Has a UPS saved your skin?

[Damo77]

I'm thinking of spending AU$150-$200 on a UPS - uninterrupted power supply - for our home computers. My wife thinks it's unnecessary.

We rarely lose power, maybe only a couple of times a year during storm season. And if there's a storm around, we just switch off anyway. But every now and then the power just cuts out without warning (a distant storm, or a car into a power pole). I'd like to be safe.

Does anybody have a UPS in place? Has it ever saved you?

[BiikeMike]

SPEND AS MUCH AS YOU NEED ON A GOOD UPS!!!!

I can't tell you how many times I've had or seen a UPS save projects, hours upon hours of work, and once, even a theatrical production. (The lighting board was plugged into a UPS)

The best kind to get are the ones that will communicate with your computer and shut it down if needed through USB.


P.S. I have an APC Back-Ups RS 1300 (http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BR1300LCD), and the LCD is really useful. I have my Mac Pro, 30" ACD, Cable Modem and Router, Vonage, cordless phone and speakers plugged into it. Everything is running at full, I have Photoshop, PTGui, iTunes, and some other stuff open, Music Playing, and I just unplugged it. I got a message on my computer that said "Warning, your computer is now running on UPS Backup" and I looked down and it would have kept running like that for almost 15 minutes. I have it set to shut my computer down when there is only 3 minutes left on the battery. BELIEVE ME, its worth it!

[toneyw]

I have one for my computer because where I live, the power spikes and dips without any warning. I have one that "conditions" the power (powered by the battery). I spoke with the utility company (PG & E) and they said that the power is "normal" for a residential area. . .

[Damo77]

Ok, thanks.

Yes, I saw one advertised with USB, and I didn't know what that meant. Can you tell me a bit more about it?

[mson]

Yes, a UPS is a worthwhile investment, although I'm not sure you need to spend $200 to get a decent one. Usually more money means longer runtime/more powered plugs. compare specs and get what best suits your situation. Even if you do not lose power often they are worth it because the UPS will condition your power since it draws from the battery instead of directly from the outlet.

[Bruce_B]

I love my UPS. It's saved me plenty of times. Another thing I use it for is if the weather gets hairy all of a sudden, I just yank the plug out of the wall and then shut down normally. I've never lost anything to lightening, but I know plenty of people who have.

[Jim G]

Hmmmm. I haven't come across these before but this seems like quite a good idea - we lose power a couple of times every few months to storms and Dad had his mobo fried not long ago...

[kblair210]

Get one. It's not even so much for power outages, which are bad, but for surges and dips which can damage components, which is really bad.

[mson]

I love my UPS. It's saved me plenty of times. Another thing I use it for is if the weather gets hairy all of a sudden, I just yank the plug out of the wall and then shut down normally. I've never lost anything to lightening, but I know plenty of people who have.

Good idea. A UPS will likely NOT protect you from a lightening strike.

[Bruce_B]

Good idea. A UPS will likely NOT protect you from a lightening strike.

I don't trust anything to protect from lightening. In a really bad storm I've been known to unplug everything in the house :lol:

For my PC's I also pull the phone and cat 5 cables out of the wall. I don't want them connected to anything else when lightening is popping.

[Steve Beck]

Every piece of electronic equipment in my house is on UPS's. It is worth every penny.

[vel]

I don't trust anything to protect from lightening. In a really bad storm I've been known to unplug everything in the house :lol:

For my PC's I also pull the phone and cat 5 cables out of the wall. I don't want them connected to anything else when lightening is popping.

This is certainly the best idea.

Although I did meet someone who had lightning strike the transformer directly outside his house. His APC power strip literally melted into the carpeting, but his computer was alright, amazingly enough. Still, not sure I would want to rely on that, and the need for new carpeting alone is worth unplugging everything in a storm. As aditional lightning protection, most UPS companies insure all connected equipment against damage from bad power (lightning included) up to $50,000-$200,000 or even more, depending on the model. The down time while waiting for them to replace your stuff would still suck, however.

On the original topic, I have had a UPS save my *ss repeatedly. One with USB that is capable if saving open documents and shutting down for you when absent is wonderful. Also some UPSes have the capability to correct for low voltage without drawing on the battery (to a point) which is another extremely useful feature, especially if your area is prone to brown-outs. APC calls this feature AVR (Automatic Voltage Regulation) but most other UPS companies offer models with a similar feature, if under another name.

[strmrdr]

Good idea. A UPS will likely NOT protect you from a lightening strike.

I'm 4 for 4 on close strikes with clients using APC Smart-ups on servers. The UPS was toast but the servers have been fine.
I am 0 for 2 on other brands when clients didnt listen too me and got cheap.

