GUIDE TO UPS BATTERIES

APC Back-UPS RS 800VA - UPS - 800 VA - UPS battery - lead acid ( BR800BLK )

Manufacturer : APC
In Stock : 37

List Price:	$189.42
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Features

Product Type - Back-UPS
Connectivity - USB
- 120V Nominal Output Voltage
- (3) NEMA 5-15R (Surge Protection), (4) NEMA 5-15R (Battery Backup) Output Connections

Product Description

The Back-UPS RS offers high performance protection for your business and office computer systems. It provides abundant battery backup power, allowing you to work through medium and extended length power outages. It also safeguards your equipment from damaging surges and spikes that travel along utility, phone and network lines. A distinguishing feature of the Back-UPS RS is automatic voltage regulation (AVR). AVR instantly adjusts both low and high voltages to safe levels, so you can work indefinitely during brownouts and overvoltage situations, saving the battery for power outages when you need it most. Award-winning shutdown software automatically powers down your computer system in the event of an extended power outage.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating of 4.50 out of 12 reviews

Rating :
APC delivers - Ken Ellmaker, May 28, 2008

This back up system shows that APC is still the leader in computer power backup. Not only is it easy to setup, features like variable upper and lower voltage thresholds and surge protection make it a useful tool.

Rating :
Great, low-profile UPS - M. Giraitis, May 14, 2008

I bought this BR800BLK to provide battery backup and surge protection for my new Samsung DLP HDTV, also purchased here at Amazon.com.

I have my DLP TV, dual tuner DVR cable box, DVD player and recorder, VCR, and Playstation 2 all connected to this UPS. Under normal load (approx 120W), this UPS provides around 18min runtime. That's great.

While I do not have any PC attached to this UPS, I did use the free PowerChute Personal Edition software to make a few one-time adjustments to this UPS' operation. I commanded the UPS to use a tight voltage regulation scheme with high sensitivity to line distortion, and also silenced the UPS for normal on-batt signaling. The built-in LEDs are in plain view anyways, so I don't need to hear when it's kicking in to provide perfect power to my new HDTV.

What a great little UPS! 3 year warranty is nice to have as well.

Rating :
Some Advice for Apple Users - Michael Sackett, Feb 13, 2008

I received my new UPS yesterday, plugged it in, turned it on and connected it with the USB cable. Although the Toolbar icon showed (100%), I allowed it to charge for 14 hours. It's beautiful!

There is more than just surge and spike protection and battery backup. Unlike others in its class, the Back-UPS RS 800 has Boost and Trim, Automatic Voltage Regulation (AVR). This gives over-voltage and brownout protection.

Caveat for Apple Mac users: Don't load the APC furnished PowerChute software. OS X 10.4, Tiger and OS X 10.5, Leopard recognize an APC UPS. Just connect them with the furnished USB cable. Then: Systems Preferences > Energy Saver > UPS > UPS and select one of three shutdown modes and adjust the shutdown parameter

I selected "Shutdown the computer when it has been on UPS power for:" and set 5 minutes. When I pulled the plug to simulate power failure, the Toolbar icon showed: 48 minutes of runtime and turned off my iMac in about five minutes. The other shutdown choices are "Time left on UPS power" and "UPS power level".

If you have questions about your individual application, visit the APC website and make use of their selection tool and complete specifications. I did and I'm more than happy with my choice.

Rating :
Worthless. - angrykeyboarder, Jun 30, 2007

This review is an update (4 March 08) of a review written about 9 months prior.

The unit's battery (which has had less than 30 seconds of use) has died. It's supposed to last me for at least another year or so. The thing has never gotten any use.

Why? Because this worthless unit never gives me more than 3 seconds of backup power during any one of (approximately) 10 outages , despite claiming I'm only using 50% of the voltage it's designed for.

Not only is it overpriced and inferior to the other APC model (see below), it's just downright worthless junk. It's basically a very heavy and expensive surge protector.

-----

Original Review (3 stars)

I suppose I should have done more research, but I decided on this model mostly because it seemed to meet (or exceed) my backup power needs in terms of wattage/voltage (it does) and the fact that it's among the few UPS' APC has that are black (why all of them aren't black is a mystery to me).

I don't have your "typical" home computer so I shunned what apparently would have been a more useful (and strangely less expensive) choice; the APC BE750BB Back-UPS 750VA.

Unlike the RS 800 VA it has *5* outlets dedicated to backup power whereas the RS 800 VA only has 4. This has left me one shy. So for a while I left the USB hub in one of the surge only outlets. Later on I bought a plain power strip and plugged it into one of the backup outlets and plugged both external hard drives into that and the strip into a backup outlet on the UPS. I've gotten mixed information as to the advisability of such a setup, but oh well..

Call me crazy, but I would think the more expensive product would have more features (it doesn't). And in fact due to its design is actually harder to connect.

Granted its design is not unusual at all for a UPS. In fact it's more common than not. But after taking a closer look at the BE750BB, the only thing that makes it inferior is that it's 750VA instead of 800.

As it turns out, my monitor, powered USB hub, two external hard drives and my computer with its 550W power supply barely hit half of what 800-VA is capable of handling (estimated battery times show up as 15-20 minutes. I really only need around 10). In other words, I really blew it.

Frankly the less expensive (but seemingly better) model is much less attractive (due to the cords connecting on top rather than in the back). But in fact that feature (as previously stated) makes it more convenient.

I've also found the PowerChute software (both what was provided and the upgrade offered on the APC website) to be a bit flakey at times. It's crashed on several occasions.

And speaking of software, it took them till June 2007 to release a version for Windows Vista. I've had Vista since February 2007 (and this UPS since May 2006) and was using the most recent Non-Vista version which was even flakier in Vista (not surprisingly) than in XP.

I had looked at other brands, several of which had more attractive features and appearance at better prices. But I went with APC becasue if it's superior Linux (community) support (I run both Windows and Linux).

The hardware itself in this model is rock solid though. It's kicked in nicely when needed (twice so far) but it just seems odd to me that it's mostly inferior in terms of features to a less expensive APC model.

Rating :
Great UPS with a long runtime! - crazyk, Dec 19, 2006

This UPS will power my iMac 20" for 35 minutes. I have owned it for 1 year and it has saved me multiple times when the power flickered or when the circuit was tripped.

However, APC does not provide very good Macintosh software for it. Basically, all the software does is shut the computer down after a certain time frame.

Things I would like to see:
*Be able to turn off the beep while on battery
*Keep a record of all power outages

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