Belkin F6C550-AVR 550VA Battery Backup with Surge Protection by Belkin Inc.
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Digital camera reviews of Belkin F6C550-AVR 550VA Battery Backup with Surge Protection
Digital camera Review: Power UPS! Everything you need to know.
Summary: 5 Stars
Power UPS! Everything you need to know.
First of all why do you want a power UPS? There are some very good reasons. (1) You never want your machine to go down incorrectly because of a blackout. (2) You want to work with clean power only. (3) You want to monitor your PC power. (4) You want to prevent your PC from being damaged due to a power problem like a lighting strike and want surge protection. The first rule about UPS is to never trust the insurance claim. Get your PC insured elsewhere. These companies have a tendency not to support their insurance claims. I have a PC running some very high specifications with over six USB devices, LCD monitor, printer and Ethernet equipment, with everything on at the same time. I have never gone above 325W of usage and average between 250W and 300W when managing a high spec game and doing lots of background tasks. Even though I have a 400W Power Supply Unit (PSU) I will be upgrading to a 500W PSU because it is better quality model. The way I can monitor how many Watts I use is with UPS software and hardware. So the question you need to ask is how many watts you will be using. The short answer to this is you don't know until you install the UPS and software that tells you how many watts you use because that appears to be the only way you can monitor your wattage at this time. You need to estimate what it is. I would say a high-end domestic PC (not a server) would use 300W max if it has one of every device you can think off turned on. As soon as we add things like another PC, or several printers, or several monitors, then we can start to overload a 325W UPS. This brings us to the first thing we need to learn about any UPS - Overloading and balancing. The overload feature is a warning system that turns on when you have overloaded the UPS capacity. Overloading does two things. It can in theory eventually damage the UPS and it voids the warranty. Most UPS are 325W but there are 800W - 1000W and even greater models out there for home networks that use more than one PC setup but to be honest you are probably going to get a UPS per PC setup rather than expensive bigger UPS for a network. So check the UPS rating. What UPS you choose depends on how much you want to load on it. Next thing you need to check with the UPS is if it comes with a USB connection. If it does this is a big plus because it means you can control it from your PC and the UPS comes with software. Now if the UPS has this feature then you can do loads of stuff like turning off UPS sound alarms, controlling how your UPS handles a blackout, how long it uses the battery before shutdown or hibernation, if it sounds an alarm or not, if it run self tests, data collection and monitoring, notifications and sensitivity settings. If the UPS does not come with a USB connection and software then you probably should be looking for an UPS designed for computer use rather than a UPS for non-computer equipment. Most UPS have LED indicators that tell you the status of the unit. The next thing to understand is that testing your UPS is not done by breaking it out of the box, connecting it to the mains, plugging your PC in and then turning off the house's power with the circuit breaker. You must charge the UPS first! So read the instructions. Usually you must attach the battery to the UPS (plug it in firmly!) and wait before using it. Then perform the test using the software first! Then you can consider trying to simulate a blackout in your home to see if the PC stays up. Usually a UPS is programmed to shutdown your PC if the blackout lasts for a few seconds. Nearly all UPS models with a USB connection can be customized for the shutdown event or how long the PC should hold for on the UPS battery. Most UPS devices allow you to connect a modem phone line into the device and then run a phone line into your modem. This is important because power surges on a UPS that do not have this protection can damage a PC through the unprotected phone line running into the modem that usually runs to the PC somehow. This is nasty problem with the degree of security that a UPS can provide. If it doesn't have this function then it is not going to provide 100% surge protection with a PC that is on-line. Networking a UPS PC to another PC without UPS can also increase the risk of surge protection problems. It is not recommend that you network a UPS PC to a non-UPS PC unless surge protection and the warranty are not an issue. One last thing is that some UPS have input regions on the UPS for surge protection and other input regions are not surge protected. Also with some models the batteries need to be replaced after a few years if you end up using them a lot. This is everything you need to know about an UPS before you choose one. It is basically now about downloading the technical specs of the UPS and making sure it provides you with what you need. The two top brands are APC and Belkin.
Digital camera Review: Reliable, fairly Compact and streamlined, Plugins easy to get to.
Summary: 5 Stars
I own three Belkin Battery Backups, two are the older model that have the plugins on the back. This model has the plugins on the top which is a plus because these things are HEAVY. It's also a step up cosmetically being streamlined as opposed to boxy. I don't use the "Belkin Bulldog" software that comes with them because neither myself or my wife do much word processing although I would say that the software is simple to use and is a step up from the APC stuff that never worked for me. I never could get Windows to recognize the APC and one of them actually failed. This software installs easily and runs inconspicuously in the background, but I don't need it so uninstalled it. It serves as a reliable battery backup during power failure that happens regularly as we live out in the desert and there are a lot of storms. I wish there were more plugins (only four battery backup/surge protector and two surge protector only) but a couple of triple splitters solves that.Digital camera Review: Replaced 3 APCs with this one, couldn't be happier
Summary: 5 Stars
I use to think APC brand is the name to trust in Battery Backups until all 8 of my APCs died on my within 6 month of purchase. Contacted APC to get replacements on the 1 that I knew I barely got 2 month ago, they said 1 computer and 1 monitor was too much for that backup to handle.... Well for the same price I bought this Belkin and it handles my computer, monitor, printer, all perfectly fine.
This is the 3rd one, already used the 1st one for about 9 month now, no problem at all. Will soon switch all the UPSs to Belkin, I guess name brand doesn't always = great product.
Digital camera Review: Smells (Updated)
Summary: 2 Stars
This Belkin unit smells. Received it, plugged it in to charge the batteries and within a few minutes it started to smell of that typical 'electrical smell.' It has now been two days and it still smells but perhaps it is decreasing or my sensitivity to the smell is decreasing. I'm keeping the windows open and hoping it is a just breaking itself in.
[UPDATED] The smell disappeared after about a week. The unit does work flawlessly. While I was using the hammer drill in the front yard the unit kicked in to keep the plasma TV working (until I could tell the kids to shut it down - no use pressing my luck...)
Digital camera Review: Smells, hums & warm even when off. Better than no UPS, but not by much. Spend an extra $20/$30.
Summary: 3 Stars
A rebate brought this down to about forty dollars for me but still this item disappoints. Used UPSes for over 20 yrs, mostly great ol' APCs that lasted > 10 yrs & were more costly but reliable. But now we want < $100 UPSes:)
Issues w/this POS:
* Smelled especially bad the first 24-48hrs plugged in (charging batt I guess). Afterward just smells bad, but that will probably pass.
* Unit stays warm exp. rear top all the time, even when off.
* Low hum audible in quiet room.
* Must press & hold switch 2 secs for on/off & insists on beeping/self-testing on pwr on.
But it is handling a mid P4, monitor, cable modem & wireless router.
Could put up w/the issues in an office environment, but certainly not in a bedroom. Even the Cyberpower we bought a year ago for maybe forty dollars more is miles better than this unit (has none of the aforementioned issues).
Do yourself a favor & spend $20-$40 on a different brand (esp. if for home).