The worst one took out all the workstations and rendering machines which were on belkin surge strips.
It even melted the wire coming into the building.
It blew the sump pump and some of the fluorescent light ballasts and the entire phone system which was on a communications grade UPS.
The UPS itself was toast but the server and several hundred gigs of data was safe.

[Damo77]

Thanks for all the info, everyone. I'll definitely look into it.

[NFRs2000NYC]

If you are a professional, and make money from your work, then without a doubt, get a UPS. You have no idea to the potential money savings you can have from a UPS.

[Steve Beck]

Doesn't matter if your a pro or not. A $125 UPS can save your $3000 computer or $2000 TV in a heartbeat...

[slappy sam]

One thing to note - I got a dynex UPS a couple years ago with my computer, because we often lose power and its an antique house so sometimes the lights would flicker when my dad used power tools outside, etc. We also live near the beach so if a storm hits the power will go out. I really liked my UPS, but now 3/6 of the plugs (all the battery backup ones) don't work. This isn't covered on warranty, so now I'm left with this huge UPS that is essentially a 3 plug surge protector... :(

Any recommendations on a better brand that is still reasonably priced?

[Roach711]

Square D makes a whole-house surge supressor that attaches directly to your home's breaker panel. My nephew is an electrician and said that it dumps the excess voltage directly to ground. I installed one a few years back and we've had no problems, but I couldn't say whether we've had any serious spikes either.

The UPS would also protect against voltage sags but these are more of a problem with electric motors.UPS's usually come with software that logs when there has been a surge/sag.

[BiikeMike]

One thing to note - I got a dynex UPS a couple years ago with my computer, because we often lose power and its an antique house so sometimes the lights would flicker when my dad used power tools outside, etc. We also live near the beach so if a storm hits the power will go out. I really liked my UPS, but now 3/6 of the plugs (all the battery backup ones) don't work. This isn't covered on warranty, so now I'm left with this huge UPS that is essentially a 3 plug surge protector... :(

Any recommendations on a better brand that is still reasonably priced?


Have you looked into replacing the battery? That could be the problem.

If you want to replace it, APC is rock solid. I have a bunch of their products, and friends do as well, and they rock.

[slappy sam]

Yea I could probably replace the battery, but the whole thing was $80 - seems like more trouble than it's worth to find and replace the battery (not sure if its just a pop in pop out dealio or if I have to solder).

[Eismann]

A good UPS is worth it's weight in gold. A power conditioner is a close second. I have never gone for the 2 in 1 approach with them, but have always bought separate components. I use a Furman M8Dx for a conditioner and a APC Back UPS RS 1500 for my UPS. There have been power dips where a local squirrel has been toasted on a wire and the Furman never blinked, just kept pumping out a steady 120. There are so many capacitors in it, that it almost takes a minute and a half to power down once it is turned off.

[Titus213]

I wouldn't go without a UPS. I got one with enough battery to allow orderly shutdown in a failure. USB allows auto shutdown and works very well.

[Tom Camilleri]

Yes, a UPS is a worthwhile investment, although I'm not sure you need to spend $200 to get a decent one. Usually more money means longer runtime/more powered plugs. compare specs and get what best suits your situation. Even if you do not lose power often they are worth it because the UPS will condition your power since it draws from the battery instead of directly from the outlet.

Agree. Conditioned power is free from voltage spikes and drops that occur all the time on any regular power line. You might not notice them, but they stress the system nonetheless and contribute to its ultimate failure. More importantly, when they occur during disk write operations they can cause file corruption which, again, may not be immediately apparent but over time can manifest itself as one of those mysterious problems. A UPS is saving your skin all the time, even if you never notice that it's doing so.

[TPG]

XS 1500 behind my main PC and programming workstation
1200 covering my living room pc and modem/router

Definitely worth it.

[neil_g]

a cheaper alternative would be regular saves, scheduled backup jobs and turning off in a storm (or buy a laptop).

[neil_g]

also, you dont need a UPS to protect from surges/lightning.

UK version - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Belkin-PureAV-Cinema-Surge-Protector/dp/B0003056QU/ref=dp_return_2?ie=UTF8&n=560798&s=electronics&qid=1205250035&sr=8-1

[TPG]

also, you dont need a UPS to protect from surges/lightning.


Surge protector doesn't bring down the machine gracefully.
I'd rather not deal with disk scans and whatnot post outage and have the ability to shut down my machines normally.

[neil_g]

Surge protector doesn't bring down the machine gracefully.
I'd rather not deal with disk scans and whatnot post outage and have the ability to shut down my machines normally.

i never said it did. hence the bit about shutting down in a storm.

obviously it will differ to wherever you guys are and what your supply is like but i cant remember the last time i "lost" a machine to a surge or power loss. we had our first power outage in years last night following some bad weather and that was 11pm to 5am so none of my machines were online.

if i had a server(s) however then id invest in a UPS.

