Customer Reviews

Belkin AP30800fc10 PureAV Home Theater Battery Backup with AVR Technology (Black)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Just got a new 73" DLP and wanted to be sure it was protected. Did a search and found very little in the way of products that offered both Surge, Clean power and UPS. This Belkin system seems to be a good unit (Only time will tell). It has enough power for my Yamaha Receiver, PS3, DVD player, Cable DVR box and My TV. Tried Plugging and un-pluggling the unit with all my equipment on and it held power for the 5 minutes I let it run on batteries. Both my son and I think that the picture looks better (less Noise) then before. The Unit looks good and dispite what others have reported, the Hum is very minimal and not noticable from 4 feet away. Amazon had a Great price (187.00) and free shipping. Even my wife says it looks good in the cabnet.

The only thing I wish they offered was a external Battery connection option for extended battery time.

Seems to be a great deal considering the Price. I was using a Monster power strip that I now use as a first line of defense by plugging the Belkin into it (Extra Surge Protection).

One of two minor complaints is that it does have a barely noticeable humming sound during normal operation which is much more pronounced when running on battery power. Also, the power button is in front where someone -- a child perhaps -- might accidentally shut the unit off. Other than that it works as expected.

On a side note, I have a 7.1 receiver driving 5.1 speakers, a 32 inch LCD HDTV, my cable DVR and other items all hooked up to this unit. While the receiver is rated at 85W per channel, with most of the equipment running it's still only at about 33% of load capacity!

Overall the unit is quite solid and heavy. Make sure there's plenty of ventilation wherever it is is used, though.

I've had this a year now, and I have not experienced the problems others have expressed about it arriving dead or the device making buzzing noises. I live in an area with brown outs, and I lose power a lot during inclement weather. I purchased this unit to safeguard my 52" Sony KDR Bravia LCD flat screen (I bought the Bravia on Amazon for a great price), and I believe the Belkin PureAV has already paid for itself. While I would have preferred a digital display, the analog display is retro/old school looking and looks good in the rack. As far as functionality, I have all the back up plugs connected, and the device does allow for ample time to back up computer files when the power goes off. When the flat screen is on the back up supply, and the power goes off, it can power this monster for about 20 minutes when all other devices depending on the back up are turned off. I thought it would power it longer, but as long as it maintains power during brown outs (low voltage drops) and protects my equipment from surges/power spikes, I'm happy; and this unit does the job.

UPDATE: Although I was enthusiastic about this unit originally, I'm now disappointed in its longevity and the lack of support from Belkin. It died only several months after the warranty ran out, and thinking at first it was the battery I queried Belkin about obtaining a replacement battery either from them or another source since I couldn't find one on their website or elsewhere. Although they acknowledged receiving my query and promising a response in one day I received nothing from them after that. I finally found a single source for the battery [...] but by then I had taken it apart to confirm it was the battery and found, as an electrical engineer, it was not the battery that was the problem but rather a component failure. Taking it apart as one would have to in order to change the battery involved removing about 20 tiny screws and the front panel and it became clear that the unit was not designed to permit a non-technical user to make a simple battery replacement as one should anticipate eventually for any battery backup device. To make matters worse I could find no documentation in the owner's manual or on the Belkin website on how to change the battery, or a schematic or any other service information which would permit me to fix what was probably an inexpensive repair. Given enough time I probably could have figured out the schematic, but it is complex and life is too short, so I purchased a new unit from another manufacturer (APC). I won't say I'll never purchase another Belkin product after this experience, but certainly Belkin now resides near the bottom of my future choices. I rate it two stars only because it clearly worked for awhile.
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I purchased this unit to protect my 700 watt Pioneer Elite AV Receiver, a high definition digital satellite receiver/recorder, a laptop computer used as a music server, and several hard disks loaded with music and backup files. We often have power failures and brown-outs, and several times this had resulted in the receiver losing all of its settings which was a real pain to recalibrate. Since adding the UPS I have had no issues, and its front panel monitor shows a maximum of 17% load with everything operating. Several people had commented on some audible humming or buzzing noise, but I cannot hear any on mine unless I put my ear on the case. Perhaps they had placed theirs on lightweight cabinets that were acting as soundboards or resonating, or were operating the unit with much higher loads. I haven't checked the output to see how closely it approximates a sine wave which is theoretically ideal, but I can't hear any audible degradation in sound quality listening through a very high quality system. Since it is designed specifically for home theater applications, I reasoned that its output waveform would be pretty good in this respect. I like the form factor and monitoring LED indicators - it fits in beautifully with the rest of my AV components. It also appears to be a true bargain compared to alternative UPS devices. I give it 4 stars only because I haven't actually checked the waveform.

