Home > Consumer Reviews > Belkin Universal UPS 1200VA with USB & Serial Interface

UPSs have been very bulky in the past, but this one has a good footprint and sits very nicely under my desk. Living on an island with our own power station, we are notorious for powercuts! This unit has been a life (PC) saver. Installation was a breeze and the management software is esy to use. Definately recommended.

I've owned a Belkin UPS previously, but is was killed by lightning - not so uninterruptable then! The Universal 1200VA claims to be protected from such nasties, so I yhought I'd give Belkin one more chance. I've had it a few months now, and it seems to be coping fine.

I live in rural England where power supplies are apallingly unreliable, so a UPS is practically essential. The Belkin was put to the test last night and it sucessfully kept my PowerMac Dual G4 up and running (including dual displays - 20" and 15") for the short duration of the power cut (around 5 to 10 minutes).

Installation was simple - just plug it in, plug your equipment into it and turn it on. Belkin have finally seen sense and the Universal range UK models now include 'proper' uk mains outlet sockets, rather than the IEC outputs which, of course, required special cables. Ok, the cables aren't exactly hard to obtain, but it made things just that bit more (un-necessarily) annoying! No such hassle with these units though - just plug your Mac (or PC) in with it's own cable!

I've only given the unit 4 stars because it is being used in a project recording studio and the unit has two small problems which may need to be taken into consideration in such environments: 1 - The unit permanently emits a low volume hum - not really noticeable over the noise of a Mac, but may be an issue to some users, if being used to provide power back-up to items which don't actually make any acoustic noise themselves (i.e. have no fans). 2 - The unit will cause humming if approached too closely with an electric guitar. No surprise really, given what is going on inside the box, but thought I'd mention it anyway.

I have no connection with Belkin other than as a happy customer of their broadband modems and associated kit but having worked in Suzuki motorcycles' aftersales for many years, I think I may understand warranty better than Peter Holgate of Lincolnshire (see above review).

When you buy a product with three years warranty, you're buying the product and a guarantee that if it fails due to faulty materials or manufacturing defect, it will be repaired or replaced free of charge for a period of three years. Think of this as a three year insurance policy. I don't know of any insurance company that restarts the clock every time you make a claim - now that WOULD be a nice bonus. If yours does Peter, let us all know about it. So by warranting the replacement unit for the balance of the original warranty period, Belkin have actually fulfilled their warranty responsibilities to the letter.

The only time any manufacturer MAY consider accepting claims after warranty expiry is for a known recurring defect.

In fact, when I bought a Belkin broadband modem 6 years ago, not only were they most helpful when I was setting it up, they have recently replaced its power supply unit because it failed due to a well-documented fault. My personal view is that Belkin are a pretty good company to deal with and, let me repeat, I HAVE NO CONNECTION WITH THEM WHATSOEVER.

Every so often we get brownouts where the lights flicker. Quite often it is enough to reset the PC. As the PC in question is running 750W of power-supplies (500W main PSU and 250W graphics card specific PSU for my 8800 GTS) I needed a decent UPS to keep the machine running. Last month we had a total power failure. By the time I'd sorted out the wailing burglar alarm it had been 45 minutes of no power. The UPS was quite happily supplying power to my PC, monitor and broadband router.

The only issue with this UPS is that it does issue a slight electronic hum. It is by no means noisy - the only time I notice it is when I'm leaving the room to go to bed but it is not totally silent. If you are watching TV, if you are simply doing day to day stuff, you do not hear it at all. If you sleep in the same room as it you might hear it.

I totally recommend this UPS.

I have long been a fan of Belkin products and on the very rare occasion that things have gone wrong with them have found their customer service second to none. So this UPS was a natural and easy choice for me. A significant, time-consuming data loss, due to a power outage in mid-defrag' persuaded me to take the plunge. The unit has to be charged before installation and the only problem encountered with setting it up was due to my attempt to install the 'Bulldog Plus' software without the UPS connected to the PC! Everything went very smoothly at the second attempt with the UPS connected to the computer. So far, the only power cut has been a 10-second self-test I initiated via the user-friendly control software. A PC, LCD monitor and external hard drive impose a load of only 26% on the UPS so it would hopefully do its job for a sufficiently long time to enable a proper power down. Though compact and ideal for a small home/office setup, beware of the weight of the UPS if you are of the less muscular type. The sealed lead acid battery within means that carrying it up a flight of stairs will give you a bonus workout! The standard three-pin sockets on the back of the device are excellent, removing the need for any special cables. Just plug in and you are in business! I may buy another two of these at Amazon's great price!