APC UPS 1500VA UPS Battery Backup and Surge Protector, BX1500M Backup Battery Power Supply, AVR, Dataline Protection

Our office is in the countryside where there is no cellular service. We rely on WIFI calling since we have no land line. Combined with Starlink, this unit is a great asset. It keeps our internet service working and we can recharge our cellular phones and our laptop during a moderately extended power failure. So far, it has worked exactly as advertised. Installation is very easy and it comes with basic instructions if needed. There are more than enough outlets in the back for our needs including coax, RJ45, USB and data plugs. It has a small footprint and it maintains a proper temperature. Recommended.

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!

Arrived quickly, well packaged, no complaints at all. Compact model, has been redesigned from when I last looked at these units. Connecting the battery for setup was a breeze. Simply flip over, and open the bottom flap. The battery is actually two batteries joined. They have two large stickers on either side, one red one green, that each have two tabs on them that you use to pull the battery out, flip it over so the green sticker is showing upwards, which then lines up the built in connector and slip it back into the unit, replace the bottom flap. Viola ! Seems to take a little longer than I remember to initialize, but that is no big deal for me. Comes with a testing report, dated 7/2025. Battery was charged to around 55% so I left it overnight on charge before connecting anything to it. Will report back if there are problems, but as of right now, unit is happily charging, no issues.

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: 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.