UPS - Battery Backup

YoungBlood · 22 Jan 2007 at 11:50

Looking for some advice here on a decent UPS box. Completly new to these so have no idea what to look for.
Im hoping if I tell you guys what I need it to do you could spec me one from the OcUK website.
I need something that will keep the PC and the router alive when we have a powercut/electric goes (damn payg meters).

An absolute must is that the internet connection does not drop out at all when the power goes down, so I need the router to be powered also, just for a few minutes while I safely shutdown.
Maybe they all keep the net alive by default, I don't know.

Now the tower at a guess proberly pulls no more than 300watt and the monitor is a TFT so prolly not much used there either.
I just need about 5-10 minutes to ensure im not going to loose a days work, but the shutdown needs to be done manualy, I read that some UPS safely shuts down your computer when they kick in, I don't want this, it needs to be done manualy.

If anyone with any experiance of these can recomend some off the OcUK website that would be great, plus anything else I need to look out for.

As for a budget im hoping to spend around £50, could possibly go higher if a certain UPS box comes highly reccomended.

Thanks for any input guys/girls.

Phil2008 · 22 Jan 2007 at 15:41

Ive just bought a belkin 1200va/670watt Universal UPS, and it keeps my pc going for 15mins untill the bat has 25% of power left in it. I have my 19inch lcd, computer, router, speakers and printer plugged in to it, and thats about 250-300 watts in total

My 1200va/670watt ups would last longer connected to my stuff then a 800va/540watt ups. cos a 800va ups would have to work harder to keep the stuff powered

But your best with one of the Belkin Universal Series UPS cos they have the standerd 3pin sockets. Plus they have AVR/Automatic Voltage Regulation, that stops power into your equipment going ubove or below a curtain voltage, So basically you will have steady voltage. Look at it this way, without a ups "durty power" with a ups "clean power".

The belkins software is brill, and you can set it how long you want the pc to remain on for in a power failer. You have a countdown clock that appears so you know how long you have before it automatically shuts down, or you can shut down manually before the clock hits 0. You can even have the ups to switch on your pc again automatically when power is restored, Oh yeh about the software saving your work on shut down, you can enable or disable that feature.

YoungBlood · 22 Jan 2007 at 16:44

Shame OcUK has pretty much no stock of UPS it seems. I have sourced a very well priced 800va however, the same as the Belkin one you mention.
The 1200va is more than I would like to spend, but I think the 800va should give me plenty of time to do what has to be done.
At £74 its still more than I would like to spend but it seems the Belkin's come very highly reccomeded and have pretty impressive software as well.

Just a shame OcUK has none, I swore I would never use this competitor again, but they are the cheapest in the UK, so what you gonna do :cool:

squiffy · 22 Jan 2007 at 17:17

Don't buy a cheap UPS, we've had a few blown units and you wouldn't want to be near them when they pop.

Look at APC Backups UPS 800VA, about £110. Don't buy Belkin - theyre rubbish.

Trigger · 22 Jan 2007 at 17:46

speedy2004 said:
Ive just bought a belkin 1200va/670watt Universal UPS, and it keeps my pc going for 15mins untill the bat has 25% of power left in it. I have my 19inch lcd, computer, router, speakers and printer plugged in to it, and thats about 250-300 watts in total

My 1200va/670watt ups would last longer connected to my stuff then a 800va/540watt ups. cos a 800va ups would have to work harder to keep the stuff powered

But your best with one of the Belkin Universal Series UPS cos they have the standerd 3pin sockets. Plus they have AVR/Automatic Voltage Regulation, that stops power into your equipment going ubove or below a curtain voltage, So basically you will have steady voltage. Look at it this way, without a ups "durty power" with a ups "clean power".

The belkins software is brill, and you can set it how long you want the pc to remain on for in a power failer. You have a countdown clock that appears so you know how long you have before it automatically shuts down, or you can shut down manually before the clock hits 0. You can even have the ups to switch on your pc again automatically when power is restored, Oh yeh about the software saving your work on shut down, you can enable or disable that feature.

