APC UPS 1500VA/900W, LCD, AVR, UPS Battery Backup & Surge Protector BX1500M

Overall good UPS. I have purchased several of the same models. I use them for my computers and also my home theater system (amp, TV, PS5, subwoofer), and other electronics. However, all my APC units have the same defect in the self-testing mode or during a power outage at the house. Although, the defect during self-test is infrequent. Sometimes during self-test, unexpectedly the unit's alarm starts making a racket. I look at the display panel icon which indicates the battery is completely depleted. The first time this happened, I turned off everything connected to the UPS because I thought it would suddenly cut the power to them because the UPS thinks the battery was dead. The same issue could happen if there is a power outage at my house and the UPS switches to the battery power. After, I unplugged the UPS from the wall and cycled the power button off and on, the mysterious "problem" with the "failed" battery was self-corrected. The battery icon then showed it was fully charged: it had gone from full discharge to fully charged in an instant! Now that I know about this defect, when the alarm goes off and the panel indicates the battery is dead: I mute the alarm and leave my equipment on that is connected to the UPS. (There is no a power outage at my house.) It is a false alarm. In about 24 hours, the UPS mysteriously corrects itself and behaves normally. I can disconnect it from the wall socket and my stuff works fine and the battery level shows that it is fully charged but of course starts to show the remaining time left to depletion. UPDATE: June 2026 All of my APC UPS units have stopped functioning properly after about five years of use. I tested each one by swapping batteries, and the results showed either weak batteries or failure in the UPS hardware itself. For the APC units that still appear to operate, I chose not to purchase new OEM batteries. Instead, I invested in the GOLDENMATE 1000VA/800W Lithium UPS Battery Backup and Surge Protector, and it has proven to be a clear improvement over the older sealed lead‑acid APC models. When I pull the power plug from the wall mains to simulate a power outage, the GOLDENMATE provides noticeably longer runtime and keeps my equipment powered flawlessly. The APC units—when they were still functioning correctly—could do the same, but for a shorter period. The GOLDENMATE is also roughly half the weight of the APC SLA‑based units, which makes handling and placement easier. I hope this modern Lithium Iron Phosphate battery pack UPS will last longer and be less trouble‑prone than the APC brand.

Took a little time to setup as I'm using a smaller one for my Home Lab Network and this one for my daily Computer. Using NUT (Linux), I got both securely on the network and running smoothly with full readouts on both. Came already fully charged and ready to go immediately. Works great, no problem with the beeps, solved plug spacing by using small extension connectors. Really great value for the money and solid security against power outages and fluctuations. Smaller in size than you would think too but plenty powerful! Update: In my area storm outages are a pretty common occurrence, hence this became a true necessity not merely a convenience. Since purchasing it, setting it up and running live, we've had two outages for a short period of time (each) and last night quite a few blips (power fluctuations that didn't cut anything off). My network stayed up throughout it all perfectly (I run it 24/7/365), I was actually on my computer (only run as needed) when the second incident happened and it performed to 100% satisfaction. Lights went out, my computer and network both stayed running through it and I remained connected to internet also. That was the real-world test I needed. I'm a simple home user with a pretty good setup because I rely on it for daily use and learning. As a 40+ year computer user and enthusiast I stayed with APC because of their reputation, quality and reliability as well as my experience with their products. I bought my first APC back in mid 1990's and it was equally as functional and reliable even back then. For me it's tried and true. This (recently) was my first journey into building and running a full Home Lab setup so I chose to spend a little extra money to insure it's reliability and it's already paid off. It's very satisfying that I know when I walk out the door I can come home to a guaranteed working complete system everyday. I know when I push the computer's power button I WILL be on the net!

