APC Battery Backup 550VA/330W Uninterruptible Power Supply for PC, BE550G

This product is just right for providing power to a few small electronic items, like a cable modem, router, and printer. It works well. I tested it by unplugging it from house current, and it worked. The connected devices kept working. This is not a real UPS, but it is fine for home use. A real UPS provides continuous power - it always provides power from the battery. This product does not do that. Instead, it normally gives power from the house current. When the power in the house goes out, this unit cuts over to the battery in a fraction of a second. So it is not continuous power. But it is fine for home use. The change to battery power is so quick that the powered devices do not go down - they stay running normally. I saw one review by someone whose printer stopped during the change from house current to battery. He said that a print job took days to finish. I am guessing that he was using a 3D printer. It is possible that those printers are more sensitive to power fluctuations, and must have a real UPS (see my description above for the difference between this unit and a real UPS). All I can say is - as soon as you install this unit, attach and turn on your connected devices, start printing something, and test this unit by pulling the plug. If any of your connected devices stop working, replace this with a real UPS (for a much higher price). I would recommend this for any home user, to power a few small items. I did not rate any of the features - WiFi signal, tech support, and sleep mode. I did not use tech support, and the WiFi and sleep mode features do not make any sense.

This review is for the APC Back-UPS ES 8 Outlet 550VA 120V. Amazon combines reviews for several different models so I wanted everyone to know exactly which model I am reviewing. This is also important since all of the models differ from one another. This is an excellent backup for the price. I purchased it to keep my modem and router from turning off and rebooting should the power flicker or go out for a short time. This backup does the trick. It has 4 back up ports and 4 standard surge protected ports. You can also hook it up to a PC (I did not). The backup is also very quiet (actually silent). For the price, it is difficult to purchase any thing else with better quality. I think APC's backups are great. For those of you that are considering purchasing this backup however, I would like to point out some things to be aware of. First, the backup is rather large and heavy. You cant exactly stick it behind a dresser. Make sure you have ample room for it. The other thing is that the plugs on the backup are oddly spaced. There are 3 outlets side by side and then 1 further away. If you plug one of those larger square plugs (that come with a modem or router) into one of the outlets that are side by side, it slightly covers one of the other plugs. To clarify what I mean, lets call them outlet 1, outlet 2, outlet 3, and outlet 4. Outlets 1 through 3 are the ones side by side and Outlet 4 is the one further away. Currently, my modem is plugged into outlet 1. Because of the size of the modem's plug, it actually covers a portion of outlet 2 and renders it unusable. So I am left with only outlets 3 and 4 for battery backup uses.There is ample room on the backup so APC could have easily separated the outlets evenly to avoid this problem. Anyways, it doesn't bother me since I didn't need 4 backup outlets, but I thought everyone should be aware. Hope the review helps.

Oustanding Product

This is my first battery back up that I've ever purchased. I couldn't really justify spending money on something that just seemed like a convenience until I did some research on how sudden shutdowns can be damaging to Solid State Drives (SSDs). I like how it not only helps with outages but works as a bigger buffer than just a power strip alone. I also liked the fact that it has several places to plug into for the battery backup and some extra ones for just surge protection. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to prevent damage to their computers, in particular their SSDs and those people who want to be able to shut down there computer and not lose data that may not have been saved. It also lessens the odds of having corrupted files from an improper shutdown. Pros: 1. Provides better protection than just a surge protector since it not only protects from those but power spikes as well 2. Good price 3. Alarm to alert you of a power spike is good but, can also be disabled through the software 4. Allows adequate time to save and shutdown your computer 5. Provides stats of things such as power failures and power spikes 6. Will properly shutdown the computer within a set amount of time if you aren't there to do it manually Cons: 1. One must remember to install the software to be able to follow the statistics and turn off the alarms 2. Only gives you a few minutes to shut things down, therefore not like a laptop battery which allows you to work while waiting for the power to come back on

