APC SMART-UPS 1500 SUA1500 1500VA 980W 120V BATTERY BACK UP UPS - USB COMPATIBLE

I purchased this item back in August 2012. I waited 7 months before posting a review because I wanted to be sure that it ran right. This thing ROCKS. It is rock solid, and protects my Mac Pro desktop, Apple Cinema Display, 3 external hard drives, Scanner and speakers without breaking a sweat. It works flawlessly.I have to give well-deserved kudos to ExcessUPS, where I purchased this refurbished unit. They put a one-year warranty on it, but it's clearly not needed. Great company, great people. The unit I received, though refurbished, looked like a brand-new unit straight from the factory. Worked like it should right out of the box.If there's one issue that I have with the APC SMART-UPS 1500 SUA1500, it's that it's VERY HEAVY. The specs list its weight at 60 lbs., but I think that it easily weighs around 80 lbs. with its battery. Fortunately for me, I placed it in one spot under my desk, and never had to move it again. But if you're in a situation where you will need to be moving your UPS around alot, don't even consider this model! It is HEAVY!But in spite of its weight, I highly recommend the APC SMART-UPS 1500 SUA1500. Particularly if you have a high-performance desktop like a Mac Pro (and especially if you're using it for video and/or audio production) that needs extra protection and a UPS with a SINE WAVE waveform which Mac Pro desktops require. At the time that I purchased this model in August 2012, this model was already discontinued, and I really didn't see a decent alternative in APC's then-current available models. This one is a keeper.

DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT FOR ANY REASON. IT IS DANGEROUS TO BOTH YOUR COMPUTERS AND YOUR STAFF.This product is one of the worst-designed products in any category that I have used in my entire life -- I believe the only product ever that was bad enough for me to actually write an Amazon review to try to spare others from it.When you have to replace the battery (in about a year) it becomes a COMPLETE NIGHTMARE. It is seriously dangerous to both your computer system and to you.I have certainly replaced batteries on many comparable items before -- without incident.This unit (I have two of them) is so terribly designed that it broke in multiple ways while I was trying to replace the battery.Worse, it's so badly designed that there is a real risk of serious injury in trying to deal with it. Picture trying to hold a <100lb object with no handles of any kind and shake it to try to get the >50lb battery to somehow come out given the that scotch-tape-strength tab that was supposed to pull the battery out had long-since broken, the battery is completely stuck and can't be pried out, and that you've already spent several hours trying to deal with it. Once done, you put the whole thing back together again, and it is now broken and useless, and your computer systems are now without power.Avoid this unit at all costs.

Ok when they work they are great. When they get old they can do more damage than not having them. I had one signal me it was going bad by turning off the power to my devices just like someone signalling with a porch light, one off one off on off on off. Great for my TV, as it went on off on off on off on off and died. I was luckier with my computers as they went off and did not restart once the first power off happened.In the old version of the software it had a better interface was easy to use and gave more information than the new web based software.Many items have been added, things that are very important. If you know what the electric company charges you can figure out the Energy cost to run the unit, the CO2 generated to produce the electric to run the unit, and energy consumed by the unit. There is no way to change or improve on these numbers and for me it is a total wast of a page. If I can't change it why tell me. And the CO2 is a guess as some electric is produced from coal, other electric is water generated, and some is from nuclear power, so how the figure of CO2 numbers is at best a very wild guess, why bother?Next page is funny. Current software does not let you enter a new battery install date after Dec 2014, does that mean I can't change batteries in 2015 forward? And why can I change the battery install date to Jan 2000, My units were not built till ?????. Why is the date of manufacture not shown? (They were all new in 2008, but an accurate DOM would be nice )Now for the best feature, security. The software logs you off before it finishes the runtime calibration. This is the best feature of all. It is always good to be logged out every time you turn around. This is why this unit is for Top Secret use, NSA, CIA, and other like organizations need to protect their UPS. Can you imagine if it got out that the batteries of the 1 UPS the government has were low. Maybe a planned electric outage to bring down the government computer with little runtime left.Why does the software need a password? Who are we afraid will find out my batteries are weak??????????PROs: with a new set of batteries the units run great for between 3 to 5 years. I have used them for many years and they are the best. Except for the one unit doing the on off on off on off on off crap they have been great. I have been at my desk many times when the lights flick, go out, and come back on. My computers, internet, phone, and TV always keep running with no glitches. The one failure of one UPS was NOT during a power failure, it just had its own failure, and keep in mind it was an old unit with batteries I had not tested as the new software would not test this older unit. I have four units, three from 2008 now with new batteries, and one old unit with batteries from 12/2011.As for batteries, it is very important to use the same batteries that APC uses as they are the best, they are CSB GP 12170, and be careful as many sellers claim they are selling you this battery but will ship generic crap instead. See my review of the batteries, I have been using several brands over the last ten years and have learned the hard way to only buy the CSB brand.The batteries in the unit that failed were NOT the CSB brand, and I need to do more testing to see if it was the unit or the batteries that caused the failure. I doubt I will ever know as I will most likely just dump both for lack of time, plus who wants to see if they fail again, one failure was enough, but I do have a new TV with a new warrantee. No in the recycling bin for them both. Maybe the CIA, NSA, or other top secret group can pick up my failed unit and test it.Lets face it they know where we live and go through our trash and recycling bin every time we put our junk out. But they never tell us the results of their secret testing, they only release damaging voice recording of people they don't like. Glad I don't own the Clippers, did Donald Sterling not know they are always watching, and recording ?I have to run the TV repair guy just called he is ten minutes out. At least the TV was under warrantee.Buy it, use it - make sure you start testing the batteries once a year for three years, than four times a year in year four and monthly the last 5, 6 , 7, or more years.one hour later, the TV is still dead, have plenty of time to review this product, but really nothing to add.They are better than anything else out there, you need to check them often after year 4, except when they crap out and start the on off on off on off on off cycle that one unit did. Hope to have a working TV in the very near future.UPDATE 05/12/14: My TV was refunded under the warrantee (could not be fixed), I bought a different brand as I am still in shock the TV died from the on off on off on off on off cycle that happened. I am glad I was here when it happened as I would not have known what happened.

Works well. This is a very expensive UPS brand new. The batteries in it are two 18AH 12V Sealed Lead Acid battery. This thing is a beast! Lots of power and lots of capacity. This is my second one with the first being over 7 years old!

I use these in my office to backup power my servers in case of power outages or surges. They work great. Very pleased with this device.

Item was dead on arrival. However; One phone call to APC, and a new one was shipped to me, and they paid the shipping to send deffective one back to them. No hassel at all. Unit works very well and I am very happy with it.

My APC SMART-UPS 1500 SUA1500 has delivered solid performance for 13 years. It's the standard of the industry for good reason.I usually buy inexpensive batteries, and they last about four years. Higher quality batteries would probably last longer.