Top positive review
118 people found this helpful
Absolutely AMAZING value! A great Pure Sine Wave Back-UPS Unit!
By CWestin on Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2012
I purchased this unit for my Mid-2011 27" iMac / 2.7GHz i5 Quad-Core / 1 TB Hard Drive / 16 GB RAM (Self Upgraded) / 512 MB Video/Graphics. The main reason I purchased this unit is, well, because in my opinion, if you have a desktop computer you absolutely NEED some sort of battery back-up unit, because power failures/outages WILL happen. Not to mention, brown-outs, where the voltage drops to an unusable level. The only time I would really say that you don't absolutely need a battery back-up is if you have a laptop, as they have built in batteries obviously, which will prevent it from doing a hard destructive shut-down with loss of power. Though if it were me, I would still purchase a battery back-up, because most of them feature AVR (automatic voltage regulation), which levels out the power output without having to resort to using the battery's power supply. For example, if you have a high load being drawn on that circuit, or for some reason your voltage drops some (not too much of course), this unit (and some others) will compensate for that and give you a more constant amount of voltage. In my area, here in Florida it's pretty common to have outages, especially during storms and such. The most common outage is a very quick 1-2 second outage, and then the power will come back on. Which isn't great at all, it actually sucks, very much. I had JUST purchased my iMac and I was shopping around for Back-UPS units, when my house had a quick outage, and my brand new 27" iMac did a hard shut down. Which gave me sort of a kick in the pants and coaxed me to purchase one VERY soon and ship it VERY fast. I was considering the APC Smart-UPS units, but they were outrageously expensive. Yes I realize that you pay for what you get, in some cases, but I just didn't want to spend $500-$600 on a battery back up. I absolutely needed a unit that provided Pure Sine Wave power when on battery power, because the newer iMacs all have PFC (Power Factor Corrected, I believe that's what the abbreviation stands for) Power Supply, and your average Back-UPS units like the APC models that you find at Staples, Office Depot and Wal-Mart absolutely will not work with computers that have these power supplies. This is because those Back-UPS units provide a "Stepped Approximation to a Sine Wave" when they are running on battery power", and newer computers, both Macs and PCs, with the PFC Power Supplies will NOT run them when it's running on battery power. I was debating on whether or not to purchase one of these CyberPower units, because I've seen a couple bad reviews on them, but a very large majority of the reviews were in fact very positive and the people had nothing but good words to write about these units. I think a majority of the issues come from the items being mishandled during the shipping process. I witnessed this when the customer service lady at UPS basically body slammed my Back-Ups unit onto the table right in front of me as I was picking up packages. They really don't care, because you could see what the item was, as it was shipped in the manufacturer's product packaging. Which is absolutely fine so long as someone doesn't use it to kick a field goal, as the manufacturers product packaging box is double walled cardboard, with a very generous amount of foam and extra cardboard spacing inside. Even with the super body slam, my unit worked absolutely wonderfully, no fan noise or anything. The build quality of these units isn't QUITE as great as the APC tower type units that you'll find at Staples and such, the outer skin on the CyberPower tower units is slightly thinner than the APC units, though it's still sturdy and not at all flexible or pliable. Everything else is absolutely wonderfully built. If you shake it there are no rattles, when you press on various body panels on it, none of them are loose or incorrectly fitted, receptacles are nice, and everything is great. Menu/interface