The BackUPS battery backup offers guaranteed power and surge protection for wireless networks, computers, gaming consoles and other electronics in your home or business. What Is Solar Battery Smart Car Battery Warranty Change Battery Char Broil Igniter Are Car Batteries Lithium. In response to our power bar teardown, many of you asked to see a UPS receive the same treatment. So, today, we go on a tour inside a vintage APC BX1000. Five Best Battery BackupsUPS Units. Power outages, surges, and brownouts can all wreak havoc on your electronics, and while a good surge protector can definitely help, a solid battery backup will keep your gear safe from surges, condition the power as it comes in, and keep your gear running until you can turn it off safely in case of an outage.
This week, were looking at five of the best, based on your nominations. Update We asked our readers this same question in 2. Read more Read. Earlier in the week, we asked you which battery backups and UPS uninturruptable power supplies were the best, whether because they hit the price to performance sweet spot, offered remote management features that let you power down your gear even when youre away, or just really get the job done. Heres what you said, in no particular order Power outages and surges suck, but if you really want to protect your gear, a good battery backupRead more Read. The Cyberpower 1. CP1. 35. 0AVRLCD is a mini tower, 8. Watts1. 35. 0 VA UPS that features a helpful LCD display on the front to give you visual cues to the devices health, battery charge, load capacity, and if there are any current issues or faults on the line. It packs 8 outlets 4 batterysurge, 4 surge, and is well designed for home theater setups, computer workstations, and its slim enough to fit behind or under a desk.
It also features USB and Serial connectivity, protection for Ethernet, coax, and telephone lines. The included software will shut your devices down gracefully in case of an outage. Speaking of connected equipment, the 1. Those of you who nominated the 1. Cyberpower models praised their longevity and their price to performance ratio. Some of you noted that Cyberpowers software leaves a lot to be desired, but overall the equipment is solid and those of you who use them love them. If you want one, theyll set you back 1. Amazon. APC is a juggernaut in the UPS market, and a number of you just nominated anything APC, which kind of echoes that point. The Smart UPS 1. LCD packed, home user friendly SMC1. SMT1. 50. 0, which is a more pricey 4. The major difference, as this thread explains is that the SMT1. SMC1. 50. 0, which trades a fatter battery for an expansion slot and a better LCD. Both models are 9. Watts1. 50. 0 VA units, pack 8 batterysurge protection outlets, and both have displays on the front to help you check on line health and battery status. Both feature remote management features and remote shutdown, bundled software that will power down your devices for you, and two year warranties. Keep in mind though that while these can be used for desktops and home entertainment systems, theyre designed for household wide, server, and other broad uses, so theres no data line protection for ethernet, coax, or telephone lines. Both are also covered under APCs 1. The specific nominations for the Smart UPS 1. Its also worth mentioning that both of these models are stepped sinusoidal models, as opposed to some of the newer square wave units, which is important depending on what devices you plan to connect it toif you want to connect your UPS to a computer or a NAS, its not much to be concerned about, but if youre plugging it into appliances or other heavier duty gear, youll care about this. If youre only interested in protecting one workstation and its equipment, or you just dont want to spend hundreds upon hundreds to protect a couple of devices, the APC Back UPS 6. Its flat and designed more like a thick power strip with a replaceable battery inside. Its a 3. 90 Watt 6. VA unit, and features 8 outlets 4 batterysurge protection, 4 surge protected in a package small enough to sit beside your desk or just underneath it. Like other APC models, it packs data line protection for Ethernet, and pairs with the manufacturer included software that will shut your computers or other devices down in case of an outage. The 6. 50 also packs a three year warranty, and is covered by APCs connected equipment warranty up to 7. Those of you who nominated this model were aiming for something perfect for a home office or just a couple of workstations, but was also budget friendly. The 6. 50 is definitely thatyou can pick one up for 7. Amazon right now. If you need a little more juice for your home office or home entertainment system, the Back UPS Pro 1. APCs flat, power strip like units to a mini tower much like the Cyberpower we mentioned earlier albeit a little less powerful. The Back Ups Pro 1. Watt1. 00. 