24.7.2012

My initial review:This unit looks and works well. Installation, software setup and run is so easy that is a pleasure to play with it. It has different choices for plugging in like master, controlled device and surge only. I tested it with my home PC that has x3 cores processor, two hard disks and gaming series video card. My monitor is 27'' LCD model. PowerChute Software is pleasure to work with. It is both simple and useful. It shows log, what happen in the past like blackouts, under-voltage, overvoltage and electrical noise (if some). It can show your energy usage like total kWh, cost per day and even comparison to what other activities one can do with the same energy.What I like most is the possibility to setup up silent hours or switch all sound notifications from the UPS device at all. Of course it gives you possibility to choose when to shut down (minutes on battery power). It allows to setup three levels of sensitivity regarding the power quality of the electrical input to the UPS. These are thresholds above or below certain voltage when the battery will be switched on. The display is nice and can display the current input voltage or consumption or the projected time on battery. When I simulated blackout it silently switched on and showed 11 min. battery time on its display. On computer screen a pop up that computer is running on battery now. After 6 or seven minutes a warning was displayed on the PC screen that computer is going to be hibernated and that happened. Not long enough after computer was off the unit switched off as well. Brilliant! All this in proper silent manner as I expected.My update after several days of use:The only drawback that I see is kind of hiss or noise that I hear when I lean over the UPS device. This unit has no fan but produces noise. I find the unit to have three different noise levels. The louder one is when the system is running on battery power, which is expected and not a problem as it will only happen when there is a power cut and for a short period of time. There is a different noise when the battery is being charged. It's not as loud as when the UPS runs on battery but it's annoying. Notice it takes a lot of time to charge the battery. It shouldn't be a problem with a new battery, but it could become an issue when the battery gets old and requires periodic recharging or if your power supply has frequent cuts. Of course battery can be changed. Overall this is not critical, but there are other UPS that don't make a notable noise when recharging the battery. The real problem is a third noise, the one that the UPS produces all the time. It's much quiet than the one that's produced when the battery is being charged, but it's noticeable if you have a quiet computer, as I do. This noise was produced even with nothing connected to the UPS.My power supply is stable. The LCD panel on the UPS showed stable in voltage and frequency.So, in my opinion, this UPS is good but may be annoying for those that have quiet computer (regulated fans, semi fanless PSU, SSD, 5400rpm drives soft mounted, quiet case). If you have a noisy computer it may hide the UPS running noise.Update after several months of use. It happened, three times now, that after blackout the unit gradually lose battery level until it reaches zero. When tested using the Powerchute app it says unable to carry self-test right now and status is: Internal fault. After reaching zero charge and I switch off and on, disconnect from the power and then connect and turn on it starts charging.I am hesitant to look for warranty repair as the issue is hardly reproducible and intermittent and if I can skip wasting my time bringing the device back and forth the better. Since it have two years warrant I will wait until it develops to complete fault.I am getting a but unpleasantly surprised by APC. I expected flawless unit and the reality is different.Next Update: UPS is working stable since weeks now. This is a complicated unit and maybe there is a case that lead to this unexpected behavior. The common prerequisite for the fault to occur was blackout while device is off but connected to the power.Edit from 2014: Batteries are completely down and it can't hold on UPS power for more than 5 min. In the meantime I got another APC 1200VA that works perfectly and hold charge for long time.

15.7.2014

Outstanding. Haven't brought a UPS since our generic model died some years ago after a short life. APS back then were much more expensive and although you can still get cheaper generic models - this model seemed to fit our requirements and had a 2 year guarantee.It was very easy to setup and came with TWO leads already (which I didn't see on the description so ordered too many extras!). Like most people, our setup has lots of small power adapter items that need a gang socket - so I cut the male end off one and rewired it into the existing gang socket. This allowed for the following items to be connected (UPS) two i7 PCs; 1 Monitor; gang adapter with lower power devices - 1 NAS; Backup dock; 2 routers; telephone and switch - (Surge)

9.10.2012

The UPS arrived very quickly even with the free shipping, the battery was very easy to fit by simply turning it around and pushing it into the slot it came out of, no awkward wires to clip on as some people have found with other UPS units. It is pretty simple to set up and worked straight away, I would recomend getting some IEC connectors if you need to plug in any items that dont currently use IEC connections.The unit came with 2 IEC extension leads so you can run a monitor and PC from it but unless you have more leads already you will have to purchase them or make them up which I did going from the IEC into a 13amp socket to power my router.

19.7.2015

Having used many APC products in my professional life, I wasn't surprised to find the fantastic quality of this product.I was a little confused by the connections and interfaces (a USB to RJ45 cable...really?!), but that may just be because I'm used to the commercial kit. After thoroughly reading the manual though I did get everything setup as I needed.Works exceptionally well with my Synology NAS, once plugged in the NAS set itself up before I even found the options! I was having quite a few issues with input voltage irregularity prior to getting this, but once I set the UPS to it's maximum sensitivity, everything is working perfectly. This capacity will run a four-bay NAS for two and a half hours however,

17.5.2013

Ideal for the home office. I was after something to keep my main PC running for a few minutes along with a small server and a few peripherals. Tested with the following kit, it worked a treat:-Main PC - quad i5 with GTX460 graphics card and a couple of hard drivesHP Proliant N40L microserverDraytek routerPair of KRK active speakersDell 24" LCD monitorTotal: 250W under normal use (ie: not gaming which adds about another 100W)With all that lot running, I expected it to die pretty rapid and while the readout does indeed show a quick decline in the expected number of minutes, it was more than 15 minutes indicated.

