Home > Consumer Reviews > Belkin F6H350 350-VA UPS with Shutdown Software (8 Outlet)

Uninterrupted Power Supplies (UPS) are designed to provide temporary reprieve in the event of an utility power failure, such as a blackout. They could supply a few minutes of temporary power, usually barely enough to shut down your equipments, should a power outage occur.

Those who have a good deal of experience using UPS's would know that it is often not enough to guard against power outages; you also need to check regularly if the UPS battery is GOING DEAD or not. When a battery dies, it can no longer be recharged and therefore cannot offer you protection. Several of the UPS's I have ever used have gone dead, usually after a few years of use. If UPS's are critical to you, consider getting service maintenance plan or extended warranty from the manufacturer or seller, or even an overnight replacement plan in case of emergencies. Also, consider getting UPS's whose batteries are detachable and replaceable; then stock a few spare batteries for it, so you could easily rectify battery failures without much downtime. Some UPS's, such as APC Back-UPS, even use "hot-swappable" batteries, meaning they can be replaced while the UPS is still operating.

The battery of the Belkin F6H350 350-VA UPS went dead on me sooner than those of any other UPS's I have used -- only 3 months after I bought it. And its battery is not replaceable. It includes software and serial cable that allows automatic shutdown of your computers; but the software crashed twice on my Windows Me PC. The only advantage of the Belkin UPS seems to be its 8 outlets (4 UPS/surge protection, and 4 full-time surge-protection only), which is more than most UPS's provide. But with its mere 350-VA battery power capacity, you would probably exceed its supported power supply before using up all of its outlets.

I am still using my 4-year-old, similarly-priced APC Back-UPS 300 UPS, without any of the above problems. Its battery is replaceable and hot-swappable. I naturally recommend it over the Belkin F6H350 and the likes.