Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Works as it says., August 22, 2006
This is an early review in that I have not had to witness a lengthy power outage to determine its run-time, but from initial experience it seems to run as expected. Some things I do want to pass on to other people, is that this UPS is like most others, even though its from an inverter specialist, and will not operate on an existing modified sine-wave inverter. This won't bother most people however. Others should just note that it is very large as is needed for the run-time it is able to offer, and weighs a good amount too. It does not have a continous audible alarm when operating in backup mode. The documentation states it is a modified sine wave inverter, however I have not checked to see what the exact output looks like. I don't have any delicate equipment connected, so I cannot know if it would cause buzzing from audio equipment or picture distortion in video equipment.
If you require a long run-time from a quiet back-up system this is an ideal solution. I use it to back-up power to my weather monitoring computer because I am gone too much during the day to activate my manual backup system.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
UPS on Steroids for everything except the computer.., January 20, 2007
This is basically a standard UPS with three exceptions.
First, it is not intended for use on computers and thus does not have a USB connector to tell your computer to shut down when the power goes out.
Second, and most importantly, its battery capacity is about 6 times that of a standard UPS. For instance, the Tripplite 700 UPS has a 7aH battery, which will provide 400 watts of power for about 7 minutes. This unit has 2 20aH batteries, for a total of 40aH, and should provide 400 watts for about 35 minutes. My big screen, Onkyo surround system, and satellite dish draw about 200 watts, so in an outage, I can probably watch TV for an hour. If my PVR alone is left on, it can run for 5 hours or longer.
Third, this unit has a power meter on it, so you can tell exactly how many watts you are drawing.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ideal for RV, greatly reduces generator usage, June 17, 2008
I live off-grid, in an RV. I run the generator to recharge a 300aH bank of batteries for the 12v systems in the RV. But even the smallest, most efficient generator still supplies more power than I need. With the excess power I charge several of these Xantrex PowerSources. They then give me back the AC power I need when the generator is off. I use them to power my internet connection, laptop, cell phone recharges, watching TV/DVD, etc. As for usage... I have a 26" standard TV w/DVD, and I can watch a DVD for 3 hours or so. My wireless internet dish only draws about 5 watts, and I can keep it powered for days. If you are looking to power just a laptop and cell phone, for 8 hours a day, you could probably last two days with one unit. These batteries should not be discharged down to more than 50%, and the unit will beep loudly and eventually shut off power, so you don't get the full use of 400 watts overall, it's more like 240. You also don't really get 400 watts at once, count on only plugging in 300 watts worth of stuff at a time. Even so, given the price per amp-hour of AGM batteries, this UPS is still an incredible deal, just in battery value alone--and a much better deal considering portability (luggable, but not too bad), and the included inverter and drawdown info. Very easy to use, the readouts on both my units have always worked fine and any beeping that does happen is appropriate and helpful. Family friendly, and relatively idiot-proof. Once I explained how they worked, others who have stayed in my trailer have found them easy to operate and difficult to damage. Anyway, buy a couple of these and you'll run your generator WAY less often and for a much shorter time.
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