I ordered this to replace a standard computer UPS which I had kept behind my AV equipment cabinet. I thought it would be nice to have a unit that would go in the cabinet and look more like a piece of AV equipment.
I was very disappointed when the first one arrived DOA and charging overnight made no difference. However, Amazon's return policy on defective merchandise made it painless to get a replacement (I was able to print a pre-paid UPS label, and had 30 days to get the defective unit back to them, and meanwhile Amazon shipped a replacement unit to me via next day air [which is how I had the original shipped]).
The replacement unit has worked perfectly. I have not noticed any hum as mentioned by other reviewers. The unit is powering a 55 inch HDTV (rear projection), a Denon 3801 (7.1), a Dish HD DVR, a Dish switch, a VCR, an Apple TV, a Klipsch Sub woofer, a DVD recorder, and a DVD player (surge only) and still is only using 67% of available power.
All in all, it is a very nice unit at a good price.

The Belkin home theater battery backup is perfect for DLP TVs. I recently had a lamp blowout because I did not have a battery backup. To any customers who own a DLP TV should definitely purchase this inexpensive way to backup your DLP TV Lamp since once your TV goes out it needs a backup for the fan to cool down the lamp.

I recently purchased a 52" SONY XBR flat panel HDTV. I obtained an extended warrantee that required a UPS device. I purchased the Belkin PureAV Home Theater Battery Backup. It is black, resembles a home theater device, and is not obtrusive. A recent storm caused a momentary loss of power for a few seconds. The Belkin kicked in as promised, and the program I was watching was unaffected in a seemless activation. I highly recommend this device to anyone who is serious about protecting their home entertainment center.

For the price you can't beat this Battery Backup/AVR for your home theatre. I have destoyed 2 UPS's in the past year with all the electronics I have in my theatre and this one so far has held up like a champ. I have had it in place for about 2 weeks without one hiccup.

It is replacing the most recent APC-900VA UPS I purchased at Best Buy a few months ago that is unable to hold the load when I power up my components. The Belkin hasn't balked once at anything I have turned on but is at 80% load when I fire up to play video games or watch movies.

The unit was simple to install, although it is very heavy so be aware of this when attempting to move in confined spaces of a wall unit or entertainment center. I did notice a very faint buzzing sound when it first powered on but as it is 13 to 15 feet away from where I sit and is inside of a TV Cabinet near the floor the slight buzzing isn't noticeable.

I currently have plugged into the Belkin a 65" Toshiba Talon Series DLP, Denon AVR 3808CI 7.1 Receiver powering 7 speakers, an Xbox 360 Elite, PS3, Toshiba HD-DVD Player, HD-PVR Cable Box, and a VCR. The highest load it has posted is 80%. I do not think it could handle it though if I was to power up either 2 of the game systems simultaneously with the Television and Receiver so it does have its limits but I wouldn't have a need to do this anyways so for my current activities it is awesome.

Very simple to setup, just plug it into the wall and check after a few hours to make sure it's charged. (If not, it's defective; if it is, you're good to go.)

I have a lot of home theater stuff and networking stuff in one location, and if the power goes out the devices have to be restarted in a particular order - a real pain in the neck and time-consuming, too. I bought this so the power would never go out for my stuff and it's worked flawlessly for the past 7+ months.

It's also a surge protector so I have great peace of mind, too. Note that since it cleans up the power, things like a powerline Ethernet connector won't work if connected to this unit. Use a wall outlet for a powerline-based network or controller.

This is the best protection you can buy for the money and it looks great with my other components. Here in Florida we have a lot of power surges and lightning strikes and now I don't lose a minute of sleep knowing my toys are protected. It is NOT loud at all. It's a great piece of mind, since I did not buy the extended warranty on my LCD big screen. Awesome!