functionality is great, easy to navigate and very intuitive. The buttons are solid when pressed also. One very large advantage that this unit has over it's non Pure Sine Wave APC counterparts that you'll find in stores is that these units are SMALL. Nice, small, and compact. I would say about half the size of those APC tower units. Making it possible to place it on your desk if you would like, next to your computer tower (if your computer has one) or somewhere else on the floor. It will not take up much room at ALL. It will maybe take up as much room as a single size 11 shoe will, that's it. The performance of this unit is great. I witnessed a couple times where the power dropped some and this unit properly compensated for it without having to kick over to battery power. There were quite a few times where household power was lost all together and this unit provided a perfect, instant, flawless transition to battery power and if it weren't for the click from the unit and the light sound of the fan kicking on, you wouldn't know it switched to battery power. Unless of course your computer notifies you when you are running on battery back-up, which my iMac did. I had my unit set on the highest sensitivity, and it was perfect. Sometimes with other units you will have an issue with the units being far too sensitive to have it on high sensitivity and really protect your computer and fast, and you will constantly hear the unit turning on and turning off, which was the case with the APC non-Sine Wave unit I purchased from Staples a couple years ago for another computer, and I had to leave that one set to medium sensitivity. The unit comes with software that you can use to set up automatic shut downs via different determinations such as the amount of time your computer is running on battery back up, how much charge the battery has left, and other parameters. THOUGH, and this is very important! With newer Macs, you absolutely do NOT need to install this provided software, or use any other kind of third part software. This is because you can go into System Preferences, and into Energy Saver, and once you have the Back-UPS unit connected to your Mac via the USB cable, your Energy Saver settings will automatically give you options to set up the Back-UPS unit and set up automatic proper shut downs by different parameters, like battery charge left, time running on battery and such. So these CyberPower units REALLY integrate very well with Macs, which is a very large plus. Bottom line is, if you are looking for a very nice Back-UPS unit for your computer that has a PFC Power Supply, and you don't want to spend $500 or more, then you really MUST look into this unit. It is absolutely amazing, and the price is amazingly ridiculously amazing (if that makes any sense, lol). CyberPower also has higher watt rated models, up to 2000VA I believe, my unit was a 1000VA, which is like 600w or such, and when it switched to battery power, it would give me a run time of 34 minutes, which is great, considering I was running quite a few programs and such at the time. So if you have a similar set up, you will have no problem getting adequate time to properly do everything you need with this model. If you have a much higher end gaming computer or such, I would possibly go with the 1350VA, 1600VA or 2000VA model. I am about to order a new Late-2012 27" iMac (the new thin models) with the i7 Quad-Core / 3 TB HDD / 8 GB RAM (I'll be upgrading it to 32GB myself, which you can't do with the 21.5" models, oddly enough) and 1 GB Video/Graphics, and for this one I plan on purchasing the 2000VA model, which will do me just fine. ALSO, ANOTHER VERY IMPORTANT WARNING. If you have a laser printer, or anything else that has a very high current draw, DO NOT, I repeat do NOT plug the printer into the battery back-up provided side of the unit. Plug it into the Surge Protected Only side, or better yet, a completely separate surge protector strip, which is what I did. Because when you turn on the laser printer, or start printing, you will see the voltage drop on the display of you Back-UPS unit quite a bit.
