Customer Reviews

Belkin PureAV Home Theater Battery Backup with AVR Technology

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

 

 

As usual I looked everywhere for-and-at this unit, and when I found it on Amazon with Free Shipping (this is a heavy unit) I had to go for it. My main concern was: is this the unit with Ethernet protection? The specs say "yes" but the Customer Image of the rear panel doesn't show it. That pic is WRONG; the unit has RJ45 IN/OUT and the audio alarm rocker on it--it's indeed the latest model.

The total package is large, & heavy at 42lbs so a concern is always "howzit gonna survive shipping" and I was pleased to see it was TRIPLE-BOXED! Actually, an outer box with airbags, then the Belkin shipping box and finally the Retail packaging with the plastic handle & pretty pictures. Still, when I got it apart there were a few tiny scratches on the unit--a very heavy bag with rackmount ears in it had gotten unstuck from the cardboard and was flopping-around in the innermost box with the unit. But the pretty faceplate is covered with a heavy plastic protector so no worries there.

Like the other reviewer, I noticed the 60-cycle hum immediately when I plugged it in--my home theater is very quiet when everything's powered down. I don't expect the hum to be a problem when the TV is on, and my Belkin is 12 feet away at the front of the room in the TV stand, but I'm not sure I'd tolerate it very well if I were only listening to music (but I don't ever do that so it's not a concern for me) or if it were in my other equipment rack that's right behind my viewing position.

The battery was completely drained, and it needed an overnighter to charge-up to full capacity--testing reveals it hums quite a LOT when on battery power, but again this is not a concern for me--I don't want battery power to be able to keep watching; I want it to be able to shut-down my Rear Projection TV so the fan will keep running and cool the lamp first. I also wanted it for my DVR which has a spinning hard drive that needs protection.

Overall I am very pleased, and note the WAF on this is excellent (mine thought it was "pretty"!). A good deal indeed!

Purchased this unit recently from another vendor. When powered on it emits a low frequency hum even when no load is connected. Hum is heard only when the room is quiet, but can be irritating for folks that like a quiet room.
Otherwise, the unit looks solidly built, sleek but heavy.

I did not have a brown outage or lightning interference yet. However I had all my equipment plugged in and turned on when I unplugged the power cable from the wall, I could not see a single glitch, everything worked as if nothing had happened. I also turned off the power in my house and I got the same results. The only draw back of this unit is the amplifier that is built inside it. I did notice that I hear radio interference coming from my 7.1 surround sound system when I crank the volume all the way, and I hear less interference when I am not using this unit. (this only occurs when I blast my 1000 watt sound system). Overall, I am happy with this unit.

This unit works perfectly. Now, I will note two things: If your outlet has a ground fault, the unit will hum. Fix the ground (or find a better outlet!) and the unit is silent while working. There is a small "switch sound" when it turns on the UPS, but that's much better than shutting the system down.

Secondly, I only use one outlet of this unit, and it's plugged into a AP4130012 - Belkin Components - Belkin PureAV Home Theater Power Console PF60 - Surge suppressor ( external ) - 13 output connector(s). That unit has my TiVo and Dish receiver, my 100 watt x 6.1 channel AV receiver, a 46" LCD HDTV, and a PS3. I will get four of five bars of "power usage" filled with everything on.

The power in my rural area is not that great, and the unit kicks on about 1-2 times a week. I hear nothing from the speakers or notice anything on the TV. I also believe that the use of both of these PureAV power units has increased the sound stage and lowered the noise floor of my system.

On the down side, there is no way to completely turn off the LED bars on the unit, so I glued some dark grey polarized film over the display. Also, I don't have anything else in my rack that is silver like this and would have preferred black, but for some reason they were much more expensive. Oh well. Now my peace of mind has battery backup. With all the money I spend on all the other peaces of my home theater, I'm glad I have two layers of buffer between me and the rest of the county.