8.11.2011

I have wired two trailing sockets from two of the 5 UPS protected outlets each trailing socket supplying a seperate PC setup. PCs are a pair of i72600 CPUs in intel motherboards. Two 19inch flat DELL monitors are also connected plus a BT telephone base set, two IP cameras and one adsl router. Running flat out Total power drawn is shown as 485 Watts leaving another 300 watts or so in reserve. Estimated runtime on battery is 15 to 20 minutes. Switchover during brownouts or blackouts was seemless with just a clicking sound and what sounded like a fan sound from the unit. Overload protection was tested when a 2kw vaccuum cleaner was accidentally plugged into one of my trailing sockets.

18.1.2017

This device is used to supply power to a number of rack mounted devices in my home, CCTV servers, media servers, sonos amps, desktop pc and nas drives. There are multiple options for connectivity to allow for graceful or hard shutdown of different devices when power gets low, and the information provided on the LCD screen is very usefulwhen looking at power draws from various equipment when it switches on or is under load.It has only ever been tested "in agnger" a few wtimes when we had power cuts, but the device worked flawlesly. The pwoer was never out long enough to invoke a shutdown scenario,

23.4.2014

This was my first UPS. I recently moved home and the power supply to my new address is less than reliable. Turn on anything powerful and the lights dim, plus three occasions when the power cut unexpectedly in the last four months. I was unsure how long the BR900GI would power my computer (21.5 inch iMac); turns out it can keep it going for an hour after the power is cut. Obviously this would be less if I were to plug in other accessories like the external hard drives. The UPS comes with a USB cable that once plugged in allows you to define some useful settings from the Energy Saver submenu of the System Preferences of the iMac. You can set it to shut the computer down when the battery runs low,

30.1.2013

I purchased this Unit following a series of powercuts over the christmas period that eventually destroyed my PC. The APC UPS has 4No. battery backed outputs and 4No. surge protected outputs so the critical equipment can be battery backed and equipment such as printers etc can be surge protected.I am running a custom graphics intensive PC with one 28" LCD monitor and one 20" monitor and with these connected to the battey backed side of the UPS I am currently protected for 24 minutes in a power failure which is more than enough time to save my work and shut the PC down.In the event that I am away from my PC the supplied software will shut the PC down safely 5 minutes before the batteries run out so the PC is always protected.

7.9.2012

I've had a previous (lower power) model for about 15 years and on a few occasions it has saved me from loosing a great deal of work. You get a warm feeling inside when the lights suddenly go out without warning but the PC goes on as if nothing has happened - even half way through rendering a film or burning a DVD. It controls periferals such as monitor and powered speakers and will power them down when the PC goes to hibernate and power them up again when required, which is handy.This new model is just as good - just fit and forget.(As it uses American conectors (screw-fit ones easy to get from Amazon) you might need to make up a short extension lead to take those mains converters which are built in to 13A square pin plugs for things like powered speakers,

9.1.2014

I was researching into a UPS to support my Synology DS413J, although this specific model was not listed on the compatability list on Synology website, another user had stated that it worked with their disk station (not the same model as I have). I decided to give it a go and I am very pleased with the UPS. The diskstation DS413J running DSM 4.3 recognised the UPS and when I turned the mains off to the APC UPS it switched to battery power and then the DS413 performed the safe shutdown after the specified time I set of 5 mins, it also turned the UPS off as I had enabled that setting on the DSM hardware settings.In summary the APC Back-UPS 900 BR900 GI works fine with my DS413J running DSM 4.3,

28.8.2015

I was prompted to buy a UPS due to 2 recent power cuts in our area, with one being for 2 hours and the other for 5 minutes.This is a small and compact unit which sits behind my NAS box. This is the first UPS I have had and found it handles my NAS box , 3 desktops, 5 monitors and a laptop with room to spare. The current load is 178 Watts, with 1 desktop in continuous use and another in partial use. I use trailing 6 port sockets to connect router, switches and monitors and connected to the UPS. I have not checked the load when everything is in use, but as there is over half the power unused I don't really worry about how much wattage is being used,

25.11.2014

I am getting old and remember the days of needing a crane to lift a UPS, bought from Amazon with free delivery as most other suppliers wanted an arm and a leg to deliver to Scottish Highlands ( apparently we have suffered continental drift and are now offshore to many carriers)The unit arrived promptly and required only a simple connection to the battery to get it up and running, very compact but powerful and effective, only 2 days in there was a short outage of around 5 seconds and the unit performed perfectly, I have a PC and monitor attached as well as a a couple of NAS drives and unit suggests I have enough battery power for around 18 mins.

22.1.2013

I work from home so I bought this power my PC and monitor. It's over-spec'ed but I wanted some in reserve if I decide in future to connect other things. The advantage of course is that I have more battery time available in the event of a power failure - 66 minutes according to the readout and this seemed to bear up with a 20 minute test. I find the APC Pro very easy to use despite never having used a UPS before. This is just as well because the instructions are quite brief. The transition to battery power is seamless and the versatile LCD display gives you all the information you need to keep on top of things. My only gripe, aside from the brief instructions, is that they could have provided more than two connectors,

11.1.2014

I ordered this item in a bit of a hurry as my old UPS had died and battery changing was not user friendly. Decided to look at APC Schneider as their products are installed at my workplace. This is a well made piece of equipment. Battery access is easy. All one had to do is remove the cover, attach one terminal, put it on charge for a recommended 16hrs, then install. Installation is very easy including the software which works fine on my Windows 7 Dell PC. The digital display is useful unlike the few coloured LEDs on my old device. I have connected to this the PC, a scanner, several external hard drives, and the digital display shows on 20% to 40% of the output being used.

APC Back-UPS Pro BR1200SI - Reviews

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