APC BACK-UPS RS BR1500LCD 1500VA/865W UPS System by APC
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Digital camera reviews of APC BACK-UPS RS BR1500LCD 1500VA/865W UPS System
Digital camera Review: 8 Outlett review
Summary: 4 Stars
I use this for one of my servers. The extra outlets are great and the new digital monitoring is nice too.
Digital camera Review: A Great UPS
Summary: 5 Stars
Easy to use with very nice features including the Red front panel display.
This one is worth a second look.
Digital camera Review: A decent UPS
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased the Back-UPS BX1500 XS which is virtually identical to the RS that Amazon sells, and also a 900VA USRetail Only Back-UPS BX900 XS at a brick and mortar store (happened to be in the right place at the right time for good value on each). These are the second and third APC UPS I have bought, the first being an earlier version of the APC Back-UPS RS, 780 Watts / 1200 VA,Input 120V / Output 120V, Interface Port USB, Rack Height 2 U UPS System. They all are quite similar in feel and operation, despite some obvious differences in physical looks.
DISPLAY
Though almost twice the cost of the 900VA model, I greatly prefer the BX1500 XS. The display is no gimmick -- it's quite helpful in showing you real-time loads with AC power on, the load and estimated run time with AC power off, and a few other things like the voltage level (see other reviews or product description for all of the functions). It's easy to use, and unlike the BX900, is absolutely, completely, dead quiet. There is no fan noise at all. Only when in battery operation, you can hear a slight wizzzing sound as the DC-AC converters turn 12 DC into 120 VAC for you, but it's certainly not objectionable.
BEEP
I dislike APC's choice to ship all models with a power beep option enabled, so that it beeps at you every minute when the input AC is off....like you wouldn't have noticed. You can, and I have, turned this beep off with the PowerChute software the unit ships with, but some buyers may not know this. I can just imagine my family visiting while I'm at work, and a power outage occurs...beep beep beep...beep beep beep...beep beep beep. Unplugging it would be their first reaction, only to find it would make no difference! I would warn anyone with non-computer illiterate people around, or those who will not use the unit with a computer to at least once connect the unit through it's USB to a computer and set this and other options up with the PowerChute software. Some may suggest this is a computer accessory and should work this way, but really it's a general purpose UPS (which APC's own customer survey card acknowledges by asking you what type of equipment you are going to use it for). I would personally have preferred a physical alarm-cut-off switch, or even just an initial beep when first switching to battery, then nothing afterward.
OUTPUT WAVEFORM
I have uploaded some blurry (sorry) pictures to the product to show the typical, sine-wave output the unit delivers when on AC, and the step pattern that is output on backup power. This is a typical waveform, and the vast majority of consumer electronics will accept this mock-sine wave alternative, but some won't. I read at least one review here about a user with an iMac who said it made his computer's power supply buzz. True-sine outputs are expensive on a UPS, and I hardly blame APC for using this common output waveform. However, you might wish to test the UPS on battery with whatever equipment you plan to operate it from before your return period expires, (or in the case of Amazon which does not allow returns for this product, to beg/borrow/steal one from someone first to try it out) just to make sure it works for you.
LEAD ACID BATTERIES
APC uses lead-acid batteries. These tend to wear out much more quickly if you deep-discharge them. I have set my UPS's to turn off after 5 minutes using PChute, rather than the "as long as possible" option, as the latter tends to run the battery all the way down. As many of you will probably be aware, APC batteries are expensive.
POWERCHUTE
The PowerChute software is nice, showing you status updates on power remaining, settings of how or when you want your computer to shutdown, should it be powered by the UPS and connected with a USB cord, etc. I'm not using the UPS for computers, so I'm not using PChute, but it's not just some junk software.
WATTS vs VOLT-AMPS
Something I don't care for is how APC rates their units, in this case with a rating of 865 Watts, but a "backslash 1500 VA", which implies they are somehow different things. I guess I may have skipped that lecture in college, but for 30 years I have always been taught and understood with peers that watts and volt-amps are the same thing. I'm sure someone has a clever, merchandising explanation of why that isn't so (chuckle). Folks, this is an 865 Watt model, and if James Watt were still alive, he'd tell you that whether you use watts or volt-amps, this thing supports 865 of them (less as the batteries age) for it's rated output time. Maybe a higher surge of 1500 watts/volt-amps is possible, but the units of watts and volt-amps are still the same thing. If there is some other reason to use different units, maybe as an average over time or conduction angle, etc. then by all means set me straight in the comments section and I will update the review. Hey, I didn't like slogans like "Digital Ready" or diagonally measuring TV screens either when that first started. I guess it's what you have to do when your competitors are doing it too.
In the end, there is no question....this is a nice UPS. Despite the fact it costs around double the BX900, the feature of the display is more worthwhile to me, as is the totally silent standby operation. Some new UPS's are on the market now, so you may be able to snag this excellent model for a good price. Until and unless true-sine wave models come into this price range, there is absolutely nothing lacking for this model.
Digital camera Review: A nice unit overall.
Summary: 4 Stars
Let me start by saying that this is a very nice UPS. It offers okay runtime, lots of outlets and the LCD display is an outstanding feature. I'm the IT director at a medical facility and have been using APC products for many years, supporting critical servers, network gear and desktops, and have always been pleased with their products.
I bought the BR1500 because my local phone company replaced the copper phone wires to my house with fiber optic cable. One downside of doing that is that the copper wire carried its own low voltage power, which is why a phone that didn't need to be plugged into an outlet would continue to work if you lost power. The fiber optic doesn't do this. To compensate, the interface between the fiber optic connection and your interior phone wiring has a small lead acid batter that they claim will keep the interface running for four to six hours. When we lose power, it's generally for at least 12 hours, and the last time was for two and a half days.
So I ordered the BR1500 and set it up to feed power to the fiber optic interface. The UPS reports that the interface is drawing 15 watts and that it will power it for 258 minutes (4.3 hours). Now I have roughly eight to ten hours of runtime, which is not as much as I was hoping for. What I thought I would do is buy a second battery and have one on the shelf, changing them out every few months so that the one on the shelf has a fairly fresh charge. Then if I lose power and deplete the battery that's currently installed, I could swap it out with the spare.
The documentation that comes with the BR1500 says the unit uses a replacement battery part number APCRBC109. I searched on the APC website for this part number and found nothing. I emailed APC tech support and got a reply that said "I am afraid to say that there is no replacement battery option for BR1500LCD. If the battery needs to be replaced the whole unit needs to be replaced.
Since then, replacement batteries have become available, so this is no longer an issue.
Digital camera Review: A nontechnical review
Summary: 4 Stars
By all means, if you are a computer nerd, read other Amazon reviews for the technical details. From a strictly layperson's point of view, we researched backup products, and this product is one of the best on the market. You will, however, need someone who has some computer skills to install the software, but my husband told me that it wasn't difficult. We bought ours on May 15, and there is a burn-in time for the smell to go away; it's now June 17, and most of the smell has subsided. We tried another product, and the electrical smell was overwhelming, but this one will eventually burn off.
We have lived in the same location for 17 years, and we are guaranteed to have a minimum of 10 power outages a year. Our electrical service is the pits, and I should have invested in this backup years ago to protect my computer. Since installing this product last month, my computer was already rescued from one power outage. Your computer will run a minimum of 45 minutes on backup, either giving you the opportunity to shut it down without incident, or if the power returns, the backup will transition you back to main power with nothing lost. The price has gone up somewhat from the $200 that we paid, which was a fair price with super saver shipping.