10 out of 10 people found this review helpful.
Truly a Worthy Investment
Date of Review: Feb 25, 2007
The Bottom Line: APC is a trusted name and this product is nothing short of excellent.
I'll start by saying that I chose this unit over the less expensive CyberPower CP1500AVRLCD simply because it offered 6 surge protected battery backup and 2 SP only outlets, as opposed to the CyberPower unit offering 4 SP B and 4 SP only outlets. Right out of the box, I will tell you that this unit is pretty heavy for its size. 30.7 lbs to be exact. It boasts 1500va and supports up to 865 watts. A bit excessive for my needs to say the least.
The red illuminated LCD is bright, easy to read, and displays real-time system status and a plethora of information at the touch of a button. The LCD can be set to turn off automatically or stay on full-time. I keep mine on full-time so that I can visually monitor the performance, and simply because the LCD is just very cool. Matches my red and black themed desktop settings. Coolness factor aside, the two display modes, On-Line and Battery, both will display the load capacity and battery charge indicators. In the On-Line mode, the LCD will display input voltage (121v), estimated run time in minutes (currently 25 minutes), load in watts (currently fluctuates between 180w and 195w), load percentage (22%), output voltage (121v), and battery output frequency (60.0 Hz). Similarly, in Battery Mode, you can view the number of events (and reset the counter), output and input voltage, input load, load percentage and estimated run time. The really cool part is that this information is consistent with what is being displayed in the APC PowerChute software that comes with the unit. For example, if the estimated runtime indicator changes, it'll reflect immediately on the software display as well. Additionally, the LCD will also display warning indicators such as power overload, audio warning tones and audio mute, battery replacement, low backup battery and system fault codes. To illustrate how detailed the this unit is, here is a list fault codes that it will show you:
F01 - on-battery overload
F02 - on-battery output short
F03 - on-battery XCap overload
F04 - clamp short
F05 - charger fault
F06 - relay welding
F07 - temperature
F08 - fan fault
F09 - internal fault
Whew! Is there anything the folks at APC didn't think of? In addition to telling you everything that possibly could go wrong with the unit, you still have the ability to run a self test, mute audible alarms, AVR (automatic voltage regulation) kicks in when needed, and the option to adjust sensativity levels on the display with an AC line input while the UPS is off.
For $199, the current price is pretty steep (comparatively). The convenience of the uber cool and very functional LCD display of course adds to the cost. But I think it's a worthwhile investment, especially if you're a gearhead who likes to monitor all aspects of system performance. And APC offers $150,000 equipment replacement guarantee should anything go terribly wrong. The unit is overkill for my current desktop configuration, but offers a solid piece of mind nonetheless. Not a bad gig at all. Now I guess I'll just have to wait for a black/brownout to occur to see if everything works as advertised in a real world situation. I have no reason to believe it wouldn't.
