APC BX1500G Reviews/Knowledge?

[BillP]

A few years back, I was sick of losing my computer every time the power dropped out for a few seconds. So I bought one of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842101067&cm_re=APC--42-101-067--Product

It's worked flawlessly and exactly as expected ever since. But this doesn't cover all my equipment that I want to be covered in the house. So I'm looking to buy one of these for the other things: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/APC+-+1500VA+Battery+Back-Up+System+-+Black/9307831.p?id=1218081367518&s...

Before buying though, I went and looked up the manual on the APC site and found some rather disturbing and for me, anyway, useless features. They talk about a energy saving feature that uses Master and Slave outlets (In the manual, they call them Master and Connected outlets. The white ones on the battery powered/surge side as seen in this picture are the ones I’m concerned about: http://www.apc.com/products/moreimages.cfm?partnum=BR1500G )

This energy saving feature says that whatever device is plugged into the Master outlet, when it’s turned off, any device in the Connected outlets turns off as well to save electricity. I was horrified at reading that as when my power goes out, I either want them to stay on for as long as possible, or I turn them off myself at my leisure to preserve my UPS battery time to keep things like my phone and modems alive until house power is restored. I don’t want to be turning one thing off and have the others shut off with it.

A little further on though, I read that this feature can be turned off. So that works for me (Thank god! That feature alone would’ve made this a NO BUY for me)

In the troubleshooting area of the manual, it mentions certain outlets not getting power and brings up that turning off this feature, disables the Master and Control outlets from working.

Is this true, or can I, with that feature turned off, still use the two white outlets on the Battery powered side of the UPS as regular outlets for when the power goes out? And does it apply to the black outlets on that side also, or will those still work with this feature turned off?

Anyone with knowledge of this or hands on experience with the unit in question. Please reply. You’ll be helping make my buying decision next week.

Message was edited by: Chris313AllNight

[BillP]

Oh good, finally a response! I posted this elsewhere first and got either non-sense answers or something totally unrelated to my asked questions. So, first, I'd like to thank for your reply. And you're right. That energy saving thing is completely useless to me. If stuff's gonna turn off, I'll turn it off myself. While I'm not gonna be using this particular UPS for computer stuff (My stereo, TV, DVR, game machines, the like) Just because I turn off one thing, doesn't mean that I want everything else connected to turn off with it. I don't mean to be rude (my apologies if it came out that way. I'm tired and dealing with some stuff at the moment) but I hope you're right about the outlets still working normally with this feature turned off. Do you have this unit yourself, are in my boat or have heard this from someone who has?

I'm looking to collect as much info as I can about this before I commit myself to buying a unit that might not fit my needs and work like I need it to, because of one feature.

[BillP]

Oh, Good! You've quite possibly answered my question. For what I'll be plugging in to this thing, I'll only be using the Battery/surge side. The Surge only side will be getting little to no use at all. Considering that I'll have my Stereo, TV, DVR and game machines plugged in, I won't be wanting them to turn off too, just because I've turned my TV off. This is what you're saying if I turn off the energy saving feature? All the outlets will work normally and I can turn each device off as I please?

Before I go and buy this unit, does anyone else have anything to say or have any other info for me? I'll likely be putting in my order for this tomorrow morning to afternoon.

[BillP]

Excellent! Looks like I'll be buying this particular model then and turning off the green feature. Don't want it and don't need it for my purposes. And yes, I do plan to plug my stereo into it. And I'll keep an eye on things. If I did overload it, it would flash overload, yes? That I plugged one too many things into for it to handle and I need to start unplugging a thing or two until it stops flashing overload? Excuse the noob question, but I have a UPS on my computer with potentially more plugged in then I'm planning for the new UPS and it handled it fine. No overload warning or anything. Has handled things for almost 3 years now without missing a beat. Why would this be any different?

[BillP]

Thank you for caring. ^_^ No, I don't do things like that. I watch my load indicators very carefully and if I'm loading it down, I'm careful as to how much more I put on it so I don't cause an overload or something. I need my equipment to kick in at the right time and it wouldn't do that if it was in overload, eh? In fact, I don't think I have a single 1,000 watt anything in my home to plug in, but if I did, I'd make sure to get a UPS that was specifically set up to handle that and more. In fact, my computer's UPS is at 36% load and about 327 watts. So I think I'm good. I'm anxious to see what my TV UPS will come out to when everything's hooked up. But unfortunately, my effort to order this thing finally hasn't gone too well at the moment. I think my question has pretty well been answered now. So I think I'll close this out now. Don't worry though, I'll be back with another set of questions soon. Thanks for your patience and answers. As soon as I get the UPS, I'll also be coming back with my impressions of how it works for me.

[BillP · Accepted solution]

A few years back, I was sick of losing my computer every time the power dropped out for a few seconds. So I bought one of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842101067&cm_re=APC--42-101-067--Product

It's worked flawlessly and exactly as expected ever since. But this doesn't cover all my equipment that I want to be covered in the house. So I'm looking to buy one of these for the other things: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/APC+-+1500VA+Battery+Back-Up+System+-+Black/9307831.p?id=1218081367518&s...

Before buying though, I went and looked up the manual on the APC site and found some rather disturbing and for me, anyway, useless features. They talk about a energy saving feature that uses Master and Slave outlets (In the manual, they call them Master and Connected outlets. The white ones on the battery powered/surge side as seen in this picture are the ones I’m concerned about: http://www.apc.com/products/moreimages.cfm?partnum=BR1500G )

This energy saving feature says that whatever device is plugged into the Master outlet, when it’s turned off, any device in the Connected outlets turns off as well to save electricity. I was horrified at reading that as when my power goes out, I either want them to stay on for as long as possible, or I turn them off myself at my leisure to preserve my UPS battery time to keep things like my phone and modems alive until house power is restored. I don’t want to be turning one thing off and have the others shut off with it.

A little further on though, I read that this feature can be turned off. So that works for me (Thank god! That feature alone would’ve made this a NO BUY for me)

In the troubleshooting area of the manual, it mentions certain outlets not getting power and brings up that turning off this feature, disables the Master and Control outlets from working.

Is this true, or can I, with that feature turned off, still use the two white outlets on the Battery powered side of the UPS as regular outlets for when the power goes out? And does it apply to the black outlets on that side also, or will those still work with this feature turned off?

Anyone with knowledge of this or hands on experience with the unit in question. Please reply. You’ll be helping make my buying decision next week.

Message was edited by: Chris313AllNight