This APC battery backup has been one of the best investments I've made for protecting my electronics. I've experienced power spikes, surges, and brief interruptions from the electric company, and this UPS has saved my equipment more than once. Instead of my computer, router, and other electronics suddenly shutting down or taking the hit from a power fluctuation, the APC kicks in and keeps everything running long enough for the power to stabilize or for me to shut things down properly. I also appreciate the built-in surge protection, network protection, and replaceable battery. Setup is simple, and once it's connected, you can basically forget about it until the power decides to misbehave. Five stars. Considering how much my electronics cost, this UPS has easily paid for itself by helping protect them from unpredictable power issues. I wouldn't run my important equipment without one.

Not sure if the reviews are lumped together so just to specify, this is for the BE-550G. I have historically never bothered to run a UPS, but I've been having minor power flickers in my house lately, a couple times a week that would reset my computer much to my annoyance (I run my desktop 24/7). I thought I should get a slightly bigger UPS since I have a custom built budget gaming rig, but I did some quick finger math and decided this one would work "for now". The device came with about a 95% charge if I remember correctly. I plugged in my computer and one monitor to the battery side and let it charge up to 100%, then gave it an extra hour or so. It claimed something like 150 minutes of runtime in the APC monitor program so I decided it needed a calibration. I set it all up for a worst case scenario simulation -- I used MSI Kombustor to load up the CPU and GPU and then pulled the plug. I wasn't 100% sure I'd picked one with enough wattage but it didn't flinch. It did however tell me I had 1 minute before shutdown (set to shutdown when 5 minutes remained). So I quickly set the computer back to idle and the runtime jumped back up to 7 minutes. I let it run to shutdown and everything worked just as it should. However one of the safety features caught me off guard. Forgive me for not looking up the specifics right now, but basically wait a couple minutes after power is restored if you drain the unit until it shuts down. If my memory serves, the safety feature will shut down the battery for 2 minutes (or maybe one?) after power is restored after a full drain then cycle the power. So being "that guy" who doesn't like to read directions, when it died I plugged it back up and hit the power button on my computer... It booted most of the way up then there was some beeping (from the UPS) as it cycled the power and my computer reset, and about the time it got back to the BIOS screen it cycled the power again with some more beeping. The more you know. It can't possibly be good to fully discharge a battery in 7 minutes or less, but this thing functioned flawlessly and could be a life saver. It didn't even heat up that I could tell. After my "calibration", the monitor program now says I should have 15 minutes at idle, which is probably pretty close to accurate and more than I should ever need. The next day after I hooked it up the power dropped out for a couple seconds during a storm, the UPS kicked on just like it should, and reported the problem to me in the monitor program. Now I'm just wondering why I didn't buy one of these sooner! Note that this thing takes forever to charge itself (think 12+ hours from 20% which was the magical 5 minute cut off on my system), probably to avoid unnecessary lead-acid battery related risks on your carpeted floor, but that shouldn't be an issue unless you're having constant power problems. Just a note for anyone who (like me) sat around scratching their heads about which UPS will do what you need, maybe this will help... I already told you the estimated runtimes I got, here's a rundown of the power consumers on my rig: CPU - AMD FX-4350 @ 4.2ghz GPU - MSI NVIDIA GTX-760 Gaming Storage - 2x WD Red HDDs, 1x Samsung 840 EVO SSD Monitor - Asus 23.5" 1080p Update 10/16/2016: This unit is still doing its job without a complaint. The PowerChute program tells me that the unit has switched on twice for "blackouts" totaling 9 seconds and twice for "electrical noise" totaling 24 seconds, in the past 24 weeks. It doesn't seem to register extremely short-lived problems (a second or so), I say that because on a couple occasions I've seen the house lights flicker and heard the unit rapidly click on and off with no report. No big deal. Also the Estimated Battery Time has gone back up to 145 minutes, I haven't bothered to recalibrate because I never really look at it anyway and I know what it'll do. It periodically reports that it passed a self test, which is nice although I'm not exactly sure how it performs that test.

