Customer Reviews

APC PRO8T2 Surge Arrest Surge Station

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

APC (which by the way is American Power Conversion, not "American Power Conservation" as amazon.com currently shows it) has always been serious about clean power. This is no ordinary surge protector. It has more heavy-duty protection features and absorbs more joules of surge energy than you're ever likely to see. But what I like is the intelligent layout of the outlets ... with my ADSL modem, I now have three huge "wall warts" to deal with. The PRO8T2 handles them well, and manages another smaller one in the top tier of outlets. A large green light lets me know it's working. And the switch guard is removable -- if you WANT to be able to turn this unit on and off with your toe, APC made that possible, and they call out the feature in the instructions. You can spend $20 for a much less capable power station, or a few bucks more for one that will take care of your stuff. APC delivers the latter with this unit.

I bought one last month and it works fine, so now I am buying another 8 for my PC network. This surge protector is well designed so that your ac adapters won't hog up other open sockets.

Recommendation: Strong Buy

I ordered this surge protector mainly because the description on Amazon's site (at least at the time) said that it has two "always on" outlets, and the others can be turned off at the switch. I really like the layout of the outlets and the space it has for so many plugs, and I like that it has a light that shows you if something's wrong with the wall outlet you're plugging it into, but it does NOT have the always on outlets. I will keep the surge protector because it's a good one, but will be looking for another one that does what I hoped this one would.

I don't own this specific APC product, but I do own other APC products.

My home was hit by lightning on July 2, 2004 during a severe lightning storm. Both of my garage door openers were destroyed during the strike and they were on separate NET3 power line surge protectors made by APC.

NET3 surge protectors offer the best ($50,000) damaged equipment warranty that APC offers. APC refuses to pay for replacement garage door openers since in their determination, the surge protectors are functioning properly (I had to send the surge protectors at my expense for analysis at their labs).

I will never contend that a surge protector can protect any device from a direct lightning strike, but the APC warranty contends that they will replace your equipment in the event this unfortunate event occurs.

I now do not recommend APC equipment, since their warranty is worthless.

The TRUE test of a product is whether or not the company will stand behind the product when a problem occurs, and APC has totally failed in this matter.

The images provided here on Amazon AND APC's product site show that this unit is supposed to come with two outlets marked as "Always On". The first time I purchased it was from CompUSA a little over 5 years ago and did in fact have these two "Always On" outlets. The one I purchased from Amazon however did NOT have said outlets. The unit itself as a surge protector works great and I love how there are three outlets dedicated to oversize plugs. But what made this surge protector really special to me was the "Always On" outlets.

The product image on Amazon does show the "Always On" outlets but when I received the product, the outlets weren't there. I tested it thinking maybe it was a manufacturing error and that APC forgot to paint the text "Always On". However, all outlets are controlled by the on/off switch in the front. To make matters worse if you head over to APC's website has two product images showing these same "Always On" outlets.

*ALERT* The APC PER8T also uses the same image.

The product description aren't as helpful either. I returned the PRO8T2 and picked up the P8GT instead. This unit does in fact have the "Always On" outlets (3 of them instead of 2) but the description doesn't mention that. I have my TiVo plugged into the same strip so these "Always On" features are really important to me.

Hope this was helpful for those trying to consolidate their outlet conundrum and trying to save electricity.

This surge protector is designed well, so you don't waste two outlets to plug in an AC adapter. It also has two outlets that are always on, so you can turn off your computer equipment at the switch without having your lights go out.

Downsides: It's a bit expensive, and it wastes a bit more power than other surge protectors, even when it's turned off.

Contrary to the description.
How can they make such a glaring error?
I need more words to meet the minimum.

What I particularly like about this surge protector is the feature that has two "always on" outlets. This ensures that my telephone answering machine can be plugged in and protected even when I shut down the unit. I also use this protector for my secondary computer, USB hub and Epson scanner.

I had this surge protector for several years. I had both a desktop computer and a laptop computer plugged into it. One day our house was hit by lightening. The phone line coming into the protector, and the protector itself were fried. But the modems on BOTH of my computers were FINE! I was so thankful I was using this. After, I bought the newer model, but I still chose a professional APC protector. So far, so good (no more lightening strikes at least yet)!!!

This surge protector handles small and large plugs with no problems. It's design to handle large plugs means they don't end up eating up two plugs. Very well done. I highly recommend this surge station.