Hahahahahaha

Belkin make the worst UPSs ever- they don't hold their charge and the battery kicks in about half-an-hour after the mains power has gone. I will only buy APC now- we have two at work as well as a HP rack mount one and we never have any trouble with any of them.

Edit: This is the sort of thing you want- we have the exact same one at work as well as a Smart 1000 something or other and they're both great

Phil2008 · 22 Jan 2007 at 18:07

squiffy said:
Look at APC Backups UPS 800VA, about £110. Don't buy Belkin - theyre rubbish.

a lot of ppl say the same thing about APC if you look on the net and they prefer the Belkins to the APC... Its 50 50 really there about equal, look on the net, you will see what I mean. Apperntly the APC software is rubbish.

Trigger · 22 Jan 2007 at 18:11

No, I'm not too fond of the APC software myself but you can't fault their hardware at all- not one I have had has failed on me however there was a lot of belkins going wrong a while ago- I don't know whether they've sorted that but I won't be using them again

m_cozzy · 22 Jan 2007 at 18:36

I had a 1400 apc. Came home one day to the smell of burning & the silence of no pc's running. The apc metal case was too hot to touch, in fact it took 3 hours to cool down enough to disassemble. On investigation all the batteries had puffed up & couldn't be removed from the case. Scared the life out of me. I would like another ups but I dont trust them anymore.
I fact thinking back to when we used them at work, I had more servers shutdown because the apc had failed then I would have if they were plugged straight into the mains.

YoungBlood · 22 Jan 2007 at 19:24

Thanks for all the input so far guys.

The reason I stayed away from APC was the price, I realy dont wanna spend £100+ on something that might get used 2 mins a month

The £74 Belkin 800va seemed ideal and there are no bad reviews of them on the net that I have seen.

I will look into APC though, I know you get what you pay for, but the current deal on the Belkins on the unmentionable site seems hard to pass up.

Course this could be because nobody is buying them and they just wanna shift stock.

Phil2008 · 22 Jan 2007 at 20:27

Ive had my belkin ups since middle of december, and had a few power failers and its always done its job, kept the computer alive. Last night the ups kicked in cos of a drop in voltage, and I leave my ups on 24/7. The big test is a thunder storm, to see if the ups can keep the voltage constant level.

If the ups didnt warn you when the mains power goes down, you woudnt notice any diff, cos theres no flickering from the monitor or anything.

stoofa · 23 Jan 2007 at 13:00

So - how many of the "Belkin are rubbish" posts were made by people who actually own one?
Who have actually used one?
I only ask because you are talking BS - the Belkin UPS's are absolutely great.
I bought one of the Universal ones in for home use and it has done exactly what it is supposed to do.
On the couple of power outages I've had since it's installation everything has kicked in instantly.
They hold their power just fine.
I then bought one for my wifes PC and everything is working fine there too.

Finally we did some testing on some lower end UPS's (less capacity) for work.
We needed only a short amount of time so people can save work if there is a power outage at work.
We bought in an APC, Belkin, non-brand.
The Belkin units were significantly cheaper and do the job just fine.
So we then purchased 30 and we will be buying 20 more soon so all our desktop users have UPS protection.
Of the 30 we currently have every single one of them has done the job expected of it, reliably etc.

Please don't believe any of this "Belkin are rubbish" BS.
I KNOW APC make a great UPS - however you'll find many of the "Belkin are crap" posts are made by APC owners who are just finding a way of justifying their own IMHO over-priced purchase.

Captain Fizz · 23 Jan 2007 at 14:43

stoofa said:
So - how many of the "Belkin are rubbish" posts were made by people who actually own one?
Who have actually used one?

I have 2 x APC and 1 x Belkin.

The Belkin DOES NOT do what it says on the box.
It is a Power Supply.
Whereas the APC's are an Uninterruptible power supply.

My one and only experience with them - They are not worth buying.
APC on the other hand have never let me or my company down.

Still need to return it, but the cost of posting it back would be 1/3rd of the price of the uPS. So it's currently sitting in my bedroom unused.