My old APC, a ES 750 Backups, was bought in 2008, and the battery on it just failed (yes, it lasted TEN years). That unit was a replacement for an APC I bought at a retail store which was at the end of its warranty, but the battery died. I called APC back then, and they sent me the replacement at the end of the warranty life for free. APC had the best customer service in the business, and despite not calling them this time, I have no reason to think it's changed. I ordered a replacement battery for that 2008 ES750 (I got the Keyko here on Amazon- will see how long it lasts), and it's back in business. If I get another 5 years out of it, one APC purchase will have lasted 20 years and still going. APCs are incredibly reliable, they honor their warranties, and they appear to last forever. Nothing I've seen anywhere says different. I purchased this APC 1500VA because I wanted longer backup battery life, and moved my old APC ES750 to protect my Comcast router. Once a year or so, we have a tropical storm or hurricane that cuts our power for an hour, up to days in a rare hurricane. A 1500 should double the up time of a 750. Also, this has a display that shows the condition of the battery, the amount of power being used, and power load. The old ES750 did not. This unit is amazing. I have a full gaming PC, monitor, sound system, printer, 2 lamps plugged in, and the load bar is barely to 1/3. With the PowerChute software installed (first time I've ever installed it), it says I am drawing 99 watts of power right now (I have printer shut off when not in use). The Estimated battery time is 61 minutes if the power source goes down. There was no discount of any kind available, so before buying I compared every backups before paying the higher price for this APC brand. The difference was a couple of dollars more, but for something that could possibly last 20 years, saving a few dollars was not worth the headache of an unreliable unit or unresponsive customer service. Reviews always make a difference to me in a buying decision, I wanted to address some of the reviews that may have turned me off from choosing this model. 1. The unit makes excessive noise. - I have it positioned under my table, more than 18" away from my actual PC (PC faces my chair, this is turned sideways to face the wall with the connectors facing the PC at a 90 degree angle). The unit is SILENT. It makes NO noise. NO buzz, NO hum that can be heard over my near silent PC fans. I have no idea about the specifics for servers, or how far it should be away from equipment to prevent feedback loop, but for home use, the unit is silent and works flawlessly. 2. The horrible chirping when the battery or AC power dies. I totally relate to this, it's exactly what happened when my old ES 750 went, and it drove me almost bonkers. It is LOUD. If you unplug the unit, the chirping would not stop until you physically removed the battery itself. THIS unit has a mute button, it's the top left button on the unit. I haven't heard the alarm sound on this yet, nor do I want to unplug to test because getting to the plug behind all my computer equipment is a contortionist exercise. But my old APC did not have a mute button, so I assume that's what this is for. There's a feature in the Powerchute program however that allows you to "DISABLE THE BATTERY BACKUP ALARMS AT ALL TIMES" (as well as "Disable the battery backup alarms when the PC is in hibernation"). So you never need hear the alarm if you don't want to, ending the annoyance once and for all. My little APC ES 750 protected my PCs through 3 major hurricanes and 4 serious tropical storms, one of which destroyed my roof. With that one unit, I have never lost a single PC to massive power spikes, something that happens continuously with brownouts as they try to restore power after each major storm to the area. Some neighbors have lost PC's plugged into regular surge protectors. The ability to protect data lines seems to help too, my mom once fried a PC while it was shut down and she was on vacation, the only explanation was a spike through her data lines. The only downside is the weight... to compare it to a brick would be absurd, it is many times the weight of a brick. It's HEAVY. But that's because this is a huge battery and it's all battery weight. Be prepared for the weight, at about 1/6th the size of my loaded tower PC, this weights 4x more. APC are the best, hope this helps!

After reading some of the reviews the only thing that concerned me was a humming noise. There is no noise at all. It was easy to assemble and has been working great so far. I uploaded the program to do an automatic shut down when the there is a power outage and we are not home to do it manually. I'm not a computer whiz by any means and it was super easy. APC has always been my go to and glad to upgrade to a nicer one.

This battery backup worked fine, but about 3 years in the batteries died. I had other UPS units in the past on desktops and home theater equipment and this is roughly the amount of time they seem to last. It's kind of crazy that they aren't kicking over to the battery all that often, yet only last a few years. I can't exactly fault the manufacturer in this as it might just be how the battery technology is, but I definitely wish the batteries lasted longer than they do. You can usually get replacement batteries for 25-35% the cost of buying a full UPS, so it's at least not the full amount of buying a UPS each time. I went through two sets of batteries with a UPS I had on my home theater equipment and then the unit died (not an APC). That seems to be how it goes. You get to replace batteries a few times and the unit works like-new again, and then the electronics themselves die. Regardless, eventually you just kind of get tired replacing the batteries every few years or buying a whole new UPS every 5-6 years and question if it's all worth it. I currently have one of this model that is awaiting new batteries so it can protect the new desktop I bought last year. We've had power glitches at random times through the years and despite the electric company working on it and replacing a blown transformer a few times, still seems to happen once in a while. So the UPS can come in-handy when that happens so I don't lose anything I'm working on when the power glitches. Yet -- the unit is sitting there unplugged, because we don't have power glitches too often & I know that after replacing the batteries, it could be a year later, or two years later -- and I'll have to replace them again. At this point I'm torn on whether it's worth the cost. If I had a $3-5k brand new gaming rig -- or was protecting $10k or more of equipment, I would not hesitate. But after being through a number of UPS devices over the years, replacing batteries, and then having periods where I had zero UPS devices on equipment and all was fine -- I'm more inclined to just leave equipment protected through better surge protectors and not have a battery backup on it these days. To each their own. It's not a bad idea to protect equipment with a UPS as it does allow you to shut-down equipment if there's an extended power outage and not lose work -- yet, if you don't NEED a battery backup a decent surge protector is going to be a much more cost-effective option in the long-run. Nothing bad to say about this unit other than the batteries not lasting more than a few years -- but that's a common theme with UPS units and not the fault of this product in particular.

