Reviews of UPS units

[drstawl]

I've got really shitty power in my studio, so I need a UPS. I've got two and the Tripp-Lite is far better than the APC.

Howso? When a dip occurs, I don't notice it at all other than the indicator lite on the Tripp-Lite. On the APC, I just see a less dreadful dip in the power as evidenced by the flash on the monitor plugged into that circuit. In other words: The APC is pretty much USELESS!

What are your experiences with these units?

Both are 500VAC units with far more stuff plugged into the Tripp-Lite. Bigger PS on a PC and a 19" monitor plus my synth, the dbx tube pre and my amplifier vs. a smaller PS and a 15" monitor on the APC.

 

[Track Rat]

I've been lucky in that my power here is pretty clean and stable. I had an old APC but long ago opted not to use it because it was noisey (it hummed). I was reading not too long ago about line conditioners and digital audio. It seems that some units don't output a true sine wave which can be a problem. You heard any of this?

 

[Danglez]

Smart vs Back UPS

Greetings and salutations!!!

There is a big difference between the two......( Smart/Back UPS that is )

A Back(UPS) will only kick in when it detects a drop/surge in power, giving you the dropout momentarily until it kicks in......

A Smart(UPS) Takes the feed from the mains no matter what it is and continually sends conditioned power to the outputs....It just uses the mains to topup the battery packs.....

Guess which one costs more?????

I've always used APC, but that's only for PC/Servers....Not too sure about the noise factor ( you could always put it out the back and use an extension lead ).....They do seem a little noisy.

A cool trick a guy showed me once is to get a 4/6/8 way power board and cut the plug off the end then wire in a female plug. It plugs into one output of the UPS then you can plug all your stuff in using normal power cords. Just gotta make sure you don't overload with too much stuff!!!

My 2c worth anywayz......

Cheers,

Danglez.

 

[drstawl]

Thanks for trying to clear this up. However a trip to the APC site for the documentation on the "Smart" UPS which is way too much money IMHO, STILL provided no spec on the "clamp rate" which is how quickly the unit can respond to a dip in the input power.
Tripp-lite provided this spec so what's up with APC?

Maybe it's like you say and it's always on battery power and the AC input just tops off the battery, but if the AC is always connected to the battery circuit there has to be some circuitry to isolate it when the AC goes below spec, even for a microsecond.

The Tripp-Lite of the same rating as my APC (500VAC) has more outlets (3 on battery, 3 just surge protected) and actually works for under $200. To get a "smart" APC, I'd have to shell out >$340. Youch!

Plus they are NOISY bastards. My Tripp-Lite is SILENT!

 

[Slackmaster2K]

At work I exclusively buy APC BackUPS 420's and 280's for workstations. I've had them running (about 25-30) for a couple years and I think they're great (especially the 420).

I also run a couple of very large APC Smart UPS's and they are just absolutely fantastic IMHO.

I even like the software that comes with the APC units.

Slackmaster 2000