APC BR1500 Back-UPS 1500VA for Home/Office Computers | List Price: $303.15
Discount Price: Too low to display
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Brand: APC
Binding: Electronics
Features: - Product Type - Back-UPS
- Connectivity - Interface Port USB, Extended runtime model, Rack Height 2 U
- Nominal Output Voltage - 120V
- Output Connections - (2) NEMA 5-15R (Surge Protection) ,(6) NEMA 5-15R (Battery Backup)
Best UPS I've had for home office, and most expensive [Posted on 2007-03-21]
The reason I had to spend this much for a UPS (in January of 2007) is because I wanted to keep my Dual-Core Pentium PC with two hard drives and DVD drives, two external hard drives, an LCD monitor, a modem, and a network hub running for a few minutes when the power goes out. Whatever a salesman tells you, you can't do all that for much less than what this costs. I tried!
Both APC and Tripplite have good calculators on their websites that tell what size UPS you need for the amount of things you have relying upon the UPS. My advice is to upgrade one notch from what the calculator suggests. Modern PC's (plus modems and hubs) take much more power than they did five years ago.
I've had APC in the US since 1992 and while working as an IT manager in China for five years, so I trust it and find that the brand is still reliable.
This slim tower design fits nicely under my desk and allows for different sized plugs to be arranged sensibly in the back.
One little snag to this UPS worked itself out: when I first got it, a faint unpleasant smell came from the unit. I called APC and got through very quickly. They admitted knowing of the problem and said give it three weeks to burn off some circuit-board lamination materials. Within ten days the smell was gone and I now have no complaints. APC also said that future units would not have the problem. Plus I found out that APC's customer service was excellent.
Last note: when comparing the price, be sure to note that this is the RS series; some stores have an older, discontinued model that looks very similar.
Overall, I'm very satisfied and feel the price was fair for equipment and data protection. Fast delivery from Amazon.
Glad I bought it. [Posted on 2007-09-12]
Gives my P3 600 MHz + CRT about 30 minutes after the power is out, which seems to be happening more. Keeps a history of faults. I thought I bought the 1000VA unit for home, not this one, but that is what Amazon is saying.
Could use a few more outlets on the back, even if they were just the surge protector outlets. Wall warts cover up some slots, especially for the speakers.
You cannot run a refrigerator off of it. Yes you can plug it in, yes the lights will come on, fan motor will turn, but the moment the compressor kicks in pop goes the circuit breaker. Just thought you should know.
When buying battery backups, the manufacturers seem to love to hide what is the total amp-hours or watt-hours of the battery pack, and this one is hard to find too. Just compare run time at a certain wattage level. Whether a UPS can do 1000W or 1500W is less important than does it last 30 minutes or an hour. How many people have 1000W power supplies in their computer (yeah, the monitor and printer draws power too).
This is my 2nd one (but for good reason) [Posted on 2007-12-11]
The actual APC model number for this is "RS 1500" - it's a little confusing.
This is my 2nd purchase of this model from Amazon. I liked the 1st one on my server so much I bought another one for my entertainment center. With a big screen TV, A/V receiver, DVR and satellite box running, I have 15-20 minutes of power with just the enclosed battery (there's an optional external battery to extend the run time - I don't have that). Now I don't lose 15 minutes of something I'm recording just because we got a 1-second power outage (it takes a long time for the satellite box to reboot).
I'd definitely buy again (wait - I already did).
Where's the Alarm Cut-Off Switch [Posted on 2008-07-08]
While this UPS is very powerful to hold up both my PC & Mac systems, there's One BIG problem the engineers didn't think of and that's "No alarm cut off switch!!!" Every now and then my neighborhood loses power, then my UPS kicks in. So normally I check to see if its my circuit breaker or the whole block. If its my circuit breaker I tried to silence the alarm before going to the basement, but found there's No alarm cut off for the APC BR1500..., UN-BELIEVABLE!
Repeated Overload Faults When Computer is Asleep [Posted on 2008-10-14]
I had one of these for just over a year. i got rid of it because of repeated "overload" faults that were occurring with greater and greater frequency. What would happen is that I'd come back into my office or come home to find the APC UPS screaming away, with no power to my computer (or modem or router). In every case, the red "overload" indicator would be lit.
You might think that I'm simply overloading the unit. But all I had plugged into it was a Mac Pro, as well as my modem and router. At 1500 VA, it's rated for much more than that. And the kicker is, the majority of times the "overload" fault occurred was when the computer was asleep.
I switched over to a MGE Pulsar UPS unit. One of the benefits of the switch is that the MGE unit does not require any proprietary software. Mac OS X recognizes the UPS and allows me to adjust the settings for it through the "Energy Saver" preference pane. Perhaps it was APC's PowerChute software that was the problem with the APC unit. Whatever it was, I'd recommend looking elsewhere for a UPS.
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