I bought 2 of these and 1 I've been using for about a year without any issues. I've had intermittent power outages throughout the year and the UPS has kept my servers online through all of them. The second one I tested but then put into storage. I mistakenly forgot to flip the battery so the battery died. I expected that but before buying a replacement battery I tried powering it on. I don't know if the dead battery blew an internal fuse but shortly after powering on the screen went dark and the unit only passed through power. I tried putting in a known good battery and still the unit didn't function. APC support was very easy to work with and they sent out a replacement unit quickly. Having easy to contact support and no hassle warranty is a huge plus!

Update: I was able to get in contact with a human and Amazon was able to get me a refund. The process for getting in contact with a human could have been clearer. Debating if I will attempt to try again with this product or if I will get another brand of UPS instead. I know my experience was niche, but the annoyance of troubleshooting is still fresh on my mind. I got to keep the defective unit so there is a chance that only the battery or the UPS was defective. I will update this review if I decide to get another unit. __________________________________________________ Old review: This has been a huge headache for me. I set it up day one and everything appeared to be working properly. A few days later I noticed that the battery says it is drained which was odd since I never had any power issues. No errors were reported on the LCD and Windows was not showing a charging icon anymore. I downloaded PowerChute Personal Edition to see if I could get some more in-depth info for troubleshooting. The self-test succeeded so I just kept an eye on the battery status throughout the day. The battery constantly drained and never showed anything over 25%. I then installed PowerChute Serial Shutdown to see if the newer software would have any more useful information. Only difference was that the software reported the battery was in a discharged state. The UPS still reported that it passed its self-test and the battery still continued to drain. I then performed a hardware reset on the UPS. Looked back in PowerChute and there was no difference. A few days later PowerChute Personal Edition reported that an internal fault was detected and that I should replace the unit asap. The Self-test would now no longer complete. I believe this was because the battery was too drained and could not support my PC's power requirements during the test, but the software provided no logs or reasoning as to why the test failed to complete. Now here is the fun part. Amazon says that this product is not permitted to be returned even though its defective and that I should request a replacement. Requesting a replacement due to a defect is also disabled and tells me I should just return it. There are no options for me to contact a human at Amazon in regards to this product. I don't know what the deal is since people have told me in amazon questions that they were able to get a replacement through amazon in this product. Then I think "well at least I have a 3-year warranty, I'll just have to go through the manufacturer's RMA process." They do not provide a contact email only a button to click to message a customer support agent. The chat says its only from 8am-8pm EST from Monday to Friday and is greyed out. I think I will just try again the following day within the time period. NOPE! The button is still greyed out. I want to like this product, but with all the headache I can't give it a good review. Right now I am down $180 and around 8 hours of troubleshooting and trying to get in contact with anyone. All I have to show for it is what is essentially a large surge protector.

Worked perfectly for my PC! I get a lot of random power outages where I live and I work from home and play online competitive games, so I was tired of my PC getting shut off once or twice a week. The UPS kept my PC and monitor on no problem. Very happy with this.

