BR1500GI, list of bugs, just for reference.

[BillP]

Hi all...

I'm writing this thread just to inform people who want to buy this UPS.
I had 5x BackUPS PRO 1500 (BR1500GI), 1500VA 865W, three of this are working in office/home.

This is my feedback for future buyers.

1) If you get an outage during the night and your pc is off, be ready to wake up to turn off the UPS alarm. There is no way using Powerchute at the moment to avoid this problem. APC says that the problem will be corrected when it's ready, but since december 2010 I'm waiting for a fix.

2) The energy usage reported from Powerchute is completely messed up. For someone work ok, for someone else like me not. I'm waiting a fix since december but I will never see it if I will not buy a new UPS from different brands because this fix will require a new firmware and BackUPS PRO series is not firmware upgradable.

3) When there is an outage and PC is off the slave outlet is turned on, this makes slave peripherals to turn on drying your battery if the outage is long enough.

4) The battery gauge on the LCD is completely unuseful and unprecise. It takes 40 seconds with 100W load to go down to 3 of 5.

5) Some UPS is noisy, really boring in the night when you have a silent room.

6) We are in fall 2011 and powerchute continue to have problems with windows UAC asking for permission on every boot (there is some workaround but isn't listed on APC FAQ).

7) The last but not the least. The runtime seen in the specs is absolutely not correct. Every unit I had, lasted from 35% to 45% less than what is reported on the specs.

8) You will never know if your unit is new or refurbished. Their return policy is too easy, can't trust that the returned UPSd is not sold as new after some testing.

APC is the best IT company in terms of customer care but they need more QA before selling expensive products with no added value if not for return policy.

I will buy another APC product only for their customer care/return policy but I lost some confidence in their products.
Too bugs, too slow fixing them if they will ever fix it.

Just my two cents.

Message was edited by: sblantipodi

[BillP]

Hi all...

I'm writing this thread just to inform people who want to buy this UPS.
I had 5x BackUPS PRO 1500 (BR1500GI), 1500VA 865W, three of this are working in office/home.

This is my feedback for future buyers.

1) If you get an outage during the night and your pc is off, be ready to wake up to turn off the UPS alarm. There is no way using Powerchute at the moment to avoid this problem. APC says that the problem will be corrected when it's ready, but since december 2010 I'm waiting for a fix.

2) The energy usage reported from Powerchute is completely messed up. For someone work ok, for someone else like me not. I'm waiting a fix since december but I will never see it if I will not buy a new UPS from different brands because this fix will require a new firmware and BackUPS PRO series is not firmware upgradable.

3) When there is an outage and PC is off the slave outlet is turned on, this makes slave peripherals to turn on drying your battery if the outage is long enough.

4) The battery gauge on the LCD is completely unuseful and unprecise. It takes 40 seconds with 100W load to go down to 3 of 5.

5) Some UPS is noisy, really boring in the night when you have a silent room.

6) We are in fall 2011 and powerchute continue to have problems with windows UAC asking for permission on every boot (there is some workaround but isn't listed on APC FAQ).

7) The last but not the least. The runtime seen in the specs is absolutely not correct. Every unit I had, lasted from 35% to 45% less than what is reported on the specs.

8) You will never know if your unit is new or refurbished. Their return policy is too easy, can't trust that the returned UPSd is not sold as new after some testing.

APC is the best IT company in terms of customer care but they need more QA before selling expensive products with no added value if not for return policy.

I will buy another APC product only for their customer care/return policy but I lost some confidence in their products.
Too bugs, too slow fixing them if they will ever fix it.

Just my two cents.

Message was edited by: sblantipodi

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Point 6) has been fixed with the latest powerchute, every other bugs not.

At the moment, (I bought the UPSs in december 2010) APC doesn't offer a solution to this problems.
The only solution should be to upgrade to an SMT1500I, this is not a solution either since SMT1500I is noisy and
is absolutely not good for home use due to the noise.

I waked up last night during an outage (read point 1 of my list) due to the UPS.
I'm waiting a fix since december 2010 and no fix arrived.

I can't belive that APC doesn't offer any solution after a year of releasing a product with many design flow.
Personally I bought products with design flow and APC hasn't an alternative to solve this design flow, please tell
me if this company is the "piece of mind" company that everyone knows.

I'm really disappointed and I will think twice before spending much more money for an APC product, other brands have valid alternatives with really less money.
All in all I bought a product that doesn't meet the advertised requirement/features.