[TPG]

i never said it did.

obviously it will differ to wherever you guys are and what your supply is like but i cant remember the last time i "lost" a machine to a surge or power loss. we had our first power outage in years last night following some bad weather and that was 11pm to 5am so none of my systems were online.

if i had a server(s) however then id invest in a UPS.

Some of us never shut down our machines unless we're going away.

[neil_g]

fair enough. the only machine i normally leave on overnight is my laptop and thats got its own "UPS".. :p

[BiikeMike]

a cheaper alternative would be regular saves, scheduled backup jobs and turning off in a storm (or buy a laptop).

Not to be mean, but that is just dead wrong.

You are telling me you have NEVER experience a brown out? never had the power go out? never had to use your computer while it was raining? UPS's don't just save your open documents, they can save your whole machine. Would you ever just unplug your computer from the wall when you are done with it? It has a shut down procedure, and there is a reason for that.

Is it likely that getting the power cut off will totally hose your machine? no. Is it possible? yes.

And power doesn't only go out during storms. Crews are working on lines all the time, and if they make a mistake, or have to shut it down for a few minutes or what have you, out goes the power. Half of my city lost power last year because of a curious squirrel. It climbed into a main transformer and the whole thing blew. Bright beautiful sunny day.

Saving your stuff, and backups is a great idea, everyone should do it, but add a UPS into that mix, and you are pretty set.


And just to add, if there is a storm, a surge protector or a UPS won't really do much for your equipment if there is a lightning strike. The only way to really protect yourself is to unplug everything.

[Tom Camilleri]

a cheaper alternative would be regular saves, scheduled backup jobs and turning off in a storm (or buy a laptop).

Definitely not. There are still going to be tiny voltage spikes and drops which hammer away on the system little by little, but otherwise in the same way as a huge surge would. As I mentioned in a previous post, these also cause software corruption during disk write operations. IMHO, anyone who thinks that forgoing a decent UPS/conditioner for under $100 is a cheaper alternative is being penny wise and dollar foolish.

[BillyR]

I'm actually surprised that anyone who posts in this forum is without a UPS. As others have pointed out, it's really cheap insurance. I have an old APC RS 1000 that will run my PC for about 25 minutes in the event of a power failure, but when / if I have to replace it I can get by with a much smaller one. That’s because I've since acquired an automatic standby generator, and when the power goes off it takes about 30 seconds for the switchbox to recognize the failure, start up the generator, let it stabilize and switch over. So I only need a UPS to last me for about 5 minutes tops.

[Damo77]

I'm actually surprised that anyone who posts in this forum is without a UPS.

Touché.

Just like I'm always surprised that anyone who posts in this forum is without a monitor calibrator ...

[neil_g]

lets clear something up, my initial comment was aimed at suggestions that you NEED a UPS to protect from surges. i pointed out an alternative for protecting against surges. for the record i use surge protection on all expensive devices at home.

regular saves and backups and shutting down in storms etc should be standard practice whether you have UPS or not, they can and do fail.

im not sure what the supply is like in the states but as per my post on page 2 somewhere we had our first power outage in years the night before last due to "storms" taking down power lines. at work the entire building has UPS, has it ever had to kick in? no.

for the majority of home users a UPS is a little overkill IN MY OPINION. fair enough for those that have mission critical systems that run 24/7 and do not want to rely on backups.

can a power outage nuke a computer, yes. have i ever seen it happen, no. how many times have people had to power off their computer due to system hangs? how does your UPS protect against that :p

Definitely not. There are still going to be tiny voltage spikes and drops which hammer away on the system little by little, but otherwise in the same way as a huge surge would. As I mentioned in a previous post, these also cause software corruption during disk write operations. IMHO, anyone who thinks that forgoing a decent UPS/conditioner for under $100 is a cheaper alternative is being penny wise and dollar foolish.

go back and read what i wrote regarding surge protection please. plus its becoming more and more common for PC power supplies to have built in protection.

maybe the supply in the states is that poor that UPS is essential. however that is my view for the average home user as a UK systems techie.

[TPG]

can a power outage nuke a computer, yes. have i ever seen it happen, no. how many times have people had to power off their computer due to system hangs? how does your UPS protect against that :p



There's a big difference between a line surge and holding the button in on your computer. Outages aren't always initially just the "power going out".

[neil_g]

There's a big difference between a line surge and holding the button in on your computer. Outages aren't always initially just the "power going out".

i know, hence using a surge filter..