Customer Reviews

I've had my unit for years and the battery finally gave out. By chance I used an outlet tester on it and was surprised to find that one of the backed up outlets showed "open neutral". I opened it up and saw the problem. The metal bar inside that has clamps that grip the plug didn't have the clamps for this outlet. The defect is circled in blue in the photo, it should look like the one circled in red. The unit has worked for me for years, just never used this particular outlet on it I guess. So it gets some points for that. But take away some points for how this ever got out of their factory with this defect.

This is a fine unit that does what it is supposed to. I am giving it 2 stars to get someone's attention in the industrial design department of the company that makes it. I had an older unit essentially the same as this 550 UPS. It had large white markings on the (black) unit indicating the different outlets, the meaning of the warning LEDs, and (in the back) the in/out jacks to protect phone/ethernet lines. The new unit has these markings in a fairly small size in gray(!) on black. These are only legible in bright light or with a flashlight, which makes very little sense for a unit that is typically stored under or behind a desk. I have attached photos of the old and new unit to illustrate my point. Someone should probably read Donald Norman's "The Design of Everyday Things."

This is not a glamorous product - it just sits there under my desk doing its job. But it does its job. I live in an area with lots of lightning storms, sometimes with short power outages, and that is what this product is for. I have not had damage to any equipment that was plugged into this product, and in terms of battery backup, I often realize that there was a very short power outage due to the beep from the UPS rather than from lights blinking or the like - in other words, it response very quickly. Of course it is a "550" with limits on its UPS capabilities, but I got what I paid for and more. It is what I needed. I am very pleased.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I've had 2 of these over a period of years, and they've both failed to perform their basic functions when the chips were down, causing fatal crashes & damage (some unrecoverable) to both hardware & data files. One caused a fatal hard drive crash when I had a minor power dip, ruined my PC & lost all of the data since my last backup. Last night we had a brief power outage, and I woke up to find my on-board power supply fried. I run a business on my PC and will never buy another of their products. Though they replaced the PC that they ruined, I never recovered all of the data, and it cost me dearly in time to rebuild my business' main computer resource.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I live in an area of frequent blackouts. I already have a few UPSs in my house. This one is for my computer system (I moved to old UPS to cover the TV, DVD and Wii.) TBH I don't understand why anyone would NOT have a UPS for important electrical equipment. Blackouts and power surges play havoc with systems. What I like about this unit is that there is a BIG yellow sticker across the outlets reminding me to attach the battery before using. Not all units are so pleasantly marked. It is just one extra reminder that makes a person who wants things set up in a hurry (like me) to slow down just a bit and make sure it is set up correctly.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] This does pretty much what it claims. When the electricity goes out, it keeps the computer running for a modest amount of time. Don't believe the software's estimate however, mine says "90 minutes" and I get about 15. However, this is more than sufficient to finish what I'm doing and go through an orderly shutdown. Believe them when they say the battery doesn't last forever - should be replaced every few years to maintain much hold time. One significant disappointment: we live in the country and have a backup generator (power goes out frequently) and the APC won't charge from generator power - must not be clean or steady enough.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] APC products have been part of my worklife for decades now. When my old ApcBackups at home died, I knew what I was looking for. My area has lots of thunderstorms 3 seasons a year, and having a battery backup will alleve the effects of short outages, such as multiple restarts as the power goes on, and off and on and off... you catch my drift. That is certainly a reason to go UPS rather than a simple surge protector. Those short cycles can wreak havic on the pc, and waiting for the Dsl modem to sych back after a short blip seems like eternity. For not a whole lot more than the cost of a decent surge protector, I get battery backup as well... a no-brainer for me.

We have had 3 APC Back-UPS and slowly have upgraded to more and more wattage. This particular unit is on my wife's PC. We had a power supply failure and replaced the power supply. In fact, the problem was a failing mother board. Fortunately, the APC Back-UPS 550 was in place because the mother board shorted, killing the new power supply. The Back-UPS protected the network and the remainder of the system so that we could recover the hard drive to re-install all her programs on a new computer. Protection in two ways - incoming and from the computer - make these back-up power supplies absolutely essential. Thanks APC

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I bought this to replace an 8 year old Back UPS Office that never gave me any problems. This unit has 8 outlets, 4 of which are backed up. My old unit only had 6 and 3. The other advantage of this unit is the foot print is much smaller and better fits under my desk. I would have stayed with my old unit, but the battery replacement cost was more than this new unit. So dollar savings, more outlets and smaller footprint made this purchase a no-brainer. I did contact APC support to let them know I am a little disappointed in the replacement battery cost. If it makes more financial sense to buy new, their replaceable battery capability is not a real benefit over their competition.

So far I like the ups I just today bought. easy setup (just plug it in), software installation was easy too. My critique is that the cord from the ups to the wall outlet is right beside the warning indicator light. well if you have the side with the cord facing the wall you can't see the light. Turn it to the side with the light facing you (I am facing the ups with the cord coming out to my left) you can't see the light because of the cord. If you put it on the floor next to the wall under your desk, you will never see the light, though I can see the cord un-obstructed. anyways, if you don't care about the light at all, I basically agree with the most recent reviewers which I read.