Top critical review
54 people found this helpful
Noxious Smell is a Deal Breaker - RoHS testing on "other units" not relevant for current batch
By ATXTW on Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2016
I just received this unit 2 days ago. I charged it up overnight the first night, and then I set it up yesterday evening. The setup was not too difficult. I took a good 20-30 minutes to read the directions carefully, and I installed the software. It seems to be working just fine. I ran the self-test once, and it passed. I am expecting that "self test" checks all the same things that would be checked if I simulated a power down event on the supply to this UPS itself. Here's the big problem: it has a putrid smell. But, "smell" is a word that indicates a minor issue, and so the word does not capture my concern adequately. It's not just that it smells. For example, I don't like the smell of Brussels sprouts or cooked carrots, but I have zero concern for my health when smelling them. The problem here is that it is a very strong industrial smell that most people would agree "smells like something not good for you". I believe the smell is from a petroleum-based product. It might be rubber or plastic. I know this smell from other products. I just started smelling it in products from China over the past 2 years or so. Another product that had this EXACT smell: a thick rubber floor mat for use with exercise equipment, for example. My opinion is that CyberPower is going too far in downplaying another reviewer's concerns on this smell: CyberPower Product Support in response to D. Howard's 12/9/2016 review: "Please note, the odor although not pleasant to smell, is not harmful." I believe CyberPower that some units early on passed RoHS (tested to confirm that certain toxic substances exist only up to certain concentrations in the products tested). But, I believe it is possible that the units tested did not have this same noxious smell that seems unhealthy. I read this article (which is completely on-topic) just now: [...]. I am not certain if everyone agrees that this web site is reputable, but the detail and wording were convincing for me (though I do NOT have a chemistry background). It mainly talks about toys and backpacks, but I believe that the awful smell from rubberized plastic goods they are talking about is the same smell we are talking about here for my CyberPower UPS. Again, I do not have a chemistry background, but this smell literally fails the "smell test". It absolutely smells unhealthy. Also, I really hope CyberPower does not say "there is no evidence there is a problem with the units that have this smell". The burden of proof should not be on the customer. Also, "there is no evidence" is a country mile away from "we have tested specific units with this smell in a sufficient quantity for our conclusions to be statistically significant, and we can show you the exact composition of the out-gassed smell and here is the toxicity of each component of the out-gassed smell and here is why each component in this concentration is safe". Anyway, getting back to the article, it opens as follows: "Ever wonder why some rubberized plastic goods made in China have that awful smell? Research and testing is increasingly illustrating that these goods may not just smell bad. They may also be out-gassing potent toxins and carcinogens." They go on to talk about harmful chemicals like DBP and DEHT related to this awful smell. If you investigate RoHS ([...], for example), it looks like DBP and DEHT are part of the RoHS testing, and CyberPower is saying that these units pass RoHS testing. You know what? I believe that if you did a RoHS test on the unit that is sitting in my home, it would fail that RoHS test. I really want to use the unit that I have without the hassle of a return, so I set up a "pretty decent" air filter about 3 feet away from this unit and ran it overnight with the doors closed in this room (my home office). When I came into the room in the morning, I still could smell the same noxious rubber smell. Oh, I also did the initial charging of the unit in my garage overnight on the first night (temperature was in the 49-55 degrees Farenheit range every time I checked) because I was hoping that the smell would dissipate better in my garage. This did not solve the problem. Folks, I think the materials used in the manufacturing process have changed since the RoHS testing was done. The smell is just so strong, thick, and persistent. My guess is that many units of this product were shipped without the toxic smell, and something changed along the way. As you can see, my review is from December of 2016. It looks like I am not the only one to notice this problem for units shipped around this time. I saw that CyberPower shipped a replacement unit to someone else that had the problem, but even the replacement unit had the problem. CyberPower is committed to making the customer happy. I believe that. Here is what would make me a satisfied customer: 1) Have a human pick a CyberPower UPS unit "off the shelf". Have at least 2 people smell it carefully (you can smell it even before you open the box) in a non-drafty location. In other words, do not try this outdoors or in a drafty warehouse that could be blowing the smell away. In needs to be done in a "true indoors" situation. 2) Have both people confirm that this obvious thick rubbery/industrial/petroleum smell does not exist. It's probably best to open the box to be sure. 3) Repeat until you are certain that the specific product you are sending me does not have this smell. 4) Send it to me, please. 5) Pay the costs of me shipping the original product back to CyberPower. 6) Please do not just "ship another one" to me. We have already seen that this did not work for another reviewer. Please do not give me a syrupy and cynical "CyberPower is committed to making the customer happy" response until I have a non-smelling unit in my home with no out-of-pocket costs to me. Here is the definition of "cynical" that I am using here: "concerned only with one's own interests and typically disregarding accepted or appropriate standards in order to achieve them". When the above "replacement with no smell and no cost to the customer" happens, I will happily amend my review to let folks know that CyberPower uses actions to back up its claims of commitment to customer satisfaction. For those reading this review, I recommend that you do not purchase this product until the noxious smell problem has been resolved.
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