0 VA UPS that features 8 outlets again, 4 batterysurge protection, 4 surge protection only, data line protection for Ethernet and coax lines, an LCD display on the front that displays battery status, line health, and any other pending issues. Like other APC units, it also tries to shut your gear down gently if theres an outage, and will protect them from power surges as well. Its covered under APCs 1. Those of you who nominated the 1. LCD in a desktop model thats easy to keep an eye on. You also noted that its a great model that offers great protection at a decent price, but is still aimed directly at workstations and home entertainment systems. You can grab one for 1. Amazon. Unlike Cyberpower and APC, which focus their marketing and manufacturing efforts at individual buyers, IT departments, and home users looking to protect their gear, Powervar directs its efforts at businesses and companies looking for battery backups, surge protectors, and power line conditioners to keep their electronics running smoothly in any environment. While initially nominated by an electrical engineer who distributes Powervar products to businesses thanks KOC, a number of you rallied to the cause and pointed out that Powervars models offer superior line conditioning to many other units on the market. The GTS is actually a series of products ranging from 2. VA to 6. 00 VA, and all of them offer true isolated, sinusoidal power. The kicker with Powervars products though is that theyre targeted exclusively towards businesses, so youd have to jump through some hoops to get one of your very own. To our knowledge, theyre not available for retail sale, so if you want one, youll either have to get in touch with Powervar to see what they can do for you, or snag one secondhand from a current customer. Now that youve seen the top five, its time to vote for the Lifehacker community favorite No honorable mentions this week, since weve covered all of the bases above. A few other APC models made it into the nominations as well, but these were the most popular, easily. Have something to say about one of the contenders Want to make the case for your personal favorite, even if it wasnt included in the listRemember, the top five are based on your most popular nominations from the call for contenders thread from earlier in the week. Dont just complain about the top five, let us know what your preferred alternative isand make your case for itin the discussions below. The Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, its not because we hate itits because it didnt get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand its a bit of a popularity contest, but if you have a favorite, we want to hear about it. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five Send us an email at tipshivefivelifehacker. Amazon. com APC Back UPS 6. VA UPS Battery Backup Surge Protector with USB Charging Port BE6. M1 Home Audio Theater I purchased two of this model. One to be used in my basement to handle the following with battery backup surge protection AT T Gateway Router 3. Synology DS2. 11j NAS 2. W watt Netgear R7. The other to be used for my living rooms entertainment center for the following devices 5. Plasma TV Surge Protector only DVR 2. Sound bar Subwoofer on Surge Protector only Cordless Phone Vo. IP adapter Cisco Linksys E4. The one in the living room has been working fine for 2 months now. However, the one in the basement kept shutting off with a constant loud tone and no LED light indicator. In the manual, this means its in an overload condition. How can it be overloading with only the 3 devices listed above connected to it I initially thought it was losing power from the main receptable so I suspected the GFCI receptable, but I tested it and it was working fine it did not trip. The device would work fine for 3 4 days but then it goes into that overload condition, shutting power off to the connected devices, including the NAS. My NAS does not report Battery Low or anything like that. The only e mail message I see from it is when its started again and it says Experienced an improper shutdown. I thought I had a faulty unit so I requested an RMA and Buy. VPC sent me a replacement immediately after they received the first one. I installed the second one and it lasted 5 6 days thinking that everything is good now, but no. I had the exact same problem again. What are the odds of this happening to two different UPS devices I would suspect my setup but I dont know what to suspect exactly. You can see the video of when the issue happened with this replacement. I recorded the video for customer support because it is very difficult to see this issue upon a quick inspection of the returned device so I wanted to make sure its documented. Sorry for the loud toneIn conclusion, I do not trust this APC model but I am still suspicious of my setup. I ordered the older model APC BE5. G instead. I installed it yesterday and will keeping an eye on it for the next several weeks to see if its reliable. I just want to emphasize that my rating is purely for the product and not the customer service of Buy. VPC, which has been extremely responsive and understanding. The processed the RMA without any issues. I would definitely buy from them again. Update 1. AUG 2. 01. 6 I forgot to mention that with the first faulty unit, I tried performing the steps to reset the UPS, which go like this 1. Disconnect any attached load. Unplug the UPS from the wall socket. Disconnect the UPS internal battery. Push and hold the On button on the UPS for 5 seconds. Reconnect internal battery. Plug UPS in to known good power source. Turn UPS on. However, this did NOT help resolve the issue of overloading after several days of normal use. Update 0. SEP 2. 01. 6 I received APCs older model, the BE5. G, and installed it on 1. AUG 2. 01. 6. Since then, it has been functioning without any issues. Thats about 2. 0 days of continuous use without any overload conditions or abrupt shutdowns. Ill update the post much later if the BE5. G continues to function as expected.