Re: What's Your Favorite UPS?

Winston wrote:
ThanksButNo <no.no.thanks@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
The subject says it all -- I'm interested in hearing
people's opinions on Uninterruptible Power Supplies.

So far, I've had very good luck with APC. Bad luck
with Belkin and CyberPower.

IMHO, both APC and Tripp-Lite make good UPSs.

[I'm not sure of the exact numbers here, though I think I'm within 10V of
the actual numbers.]

One reason I like Tripp-Lite is that most (many? all?) of their UPSs have a
nice, low clamping voltage (surge voltage pass-through limit) of 180V,
whereas many of the cheaper UPSs and surge protectors only limit voltage
spikes to 330V (the minimum protection level required for certification as
a surge protector). There are lots of times when I hear my Tripp-Lite UPS
switch to backup power because of a mild power surge and I don't hear my
other, cheaper UPSs do anything. APC says their Back-UPS NS 1250 LCD
(BN1250LCD) has a clamping voltage of 169V, but check for whichever models
you're looking at; I think many of the cheap APC models have just 330V.

On the other hand, I saw a post back in the mid-90s where a fellow said the
erratic power from Hawaii Electric fried his Tripp-Lite UPS, but not his
APC UPS.

When last I looked a couple of years ago, the Belkin and Cyberpower UPSs I
looked into all had 330V clamping voltage.

My impression is that modern PCs and home entertainment equipment such as
TVs, DVD players, audio systems, etc. are better designed to be able to
survive 330V surges than older equipment was, but that could be the result
of my small sample set. :)

When evaluating UPSs on their battery backup capability, don't just look at
the V/A rating, also check the Wattage output rating and the total
ampere-hour rating of its battery/batteries. The relationship between V/A
and Watts is more variable than one might expect, and while the A-h battery
rating generally goes up with V/A rating, I've seen some surprising cases
where it didn't. (E.g., Sam's Club a year or so ago had an APC 900VA UPS
at a great price, but it turned out to have the same batteries as an APC
750VA UPS, so buying the 900VA unit wouldn't have gotten me any greater
backup time than the 750VA unit.)

Some of the bigger UPSs (usually 1500VA and up) allow you to daisy-chain
extra battery packs, and thus let you multiply the on-battery run time.

If your local power is particularly variable, a UPS with power regulation
is worth considering. Some only offer "brownout protection" (step up the
voltage when too low); some also can step down voltage when it's a bit too
high.

Good luck,
-WBE

Years ago, on the advice of a very savvy friend, I purchased a box called "Zero Surge". You plug it into the wall and then plug your UPS or your computer into the Zero Surge. It's basically a low pass filter; spikes don't get past it. I've had these boxes for ten or twelve years now and have never had a computer or UPS zapped! YMMV.

Zero Surge is still in business but they don't seem to make the model I bought any longer but that's all right; I've got mine!!



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