APC Back-UPS Pro 700VA UPS Battery Backup & Surge Protector (BR700G)

First, let me rate the product. I have three of these UPS units in my house now. This series of UPS delivers output power that has a much better approximation to a true sine wave compared to many UPS units without having to spend $400. As a result, the newer PC power supplies are much happier and thus quieter and there is money left in my wallet. The battery is easy to install and change, the display is informative, and you have the option to turn off the visual display when the unit is running. The unit itself is also very quiet. There is an option to connect the UPS to a USB port on a Windows PC (don't know about Mac) with the included cable and Windows 7 or later will recognize the UPS. You can then program your PC to automatically shut down safely when the UPS is drained to a specified level. I haven't had to use that feature because we have occasional brownouts and very brief outages, but very rarely long-term power outages. In short, great product. I have three and will buy more as I need them.Second, let me rate Amazon's shipping department. Simply stated they did a poor job. The last UPS I received was in a box with very little packing material. When I took the UPS out of the box, the case was broken well beyond repair and there were bits of plastic in box that had broken off. I didn't dare even to test the thing. Surely UPS must have been too rough in handling, but there wasn't any real packing material either. The UPS didn't stand a chance. I contacted Amazon and their customer service folks got me fixed up with a replacement, but it was a hassle I wish I could have avoided. The replacement arrived OK along with more packing. How lucky do you think you are?I really like the UPS and wish I could buy it retail. I have my doubts about buying heavy and fragile items from Amazon.

Seems to be working well and is apparently more than I probably needed. I'm only putting about a 20% load on it with everything running. Gives some extra run time in case of a power outage though, so not a bad thing. The replaceable battery should be nice too if/when the battery gives out. Although it may still be cheaper to buy a whole new UPS. I guess I'll find out.

I use this because the wiring is terrible in my house and weather causes outages now and then. Bought this to replace one that lasted 7 years. This has worked great the past year and also serves as a replacement for my power strip. I can't see me living without one.

I've owned many APC products over the years (mainly UPS devices for servers) and they have always performed well. This unit is a nice size for a home office computer. The menus allow you to configure sensitivity which is nice. Attaching the battery leads when you first get the unit is a little sketch but once you get the main power wire to settle down then it's fine.Lead acid type battery, so it's rather heavy. APC used to provide a Lithium based solution (which I've used also) and i tend to prefer that. This model is nice also for the cost. I like how the screen shows minutes remaining.

I had a situation where there is a line voltage drop when a printer kicks on. Even with the sensitivity control turned down on the APC, it still threw an event for under-voltage and went on battery. Even getting to this point took their technician a half hour. I was guided through a collection of useless exercises. I am a software architect and I am amazed that they have no good diagnostic tools. So, the hardware is good so far, but the rest speaks for itself.

I've owned this UPS for about a month so far. It reports two power events so far. One being a blackout for about 4 seconds and the other was a voltage surge. The voltage surge permanently damaged a TV which my roommate foolishly put on a power-tap instead of a surge protector and my HTPC probably would have suffered the same fate were it not for this UPS.I have my HTPC, modem and router which use ~50 watts when idle. The UPS reports ~45 minutes of battery power for this configuration.Pros:- It works, saved my electronics during a surge and kept them running during a blackout.- Respectable VA and wattage ratting. (~45min run-time @50 watts)- No fan! Quiet (sort of, see notes)!- The LCD is a nice feature to easily look at the status of the UPS.- Good looking.- APC powerchute is simple to use and seems adequate for non-industrial users.Notes:- Some other reviews are reporting a humming noise which I suspect is just transformer hum. There is a slight transformer hum in my unit, that can barely be heard when I'm less than 1 meter from the UPS. When I'm sitting on the couch (~2 meters from UPS) I can't hear it no matter how much I try to listen for it. However, my UPS is reporting a building wiring fault, which I suspect is the root cause of the problem and not something inherently wrong with the UPS itself. If you hear a hum, check the building wiring fault light, or if you know how to check for DC noise or ground loop faults in your wiring do so before blaming the unit as being faulty.- Not really APC's fault but APCUPSD (3rd part interface) doesn't have working USB drivers for windows 7, so it wont work with this device.

Works well, easy to use, PC recognized it immediately. Nice display. Alarm will go off if too much power is connected to it. It has a battery and will keep your electronics on after your power goes out, it can then safely save and shut down your computer. It is large and heavy. It has a lot of power. It does not have a smell or speed.