According to some posts on forums, if you do not use the software for them, then they become UPS's... But with software installed they are PS's... I've not bothered testing.

Stuck on my 4 year old APC instead.
(The 3 year old one has been outdoors powering stereo's and laptops from generator power input no problem. Will even run a lappy + stereo for 4 hours!)

EDIT - I didn't buy either of my APC's... So have nothing to justify.
I have used both - And my model of Belkin didn't work!

Trigger · 23 Jan 2007 at 17:59

stoofa said:
So - how many of the "Belkin are rubbish" posts were made by people who actually own one?
Who have actually used one?
I only ask because you are talking BS - the Belkin UPS's are absolutely great.
I bought one of the Universal ones in for home use and it has done exactly what it is supposed to do.
On the couple of power outages I've had since it's installation everything has kicked in instantly.
They hold their power just fine.
I then bought one for my wifes PC and everything is working fine there too.

Finally we did some testing on some lower end UPS's (less capacity) for work.
We needed only a short amount of time so people can save work if there is a power outage at work.
We bought in an APC, Belkin, non-brand.
The Belkin units were significantly cheaper and do the job just fine.
So we then purchased 30 and we will be buying 20 more soon so all our desktop users have UPS protection.
Of the 30 we currently have every single one of them has done the job expected of it, reliably etc.

Please don't believe any of this "Belkin are rubbish" BS.
I KNOW APC make a great UPS - however you'll find many of the "Belkin are crap" posts are made by APC owners who are just finding a way of justifying their own IMHO over-priced purchase.

If you read my post properly, it says 'I will only buy APC now', indicating that yes, indeed I have owned one (Two infact). Both units I had lasted about a couple of months each before showing signs of faults so I got my money back, bought an APC and it's been fine ever since. Can't say fairer than that

YoungBlood · 23 Jan 2007 at 18:25

Looking at the APC ones, they seem to all have the kettle lead type 3 pin sockets, where the Belkins are the normal household sockets.
Surely this means that an APC unit means you need to buy a load of leads for it too :confused:

Trigger · 23 Jan 2007 at 18:39

YoungBlood said:
Looking at the APC ones, they seem to all have the kettle lead type 3 pin sockets, where the Belkins are the normal household sockets.
Surely this means that an APC unit means you need to buy a load of leads for it too

Yeah, those really expensive £2 each leads

Phil2008 · 23 Jan 2007 at 19:45

All I can say, my belkin 1200va has been doing its job perfectly for just over a month now, and I never turn it off.

squiffy · 23 Jan 2007 at 20:24

YoungBlood said:
Looking at the APC ones, they seem to all have the kettle lead type 3 pin sockets, where the Belkins are the normal household sockets.
Surely this means that an APC unit means you need to buy a load of leads for it too

IEC take up less space, and you don't need a fuse on each plug because the UPS is protected. So IEC makes sense.

jbloggs · 23 Jan 2007 at 21:06

I have a Belkin and an APC (UPS) and both are uninterruptible power supplys, and both do what it says on the box.

Have had the Belkin for 2 and a half years, and the battery has not lost its charge, had the APC for around a year and a half, and no problems there either regarding loss of charge, the software for both works well, and does what it should do, they are on all the time.

The only reason I prefer the APC is because it is smaller than the Belkin, and for no other reason.

Steves_pc · 23 Jan 2007 at 23:44

FWIW i wouldnt part with my pair of APC 700's one runs my pc etc and the other runs my hifi etc(just in case), had em about 5 or so yrs and they've never missed a beat, dont know a thing about belkins but if i had to buy i'd get an APC on the grounds that APC probably know a lot more about making UPS's than belkin do and have been doing so and supplying businesses for yonks, belkin on the other hand ??

Whichever you choose, some protection is better than none :cool:

Phil2008 · 25 Jan 2007 at 12:50

Yesterday I checked my belkin 1200va ups to see how meny watts it was using, with my plug in power monitor. It uses 50watts, I think that is quite a lot when its on 24/7. So basically all the stuff connected to the ups, plus the ups, uses 250watts at idel. So Im going to turn off the ups at night from now on.