own a couple of APC UPS and surge protection products. So far this is the most functional. The features:

1. The unit can be positioned vertically (best for saving space) or horizontally (lay flat or mounted to a server rack).
2. It has a very excellent boxy design that gives an elegant and modern feel.
3. There are 8 outlets in total (6 outlets are battery protected and voltage regulated, which means less dependency on the battery and longer replacement life; 2 outlets are surge-protected for printers and office machines).
4. The included PowerChute Personal Edition is to be combined with the data cable that, when connected to your computer via USB, provides excellent control and communication between the UPS, computer and user/administrator.
a. You will know exactly how much load is taxing the UPS in real-time; Turn on/off equipment to check.
b. Shut-down function to preserve data or battery.
c. Audible and visual alarm indication on current condition.
5. Hot-swap battery without turning off the UPS.

The cons? Heavy! But then of course it only needs to be set and forget. Expensive! Not for a typcial user. Although the features should be made available for everyone.

This particular model is a little overkill. I connected a P4 3GHz (with 3 internal SATA HDD, DVDROM, DVD-RW), 21" CRT, Apple PBG4 laptop, 2 external LaCie HDD and 1 external CD-R and I still haven't reached half of the available power. Buy this only if they offer a special price/rebate. Otherwise, go with the lower model XS/RS1000 and it will suite an power user just perfectly.

I purchased this unit last April 2005. After 2 months it quit working and the overload light came on. I unplugged my computer and monitor, (only things plugged into it), and it still wouldn't work and light said "overloaded". I called APC and had to send it back for $25.00 shipping. Their policy is to send a "refurbished" unit. Took a month to get. Second unit did the same thing. Sent back again, received another in about a month. Now this one just went out also. Same problem and booklet says it is an internal error, when it does this. Not a "fault" in my wiring or "reverse polarity, or anything else on my part. My last unit a "Contaxt" lasted over 8 years. Basically in my humble opinion, this a piece of junk. As is their return policy, where you pay the shipping and only receive a refurbished unit. States so in their "warranty". Of course you can't read it till you get it home or to the office. Not very reputable. Used to be a good company with good products. Not any longer!

Our power frequently goes out so a UPS is a must, but worse than the blackouts are the flickering of power on and off. I've lost two expensive items (Roland MC505 and a 120GB external Hard Drive) simply due to the power fluctuating rapidly for several seconds causing the UPS to 'give up' and switch off.

I had a Belkin UPS connected to my main PC but it clearly wasn't up to the job despite it being more than rated for the PC's consumption. Sometimes it would cover the outage, others it would simply power down. I needed a good replacement and so opted for the APC Back-UPS XS 1500.

Firstly, we have yet to lose power since its installation so I can't really know for sure if the unit will perform when needed, but I'm happy to comment on the unit and software. Now this is a BIG unit, slightly smaller than a PC case and half the width. I'd say it weighs somewhere in the region of 25-30lbs so should be placed on a sturdy desk or the floor. It stands upright, although can be laid flat, and looks well made and solid. On the back are the usual separate surge protected and powered surge protected outlets, but this unit has the most number of battery powered outlets (6) I've seen on a consumer model.

Set up was easy and connecting the battery for the first time a breeze. Software installed without a hitch and is extremely comprehenive - something that gives me great confidence in the unit is being able to see recent activity - dealing with brownouts or completely taking over from outages are logged as well as a realtime estimate of how long the unit would cover you for the outage, based on your current load. Also shown is the power consumption allowing you to make an informed decision as to how many more peripherals you can hook up before you overload the unit. Alarms can be toggled through the software and tailored to your specific situation. Currently I have a powerful Alienware PC, external HD, 21" monitor and some sundry peripherals connected to the unit and yet I'm only using about 33% of the allowable capacity - nice to know should I intend adding more hard drives etc.

All in all, I've bought several APC UPS products and I feel this is one of the best they've produced - it's going to do the job very well and recommend the unit to those needing a little more power than normal.

Works well with my set up. 1pc is a dual xeon p4 with 6 hd drives and 2 burners, dual 17in lcd's. other pc is a 3.2p4 with a radeon 9800 pro and a fast lcd. i also have my cable modem and router hooked up to it. power kept flickering on and off and my other ups couldn't handle 2 pc's. this one can easily handle it and you can add a battery for longer outages but i kept getting tired of a flicker causing my pc's to reset.
I dont even bother with the software so i cant rate that but it works great for my needs. so it can drive 2 pcs 3 lcds 1 router and 1 cable modem for over 4 minutes which is enough for most quick outages. it also protects against overvoltages which is nice. if my power went out for longer times i would get the extra battery but i live in seattle and the power rarely goes out for even a full minute.

