Home > Consumer Reviews > APC 1300VA Battery Backup with LCD

The ability to easily replace the battery is key. I got tired of having UPSs which bury the battery inside so that you have to destroy the unit to change the battery. This should avoid that. The display is helpful. Very pleased.

I was searching for a more powerful UPS than currently installed. I recently upgraded my computer and was having several UPS overload alarms during the power on sequence. I like the APC products and needed to upgrade. After the typical web searches, I found this product as a great price. The rest was the purchase and delivery. Comparison shopping is the best. Regards. Back-ups Rs 1300VA LCD 120V

I've used many UPS's in my career in the technology field. This 1300VA unit so far has been the simplest to set up and manage, and provides a great amount of information about the service it's providing for the price. I have new service and panel at my house and I was surprised to find that in 1 week's time it already had protected against 3 minor faults! A great purchase, and I'd highly recommend this product.

We bought two of these for use with two new computers (DELL Studio XPS 435) and when we tested them, we found that the UPS would not power the PC. Upon researching the issue, we found that the new PCs have power supply units, like those in many new PCs, which have circuits to implement power factor correction (PFC) as part of compliance with Energy Star 4.0.

Unfortunately, PSUs with PFC are not as forgiving of the step-approximated sine wave of this type of UPS. We will now order a different model. According to the APC website, APC UPS models which do output a Pure Sine Wave include: Smart-UPS, Matrix-UPS, and the Symmetra Power Array.

If you are shopping for a UPS to accompany a new PC, double check that the PC can support a "Stepped wave." If not, get a different model UPS. If you cannot find that information, my suggestion is to check the PC product info for the Energy Star 4.0 rating, and if the PC has that rating, go with the Pure Sine Wave product lines mentioned above.

I've owned APC UPS's for 6+ years. I started off with the small tan APC UPS which frequently died but were replaced by warranty replacements. Now that the batteries died, I upgraded to the bigger APC UPS's. The 1300VA is one of the smallest ones that I own.

I bought APC UPS's since every place I worked, they used APC. Some of them were size of cars and others were smaller units. They were put onto critical workstations that had to be up 24/7.

They're very reliable and worth every penny. I have one on each computer and on the entertainment center. I have never had a device die due to surges, brownouts or power failures. When my neighbors moan how their computers, TV's, microwaves died during an electric storms, I just shrug since I mentioned to them that they should get a UPS or a good surge-protector (not the junk that you find in your local hardware store) but they didn't want to spend the money.

I have well over $5K invested in a home theater. The TV and other component warranties don't cover electric surges or brownouts. I can't afford to replace or fix these items if they get fried.

I set the voltage sensitivity to the tightest values. As much as I hate the subjective word 'easy', the software is really easy to use. The software isn't necessary but the software makes it easier to use rather than setting the values on the LCD.

I haven't had a failure with any of the the bigger APC UPS's. On the smaller tan UPS's, APC readily replaced them without a hassle.

Anyone who doesn't have a good UPS has a serious case of denial.

The only 'con' that I can think of is that they give off a fair amount of heat which is no problem in the winter. To save energy in the summer, I turn off the entertainment center UPS since we only watch TV for a few hours at night.

As an aside:

I also have Isotel Tripp-Lite Ultras on every household appliance that has electronics (microwares, refrigerator, washing machine, etc.) After the $1000+ washing machine electronics were fried several times during electric storms, the technician told me that they wouldn't replace the expensive electronics any more under warranty unless I had a surge protector. I bought the better Isotel Tripp-Lites (http://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-ISOBAR6ULTRA-Protector-Suppressor/dp/B0000513US/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1250595281&sr=8-5, or, http://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-ISOBAR8ULTRA-Outlets-Suppressor/dp/B0000511U7/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1250595281&sr=8-4) for every appliance and I've never had an appliance die since.