Customer Reviews

APC PRO8 8-Outlet SurgeArrest Professional Surge Protector

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a great product. Plus it works with all APC UPS's, and does not void any warranties on your APC UPS. It is nicely designed so you can plug in lots of things, including large power bricks. I have even used the mounting holes on the back with cable ties, to mount it to racks and shelves. This product could be made even better if it had a 12 or 15 ft power cord instead of 6 ft.

My company uses many APC products and would recommend to anyone to get this surge protector. This surge protector (pro8) has a very high rating and is great for anyone with a home office. It has a total of eight outlets which includes three outlets for "brick" type plugs. These three outlets will help you avoid blocking other outlets with oversized plugs (router, phone, and speaker plugs).

Let me start by saying that I'm an electrical engineer, and fairly good mechanically. I've always thought of APC as one of the better companies, that resisted the incessant march to lower costs and resulting poor quality. But it looks like that's no longer true. I bought 3 APC PRO8 Professional Surge Protectors over the past few months, and I'm very dissatified with the quality. And if APC can't make a simple surge protector anymore, it makes me wonder about the other APC products.

One of the three APC PRO8 Professional Surge Protectors was OK, and two were defective right from the start - not a good ratio. And from the nature of the problem, I'm guessing that a lot of others are defective as well.

I took all three apart (they are put together using screws), and here's what I found -
1) The contacts were too tight, not aligned with the plug slots, and weren't designed with wider openings at the front. So when a plug is pushed into a slot that is too far misaligned, the prong jams against the front of the contact, pushes it against the other buss, and causes a short.
2) The contacts were designed to meet the prong at a 90 degree angle, rather than 180 degrees like the better quality plugs. This makes them cheaper to manufacture, but prone to the jamming described in #1 above.
3) The solder points are very poor, with almost no solder on them. I was able to easily pull one of the wires off it's buss.

After straightening the contacts and resoldering all the solder points, the surge protectors are now working. But at $20, I'm thinking I shouldn't have had to re-manufacture them to fix what APC got wrong.

I like that the APC PRO8 surge protector has a Plug and cord that are oriented 90 degrees to each other. The overall sleek design, really thin, of the surge protector is very good. Both of these items were important due to the location the surge protector was to be used in. It also has a nice design in that there are outlets that allow for the bulky plugs that are also the transformers.

I have never had anything like this happen to me before and I am leaving my fifties soon. The lights in the house had been flickering for awhile, over a period of a few weeks and I thought it was because it is so hot here. Well one night there was a huge crack and it looked like an electric bolt came out of the wall under my computer desk. The lights continued to flicker and I called the electric company. They came out the next day and found that the ground for the whole house, out at the street had completely broken off and we were having uncontrolled power surges. The problem was fixed and I am so relieved to report that my MAC PC and my HDTV are safe and sound. My poor APC PRO8 was killed in the horrifying power surges as it saved their lives. My biggest thank you APC for such a wonderful piece of technology. I am going to purchase 3 more before the Monsoons hit. Darcyinv4u

After more than 13 years of service, my APC PRO8 finally failed. I quickly purchased from Amazon an APC Model P11VNT3, not thinking to check the warranty on the PRO8. After the fact, I did so and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the PRO8 comes with lifetime replacement coverage (as does the Model P11VNT3). I contacted APC with my issue. They surmised that the problem with my old unit was due to an "internal fault." Within 24 hours, APC arranged to ship me a replacement...no questions asked. In my humble opinion, APC produces superior equipment, and their warranty programs are matchless.

We've had one of these installed in our home office for 4+ years and it hasn't let us down yet. We recently had a severe electrical storm. All of the items (computers and printers) attached through this surge protector came through unscathed while two items in adjacent outlets blew out and had to be replaced. Construction is robust - it has been moved multiple times with no problems. We're very happy with this purchase.

This surge protector is well thought-out, giving separation between the plugs to allow for the big square transformer-type plugs that can take up 2 or 3 plugs spaces in a regular strip-style surge protector.

The main power switch is recessed on the front edge of the unit, making accidental switch-offs less frequent (but not impossible, as I found out when I managed to push the corner of my foot rest into it).

Hoping that it will give protection in the event of an electrical surge, as well, but no experience to relate so far...knock on wood.

All in all, very pleased with the usability of the product.

This is the second one I've purchased. That is about the best recommendation someone can give. The plugs are laid out well, space for power bricks, and just solidly constructed. The form factor is nice compared to the generally boring straight power strips.

I own four of these unit. Three days before Christmas I had a neutral to ground power surge from the pole to my house, it was like a light show going on. The surge fried my brand new oven,garage door opener, parts of the furnace and two of these units. The total damage was about $2000 which my homeowners covered. My computers and TV's were fine because of these units. In front of my desktop computer was one of these then an APC Line-R 1200 voltage regulator connected to an APC PRO 1500 Battery Backup. In front of one of my TV's was another PRO8 then a Line-R and in front of another TV and laptop was just a PRO8.Two of these PRO8's took direct hits like lightning coming in and they fried, it went no further and they saved the insurance company quite a lot of money in electronic equipment. I highly recommend these units and the insurance company even paid for the replacements of them.