UPDATE: After talking more with customer support, they sent a replacement unit which has none of the problems my first one did. I still need a bit of gaffer tape to cover up the lights from the buttons, but other than that, it's perfect. APC customer support was helpful and communicated clearly. The original review follows: I STRONGLY recommend you get the gift wrapping instead of going with standard shipping in the original box that shows what is inside. The unit is about half the size of a PC tower and is it ever heavy. I'm impressed with the packaging being minimal, recyclable, and yet sturdy. The battery was easy to take out and turn around the right way to get the unit working. The sockets on the back are pretty close together and I'm only able to fit three plugs in the five sockets (computer equipment tends to have big plugs). When the unit is on, the screen turns off with inactivity, but the three buttons remain illuminated. When the power went out, I couldn't figure out how to turn off the screen and it remained on using up a small amount of battery. I had some issues with the unit, but the manufacturer is quick to respond (4 min from my first question) and worked me through some troubleshooting. I've been using this brand for years and I'm always impressed with their service. But this brings us to the parts I don't like about it. I live in a semi-rual part of Canada, and our island has more trees per km of electrical line than anywhere else in North America - or so the power company tells us every storm season. 6 months of the year is storm season and I felt it would be nice to have something to protect my PC better than a regular surge protector. I had hoped the battery backup would even out the electrical current but it doesn't. Even at high sensitivity, the light plugged into the battery backup still flickers when the neighbour is welding or using heavy equipment. It also makes some noise that most people probably wouldn't hear but are obvious if I'm trying to sleep in the same room as the machine. If I turn the unit off at night, it thunks when clicking back and forth to the battery backup due to inconsistent power from the mains... even though it is turned off, my computer is getting a flash of power when the unit makes this switch. I've given up keeping it off and used some black gaffer tape on the glowing buttons. On the whole, I feel this isn't what I expected. I got it with the idea that it would even out the issues with my local power supply quality - but these same issues seem to bother the UPS just as much as they bother the computer and lights. What it does best is to be a battery backup and I'm glad I got the larger size because if the storm is strong enough to knock the power out for more than a few days, it's too cloudy to use my solar panel to charge my gadgets. This will do the trick nicely.

The APC-UPS is for me an absolute necessity to protect my Apple MacPro workstation, Apple 22 inch monitor, colour printer, film scanner and internet cable modem from power surges, brownouts from low hydro voltage and even sudden or intermittent power failures. This unit will protect your valuable electronic gear from sudden voltage swings and from electrical storms too. UPS stands for Uninterrupted Power Supply... and that's what it does - powers your gear when the local hydro fails. Example: Here in Montreal, we have had 4 power failures in 2023, one a mini ice storm with no power for 64 hours. The APC-UPS allowed me to continue working on my computer, write posts on twitter and even make phone calls with the modem wifi connection. Depending upon the power draw of your equipment, the built in battery pack will last from 20 to 30 minutes! So if you're working on a project, writing an email or using Photoshop, you can save your files and safely close down everything, without a single loss of any files. The flip from local hydro power to your battery backup is instantaneous, so fast that my computer did not detect the sudden local power loss, though I noticed because all my lights went out! The audiovisual industry and corporate IT departments use these same APC-UPS units to protect their gear. This is the second APC-UPS I have owned. I retired the first one purchased in 2007 after 15 years of use, because the replacement battery was 75% of the cost of buying a new one! This newest unit uses the latest technology and bonus - comes with a 3 year warranty. The massive and heavy internal sealed battery typically lasts from 3 to 5 years. At least that was my experience with my first APC-UPS. The second battery lasted 7 years! My newest APS-UPS has run flawlessly since November 2022 even though, as I said, there have been four power failures. I highly recommend this product. Cheers! Frederic in Montréal.

So far, it has been working well.

It has a strong smell of fresh plastic, the smell is so strong I feel a headache even in a well ventilated room. Probably going to leave this in the garage for a few months It works, I plugged my gaming pc and 1 monitor into it and then unpluged the UPS to see how long it can last and it says it would last 48 minutes, and my PC didn't turn off during the process.

I have had several UPS devices from APC. I got this one to replace the older one which was not working correctly anymore, even with a new battery in it. This new unit is much heavier that you might expect so you should be sure to place it on the floor or securely on a table before attempting to open it. It was very simple to open the case and set up the rechargeable battery to the charge position. All I had to do was pull on the plastic tab to pull the rechargeable battery out, and then flip the rechargeable battery, slide the rechargeable battery back in and then close the cover. The unit works well. I have discharged and charged the unit twice so far. The Power Chute Personal Edition software recognized the new UPS unit without any problems. The only slight difficulty I encountered was that the PCPE software did not see the new unit charging (see the % charge number going up), until I ran a self test check on the new unit. The unit charges slowly when there is a load on it, which is to be expected.