APC BE750G Power Saving Battery Back-UPS
by APC
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of APC BE750G Power Saving Battery Back-UPS
Customer Review: A must for every home-electronics setup
Summary: 4 Stars
The number of home electronics devices seems to be proliferating and every year there seems to be a new device that is added to your collection. Most of these devices are expensive and relatively sensitive, and it is important to keep them safe and protected from all eventualities. One of the most common accidents that affects home electronic devices is the damage that they withstand due to power surges. It is however very easy to protect your electronics from those, and a surge protector like APC BE750G is versatile enough to cover almost anyone's needs. The ten outlet setup provides enough plugs to cover most devices in a small home office or at a home entertainment center. The battery backup is big enough to supply electricity for up to three devices for limited time until the power comes back or until you are able to save all of your work on a computer and able to safely shut it down. In practice this would for instance mean that your computer, monitor and modem can keep functioning for a little while even when there is no outside power.
One problem that I have with this surge protector/ power supply is that t doesn't seem to be able to completely handle some more power-hungry devices at their peak power performance. For instance, when I print something on the laser printer the power supply starts to beep indicating that it's operating dangerously close to its maximum capacity.
Another problem that I've had was with the surge protection for my cable modem. After a while the modem stopped working, and I was forced to bypass the cable protection and connect the modem directly to the outside cable. The surge protection for cable is a good idea, but it doesn't seem to be working in practice.
APC comes with included software on a CD ROM that is intended to shut down your computer safely on its own in a case of power failure. This is a good idea, but I haven't really been eager to use it. When my home computer is on I am usually around so in the case of power failure I would be perfectly capable of shutting it down myself, and the additional software when running in the background would only slow down my computer during the regular use. On the other hand, I do have a Windows home server and it would be very useful to have this software running on it, but unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any easy way of installing it on the server. I hope APC comes up with something like that soon.
Overall, this is a very surge-protector/power supply and in the six months that I have been using it it has performed admirably well. I would recommend it for most everyday situations.
Customer Review: Every home should have one
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased one of these items on May 10, 2008. Since I had a blackout on 6/27, I figured I could finally write a review.
First, this is my first APC, as well as my first battery backup, product. I've owned a number of surge protectors in the past, but since I had purchased a new computer, I wanted to try a backup device.
After a deal of research, I finally went with this one, after the value for the money, and the positive reviews APC had received.
This model offers 10 outlets, of which 5 can run off of the battery. This also offers a master, and three 'slave' outlets. This means that if the master is off, the three outlets can optionally be shut off as well (helpful for printers, monitors, speakers, ...) It's optional, so you can shut it off (which I did).
It also offers a USB connection, so you can monitor the status of the battery using APC PowerChute Personal Edition.
Along with charge percentage, it gives the number of volts being passed into it, and the watt load on the battery, which seems to translate into a battery estimate (how long equipment can run).
PowerChute offers a couple of options, for when the power goes off - preserve the battery, or keep the computer on for as long as possible.
Having had a blackout, albeit at night, I can suggest what I had happen. First, my computer appears to have been put to sleep. When it started back up, SpeedFan began running my two fans at 100%. In short, the battery handled the blackout perfectly.
If you're worried about alarms going off at night, there are settings to disable the alarm between particular hours, or disable it entirely.
Finally, while this comes with a battery, they do recommend you replace these every three years. You can run self-tests manually to verify the battery. I did have a bit of trouble when first hooking up the battery, but it was relatively minor.
(As a guy who's interested in statistics, I would also have liked to have been able to pull more information from PowerChute - for example, via a battery log of what's happening when I'm not at my computer. Granted, it'll tell you when the battery kicks in, but I'd like to know what voltage is being passed, and whether usage watts are spiking or moving throughout the day. What happens when I'm running tasks, or if I have my computer sit for a couple of hours with the monitor off?)
Overall, I'm *extremely* happy with this product, and will *definitely* be purchasing another one of these to hook up my Playstation 3 and Sony Bravia.
Customer Review: A must have
Summary: 5 Stars
This product is essential if you have a home office. Unless you have all your power, cable and telephone coming to your computer on the same ground path you are asking for damage when the spike hits. Read:
[...]
The BE650G has 2 fewer jacks, less battery capacity for about the same sale price as the BE750G which makes the latter a real bargain. The BE550G is smaller again and cost a little less but lacks the coax jacks to protect your cable modem.
This model is the best value for the money and essential if you are connected to the internet IMHO.