The first PureAV unit I received didn't work. It showed a bad battery then the whole unit went dark and wouldn't charge. The instruction manual showed a switch on the back to turn audio alerts on or off, but this unit didn't have one. Fortunately Amazon replaced the unit quickly and the second unit worked fine and had the audio on/off switch. I am powering an Hitachi plasma and a DirecTv receiver with the unit. So far no blackouts, but we have had several brownouts and the TV and the receiver didn't flinch. The battery in this thing is huge compared to other units I've had so it should hold power for a reasonable time. For the price, I think they should include a digital power meter instead of just LED lights. That is the only issue I have with the second unit. If you receive one without the audio on/off switch in the back, I would send it back even if it works. The unit without the switch was the exact same model number, but I suspect if was a refurbished unit as it didn't have all the packaging the second unit had.

If you check out comparable APC units, you will see that this is a good value. And the face plate design is nice and clean, too, if that shows.

My only complaint is that there are too few surge-protected only and too many battery backed-up and surge-protected outlets. My experience is that only a cable box, TiVo, DVR, modem, and router etc. will be battery backed up. I don't want to use up the juice on my amp. And a projector needs its own.

I was worried that running my 1000w Onkyo home theater system would be too much for this unit since it's only rated at 640w. I have an Optoma HD70 projector, the Onkyo 1000w receiver, a DirecTV unit, and a Toshiba DVD player all plugged into it. The meter reaches 60% capacity when the projector lamp is on high and the receiver is turned way up, so the Belkin UPS should run most home theater setups without any problems.

As some of the other reviewers stated, I noticed a slight hum when this unit is plugged in. It's not too loud for me, but it's there. The unit looks very nice. The LED display is a little bright and would be nice if there was a way to lower the light level. The cabinet is very well built and this unit is really heavy. Needs to go on the lower shelf of your cabinet for sure. Comes with extra cables and is packaged very nice. A great value and I will be buying another one for downstairs soon.

I charged the unit overnight as indicated in the manual. After charging I ran the self-test and instantly got a "Replace Battery" indicator. The unit functioned (other than battery back-up). Belkin is sending a replacement, however, I am stuck paying the shipping on the defective unit.

What a great day and age we live in where I can purchase a defective product and I have to pay to send it back...

I bought two of these to replace APC backup units in my stereo rack and underneath my LCD television. They fit a lot better with the rest of my equipment than the units they replaced because they are a standard component shape and width.

The front panel is actually plastic, not brushed aluminum as it appears, but it still looks good. Just be careful not to scratch it as the plastic is rather soft and is painted silver or black. Mine are the silver version because at the time I bought them black was nearly impossible to find. Given the choice, I would go with the black as it blends in more and won't show scratches as easily.

There is a low-pitched, audible transformer hum from both of mine that can be heard when my ear is about five feet away and the room is quiet. My system is on a dedicated 20 amp circuit with hospital-grade outlets, so this isn't a result of wiring or ground problems, just a characteristic of the unit. Obviously it wasn't a big enough deal to stop me from buying a second one, but it is something to be aware of before clicking the buy button.

I purchased two of these about 2 years ago. Right out of the box, it did not work as advertised. With about 25-30% load, the best run time I would get out of it with a presumably brand new battery was about 4 to 6 minutes. The advertised maximum run time is 40 minutes so I had hoped to get a lot more than 6 minutes at low load. I was disappointed, but surge protection and not having all equipment reset on a power blink (and I get a lot of those). My real trouble started recently. Normally I would expect to get maybe 3 years of life out of a battery. Around 3 months ago, less than 2 years from purchase, the battery on one of the units would drain in less than a minute, and a few weeks after that, the second unit would simply shut down on a power surge or loss and I would have to physically turn the unit back on when power is restored. I called Belkin tech support and was told that the battery is not a user replaceable part and that I would have to ship back the unit and incur the cost of shipping there, the cost of the battery and the cost of shipping it back. With a weight of more than 30#, it is going to cost me more to get the battery replaced than it does to purchase a new unit.

In short, this is a disposable product that doesn't work as advertised. The only reason for 2 stars instead of 1 is that it suited my need for at least a short period.