I bought an APC UPS for my Tivo, on the advice of the Weaknees web site, and plugged the Tivo into the battery outlet of the APC UPS. I plugged other items (TV, cable box, remote charger) into other outlets. I came home after a planned power outage in my area to find that the Tivo was fried, completely not functional and with a blinking green light that indicates the motherboard was damaged (per Weaknees). The other connected items were fine. I know that there was a power surge because the line conditioner I have on my main A/V set up a floor above tripped and had to be reset. I contacted APC and found that the process of filing for product replacement takes around two months and requires mailing the UPS unit to APC at the consumer's expense. APC does provide a free replacement unit. APC then does a number of tests to determine if their unit failed. In my case, they determined that it did not and therefore I am not entitled to any compensation. I am not an electrical engineer so cannot comment on the validity of the testing, but from the consumer viewpoint I bought the unit to protect sensitive equipment in the event of a power surge. There was a power surge after which my Tivo connected to the APC UPS was damaged. Since the Tivo had lifetime service, I'm out for a $300 unit plus a $400 service policy. If you are considering an APC UPS based in part on the stated Product Replacement Policy be aware that damage to your product may not lead to compensation.

I bought this unit, it was not provided to me for review. I live in Florida, we have a lot of lightning and a lot of power outage blinks. I bought one of these for our internet router and one for the computer we use to watch online movies and tv content. No more problems. It was a huge aggravation to have a power blink when watching a Netflix movie, sometimes it would take half an hour for everything to return to good working order. Since installing the UPS, zero problems, we even had power go out and stay out for about 3-minutes, the UPS was beeping but then power came back and our system played through the outage with no problem or loss of sync, perfect! I've owned a lot of UPS by APC, I keep buying them because they keep working well and lasting a long time. I have one of their 1500 watt units to backup the computers and digital audio converters in my recording studio. No problems with any hum or buzz and no problems with drop outs either. I tried a popular competitor to APC three years ago, I was using that UPS on my internet modem in California. That UPS failed completely after 16 months and it had not been called on for any major outages, just a few blinks like down here in Florida. After that experience it was easy to buy these APC models. The software included still does not work with Apple Mac computers but you don't need it. These could not be easier to use, connect the battery, plug what you want to backup into the UPS, plug it in to the wall, you're done, you're protected. Great product!

does what it's designed for. The only thing I don't like is not being able to disable the feature that turns off the UPS when connected to a computer and that there is a power failure. The feature is there to prevent the computer from turning back on after shutting down properly (thanks to the software that comes with the UPS) so it waits about 3 minutes to give enough time for the computer to shut off and then it kills the power completely. So if there is a power restore within that 3 minutes, it will kill the power still and turn it back on right away, resulting in a reboot for anything that was plugged in. Other than that, it's a great product, the battery is easy to access and replace when the time comes.

Adquirí este UPS para proteger un NAS WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra (cabe mencionar que no todos los UPS son soportados ) y hasta el momento no he tenido problema. Recientemente tuve que cortar la alimentación de mi casa para realizar mantenimiento a la red eléctrica. El corte duró aproximadamente 1 hora y el UPS se comportó excelente manteniendo el NAS, un modem y un router encendidos todo el tiempo.

Siempre me recomendaron la marca APC cuando buscaba un UPS para mi computadora de escritorio y la verdad no me ha decepcionado. El producto llego en tiempo y forma, y en excelentes condiciones. Lo he estado usando por un par de meses y ha respondido como esperaba, ahora ya no tengo que preocuparme por estar jugando mis videojuegos favoritos en linea y tener una desconexión imprevista. La verdad recomiendo mucho el producto y el vendedor.

My 2nd one. My 1st one lasted 10 or more years, through many power outages and 1brown out and protected all my computer equipment. Awesome product

No hay mucho que comentar, el articulo en si es funcional, llego en el tiempo esperado y sin presentar mayores problemas.