Pros:
- longest battery life in this form factor
- telephone jacks to protect your modem/ethernet interface
- coax jacks to protect your broadband connection
- reasonably priced replacement batteries
- TEN (count 'em - ten) spots to plug in
- 4 of them spaced for bulky transformers and plugs
- master/slave grouping to power down 3 slave devices for extra power savings
- Mac OS X Energy Saver recognized this unit automatically via included USB cable (no Powerchute req'd)
Cons:
- poor documentation in box (the box and docs are way out of date)
- battery charging slow
- annoying beep when power goes out
When the power is on, your equipment is powered directly from the wall. When there is a failure it will switch to the UPS in an instant. I don't quite understand all the electrical engineering intricacies of pure sine-wave power from this stepped approximation sine-wave but for the average computer system, I've used these reliable backup devices for years without issue. Pure wave UPS devices are very expensive.
I firmly believe that brown outs are very damaging to motherboards and hard drives and you can extend their life by having a UPS power them. Data corruption or even drive failure is unacceptable to me so my airport extreme, time machine drive and cable modem are UPS powered so when the power goes out my laptop doesn't blink an eye.
Got a PVR with external hard drive? You'll need a UPS for backup and why not protect the rest of your expensive TV equipment with the extra surge jacks?
I don't have whole house surge protection but I probably should have it installed because it's the best way to send spikes to ground. In the meantime I'll continue rely on this unit to protect my equipment but the UPS is the main reason I use these devices.
Customer Review: Awesome: But Do Your Research First!
Summary: 4 Stars
I've had an APC Back-UPS unit for several years now and have been very satisfied. When other people in my rural neighborhood have had blown hard drives or mother boards due to "dirty" power, I've not had a bit of trouble. Buying a UPS is a wise investment to protect your sensitive electronic equipment. However, when I went to upgrade trouble started to brew.
Recently, I purchased the BE750G directly from APC's website. I was uncertain about which UPS would work best with my computer, so I used the online wizards at the APC site to help determine the best UPS. The wizard asks questions about the type of computer you have (tower vs. mini desktop), monitor size, and what other type of peripherals you might have connected to your computer. The wizard will also ask you what type of processor you have. I entered all of this information into the wizard and was presented with the BE750G. Click... I made the purchase. Once the UPS arrived, I connected it to my computer following the directions and did a quick self-test of the unit. Within two seconds of clicking the self-test button in the provided Power Chute software, all power to my computer was dropped and it went off.
I called APC tech support and they asked me what type of computer I had. I explained that it was a Dell Studio XPS 435T with the new Core i7-920 processor. The tech support representative did a bit of research and found that the power supply in my computer is not compatible with the APC unit I had purchased. I was told that the BE750G provides power in or as a "stepped approximation to a sinewave" when on battery power and that the power supply in my computer required a UPS that provides a "pure sinewave" when on battery power. It all sounded like Greek to me, I just knew it didn't work.
Okay, so time to return this paper weight back to APC for a refund. But hold on, APC wants to charge me a 15% restocking fee even though it was their website that told me the unit would work with my computer! Aggravating! I'm still waiting to negotiate a peace agreement with APC over this, but have learned a valuable lesson. Do your research!
Although the BE750G doesn't work with my computer, I'm 100% certain that it would work with older computers. I'm so confident of this that I purchased a second APC unit (SMT750) for my home office. This one should work. APC products good. APC sales... not so good.
Customer Review: Essential
Summary: 4 Stars
I have used one UPC or another for years, and swear by them. (Sell no computer without a UPS!) As I replace one with another possessing more outlets (that seems to be the direction of the world...), I migrate the older one downstream so that I now have all my electronics on battery, or at least surge protection. Only makes sense whenever you live in lightning country, or work with variable electrical supply (e.g., generators). I have never had a power or reliability problem with an APC unit. The price is very good.
I bought this Back-UPS 750G for its green features, as well as 10 clean outlets--look around your computer and count the surprising number of devices that require power (not overlooking modems and routers). I dare say the power supply side of this Back-UPS really is more efficient, but the Master/Controlled outlet business was a big disappointment. It ought to be the biggest contributor to saving electrical costs, but does not work for me. When my iMac computer is the Master and is put to sleep, it will turn off up to three Controlled peripherals, but as they are shutting off a few seconds later, some of them (external hard drive or printer) seem to send a signal to the computer that wakes it up again, which then turns the peripherals back on. This cycle defeats the whole purpose, doesn't it. Customer service had me change the wattage sensitivity controls, since some Macs seem to consume lots of watts in sleep, but that did not solve my problem. If anybody has a workaround, let me know.
I have also tried a Master/Slave surge arrest with a television, and ran into a similar problem: if the TV was master, the slaved receiver did not turn on soon enough to supply a signal in time to the TV, or if the receiver was master, there was not enough delay before the TV lit up to have a signal available. I had then to power cycle one or the other to get the signal in the right sequence. These problems cannot be general, or no one would produce these controlled power regulators, so I may be unlucky with my particular combinations of equipment.
If this could be you, I suggest you try this Back-UPS, or similar, only if you have return privileges. The Master outlet can also be turned into an ordinary one, with battery backup. None of the Controlled outlets have battery backup, and they are spaced close together (a power brick is likely to cover two of the three Controlled outlets).