We have several of these APC UPSs at work. They all have worked wonderfully. We did however had a small problem with one of them on a Pentium D with dual monitors. The fix, quoted in this post was quite simple and easy to follow. Since at least two other posters for this product have given unwarranted poor ratings I felt compelled to post it here.

"I discovered the problem, which may be affecting other folk. This sort of UPS has "AVR" - automatic Voltage Regulation - when the wall voltage drops, the UPS boosts it. When the wall volts drops too far, the UPS starts using battery power in an attempt to keep its output voltage at 120V. One time, when restarting, I had the Kill-A-Watt meter measuring the Mac Pro's current - it hit 5 Amps and the UPS went onto battery, and then moments later into overload, and then shut down. Re-reading the UPS instructions, it appears that these machines can be set to respond to very minor wall voltage variations, average voltage variations, or only crass, major variations. There's a simple way of setting this (read the instructions for full info - available on the APC website). Mine was set to respond to the tiniest of wall-voltage variations - and that meant it saw the small voltage drop caused by the inrush current to the Mac Pro, went onto battery power, and commited elegant suicide.
Resetting it to allow crass, major variations has completely cured the problem. I may yet set it to respond to "average" variations."

This might or might not be a problem with all APC products, but we had an issue in my company where we were using this model APC UPS. All of a sudden, all power to the load disappeared, and the display on the APC started flashing, saying it had an F08 system fault. If you look that up in the Installation and Operation guide, it's a fan fault. I'm sorry: a fan fault disconnects the grid from the load? That's completely unacceptable behavior. The whole point of a UPS is that it's UNINTERRUPTIBLE!!! If the grid is ok, the load should be powered. Period. We are going to return all or most of our APC units and replace them with something better: a truly on-line double-conversion model that FAILS ON.

My computer system is mounted in the back of a box van, that provides a mobile wifi system wherever I go. This APC backup has proven to be durable, despite the dust, heat and vibration. I use it to power my computer while I travel from place to place, when I have no access to ac power.

There is only one flaw with this unit, that will not affect most users, it will not run on the modified sine wave power produced by most dc to ac inverters.

Other than that, this is a great ups.

Same problem as RuppMan. Unit less than a year old. Good battery. Tech support tells me that I must have an internal error. Perhaps, but it's not my fault. I won't buy APC again and this was my sixth APC UPS.

[This review is for the Back-UPS XS 1000 (BX1000), but I believe it is very similar to the XS 1500 (same mechanical style, visual appearnance, etc) except for power rating (and I can't find the BX1000 on Amazon.]

I've used two of these on a desktop PC and on a home A/V system since 2005, and they have performed admirably. Power from FPL in my neighborhood has some over/under voltage incident about daily, and a short power outage about weekly. In all cases, these units kick in and keep computers and A/V running without a hitch.

One aspect of these units I really appreciate (now that I've also purchased a newer BX900R unit from APC): they make zero noise when not providing bat power; no constantly whining fan like the newer BX900R. (If someone with this exact XS 1500 can confirm there is no fan noise, I'd appreciate it, as I'll probably order one of these from Amazon to replace my loud BX900R)

Powerchute works well, gracefully shutting down a PC in case of sustained outage.

Powerchute can also be used to configure the units to suppress the beeping during power outage, which I prefer.

We moved into the 'sticks' where the power is poor at best. ... 220V spikes over the 110V due to power company not grounding a transformer properly, plus surges and sags regularly, etc, etc. ... you get the picture.

I set this UPS up to surge protect our laser printer and scanner, and run our wireless phones, LCD monitor, and a computer off the UPS battery backed up portion. Set it to just take care of the 'major' power issues. We have what are otherwise 'good' and not very sensative devices plugged into this, so they can take some minor power sags and surges without having problems.

It has caught many, typically 1 power outage, or surge, or low voltage issue, per week over the years.

We monitor the UPS and test it regularly (once every 2 to 3 months). It has been in service over 3 years for us, battery still looks to be in good shape, and providing 7x24 service to us.

This is a refurb unit from the APC refurb folks, and I will say they did a good job. I have other UPSes and replacement batteries from them over the years for other UPSes and can't say enough good about them. ... that is another story.

ANyway, I would love to get the 'addon' battery that plugs into this one also, but I can't justify the cost, but the base UPS and its battery has served us very well in what I know is rough service conditions.

I do suggest putting in and using their APC PowerChute Personal Edition software. It allows you to run your batteries until they really need replacing rather than just 'do it by the calendar' method.

We live over a mile from the nearest neighbor in a semi-rural part of TN.