Customer Reviews

APC P7GT 7 Outlet 120V Power-Saving Essential SurgeArrest with Phone Line Protection

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

While this is a good quality product that may be useful for PC, it is not a good unit for Mac. When the Mac goes into sleep mode the P7GT shuts down any peripherals plugged into the controlled outlets , this creates a small voltage surge on the USB line as the peripheral shuts down which immediately wakes the Mac back up.
In essence it creates a cycle that never lets the mac stay in sleep mode.

I have 2 home-built PC's with MSI motherboards. I am using two of these APC devices. The relay works flawlessly when I shut the pc off, or put it in standby. I've only had the units for a few weeks, so I'm not sure about cost savings, but each PC has multiple electronic devices attached to it (speaker amps, printers, electric staplers, shredders etc)that all shut off when the PC goes down, so I'm expecting a decrease in power usage.

I have a Mac Pro with 4 HD's and an 23" Apple Cinema Display. With the Mac Pro plugged into the Master and the ACD into one of the "controller by" outlets the unit does not operate as advertised. Putting the Mac to Sleep turns off the ACD and puts the Mac to "Sleep"-- 2 seconds latter the machine wakes up.

Their tech support confirms that unit will not work with my setup. Called their tech support originally, however, and they sent me out a replacement unit. Of course, it too does not keep the Mac asleep.

I had been looking for a product like this for some time since I hate the vampire power used by computer peripherals. I bought two of these. One is used on my wife's PC. In sleep mode the PC shuts down the strip and all peripherals as expected.

The second one is used for my MacBook Pro. I planned on connecting my peripherals (speakers, monitor, and USB hub) to the power saving outlets. However, when the mac is set to sleep, it continues to sense USB activity. So the when the hub shuts down, it wakes the mac back up. It gets stuck in a loop and can never actually sleep. I've been unable to disable this--in forums I get a lot of mac fan responses (like "of course it should work that way"--not very helpful--I can set my PC to wake or not, why can't I do that with my mac?). So I disconnected the hub and discovered that even if no USB devices were plugged in to the power saving outlets I still get a power cycling problem. So I'm not able to use that feature with the mac. Not really APCs problem but there's nothing in their literature to indicate it wouldn't work with a mac.

The most critical information for a prospective buyer is, "Will the P7GT switch ON and OFF when it's supposed to, with my master-control device?" This information is not included with any of the power saving strips, so in the interests of "green" energy savings, I present my test results here.

The P7GT appears to switch on/off with line current, not real power as their meager instructions indicate. To add complication, AC devices draw current and power from the 120 powerline with varying efficiency, so there is a "power factor" relation between the real power, in Watts (you pay for this) and the apparent power, which is just Volts X Amps, known as VA. To add further complexity, there has to be hysteresis in the switch point, so the power strip won't oscillate between ON and OFF states. The hysteresis causes some loads to switch at lower apparent power, such as incandescent bulbs, and power supplies with inrush currents at power-on.

The turn-off minimum power I tested with a string of 5 W lights. The turn-off occured at 3 bulbs, drawing 0.14 A at 16 W from the powerline.

Turn-on power varied a lot, depending on the load inrush current. The string of incandescent lights triggered the turn-on at 0.19 A, or 22 W. However, a computer monitor would not turn on the strip at 0.42 A, 49 VA and 32 W. An Audio-Video-Receiver in a home theater did reliably turn-on the strip at 0.64 A, 78 VA, and 62 W.

On a desktop computer, results were as follows: The strip switched ON with 2.4 A, 170 W, and 272 VA. It switched OFF with 0.14 A, 7 W, and 16 VA when the computer was switched to standby.

The low sensitivity of the P7GT is designed to make it compatible with a desktop computer's standby power needs. If you use it this way, you should be satisfied.

I'm a bit lazy - so now whenever I turn off my computer a host of other devices shuts down as well. It's brilliant - a definite energy saver. If you have an iMac, you need to use the menu driven shut down as opposed to just pushing the physical button, if you have an external hard drive attached. Otherwise you'll get some error messages when you start back up saying device was not put away correctly.

I'd like to see more power ports dedicated to doing what the computer does as there are a lot of things that only need to be on when the computer is on - lights, speakers, phone chargers and external hard drive. I used an extension cord to work around this - but it would be nice if all the extra ports were under the control of the master port.

As stated before, when the display on any Mac sleeps, this powerstrip will cut the power to the related outlets.
Aside from that hiccup, after ~6 months of use, the internal switch that directs power to the computer related outlets would go on and off arbitrarily. There doesn't seem to be any cause of this behavior.
A great concept executed very poorly. Avoid this at all costs.

I purchased 2 of these to automatically shut off power to home theater equipment when not in use. I compared the APC model here to the smartsurge products but chose APC because I have had good luck with their products in the past and there was not a large $ difference.

I was alarmed when the box specifically stated that they were only for computers, but I have been using them on devices with as little as 24 watts difference from the standby to operating voltage without a problem (mainly audio amplifiers as the master outlet). I have not tested them on devices with lower power differentials and can not say how large a power differential is needed to properly activate the slave outlets. Laptops may pose a problem due to the lower standby-operating differential and due battery charging power draws that may confuse the switch.

The device itself consumes 1.15 watts, which is about in the middle of traditional surge strip consumption, but you might want to factor that into your energy saving/payback caluclations.

Overall I am very happy with the product and am considering buying more for additional applications.

This product works flawlessly as to operation. Every single time the Master Control outlet powers off the controlled outlets powers off as well. However, this surge surpresser does use twice as much power (.18 amps) in standby mode as the SmartBits (vs. 0.07 amps). However, the SmartBits needs adjustments via the adjustment dial (the APC SurgeArrest has no such adjustments) to ensure the controlled outlets turn on when the master outlet turns on.

For maximum savings, I like the SmartBits when it does work without a hitch. For flawless operation, I like the APC unit better than the SmartBits.

I purchased two of these. I use one on my Plasma TV to control my VCR, DVD, Wii and a couple other smaller devices and it works perfectly. The other one I use on my Mini Mac to control the monitor, speakers, printer etc. I just love shutting the system down and watching all of the perefieral shutting down automatically.