APC BACK-UPS ES – BE650G2-UK – Uninterruptible Power Supply

APC BACK-UPS ES - BE650G2-UK - Uninterruptible Power Supply 650VA (8 Outlets

APC BACK-UPS ES – BE650G2-UK – Uninterruptible Power Supply 650VA (8 Outlets, Surge Protected, 1 USB Charging Port)


Essential Power Protection for your Smart Home

Living RoomProtectionConnectionUSB120 watts

20 watts

Router / Modem + Smartphone

120 watts

Router / Modem + Smartphone + PC Computer + NAS

350 watts

Router / Modem + Smartphone + 42” LCD Television + Sound Bar

BE650G2BE850G2BR650MI
BE650G2 BE850G2 BR650MI
Battery Power 400W/650VA 520W/850VA 390W/650VA
Form Factor Floor Floor Tower
Runtime at 100 watts 26 34 30
Battery-Surge / Surge only Outlets 6/2 6/2 6/0
# USB Charging Ports 1 2 0
Automatic Voltage Regulation (AVR) No No Yes


Weight: 4.42 kg
Dimensions: 44.2 x 19.2 x 18.6 cm; 4.42 Kilograms
Brand: APC
Model: BE650G2-UK
Colour: Black
Batteries Included: Yes
Manufacture: APC by Schneider Electric
Dimensions: 44.2 x 19.2 x 18.6 cm; 4.42 Kilograms

36 Responses

  1. AnnaVBDQhcvwqm says:

     United Kingdom

    Easy to set up, added battery, charged and plugged in DVR, alarm & camera, works very well, when you turn off the power it kicks straight in, no interruption to everything plugged i

  2. TamaraKearns says:

     United Kingdom

    Works as intended. Also, got pc connection cable for free. Very happy.

  3. SummerConnal says:

     United Kingdom

    This is the second purchase of an UPS for my home computer, modem and cordless home phone. The last one conked out after 5 years of use and I decided to replace it with this product as it has a replaceable battery. In a power cut, now we no longer have the old copper telephone line, we are totally reliant on the internet for communication. The battery needs to be connected before first use and that proved very easy. I have tested it by turning off the mains power and it works well so no need to fear future power cuts.

  4. SueParmley says:

     United Kingdom

    The RJ45 to USB cable was included in the box. I checked before ordering and tech-support informed me that they also had stock in case I was supplied with a unit from the period when it was not included. (My unit was manufactured June 22).
    Connected to Synology DS415+. Immediately recognised and worked as configured and came back to full service when power restored. Chained second DS218+ via the 415. It reacts and goes to standby after the configured 2 minutes. Possible issue getting it to restore full service when power comes back – have yet to investigate.

  5. Anonymous says:

     United Kingdom

    Golden Review Award: 3 From Our UsersI bought this to replace a 2008 APC Back UPS 700. The consumer UPS line-up has changed since then and the APC BACK-UPS ES 650 seemed to be its nearest successor.
    Some things are the same:
    – 8 power sockets.
    – 7Ah easily replaceable battery.
    – 100Mb protected data (RJ45).
    – Proprietry USB to RJ11 data connection.

    What’s changed:
    – No controlled outlets anymore. This was a very useful feature for those of us that used the BackUPS in conjunction with a PC and connected peripherals.
    – UPS enclosure less well built but MUCH lighter.
    – The two rows of sockets are now significantly closer together, meaning more power adapters are likely to block sockets. I use a short 4 gang extension from the UPS to accomodate these now.
    – The new version has a 4 bar battery level display which is useful.
    – An alarm silence button (very welcome!).
    – One USB power outlet.
    – Now seems to be a Schneider Electric product.

    It is quiet, though not totally inaudible, when running on battery. It’s more manageable and compact than its predecessor but this also leads to shortcomings.
    I swapped this out for its predecessor and continued with my existing apcupsd config. I was pleasantly surprised to see apcupsd started reporting the status of the internal battery test. This never happened with the previous Back UPS.
    Other than the absence of the controlled outlet feature I was used to, I’m pleased with the new UPS. It was well priced compared to the less well known (to me) alternatives.

  6. Anonymous says:

     United Kingdom

    I have had APC products in the past so was minded to trust this device. I did try running various computers and my 3D printer from it and it supported them for a bit more than a half hour. The indicator lights seemed to be accurate in terms of the available power. Lots of plug points, two of which are surge only.

  7. Jonathan Lovett says:

     United Kingdom

    Good job I am an electrical as when it turned up the unit did not charge at all, only alarmed.
    I took it apart and found a wire hanging loose, plugged it onto its pins and all works well.

  8. EvanLTXxltqzmmq says:

     United Kingdom

    Golden Review Award: 4 From Our UsersAn excellent UPS for protecting home or very small business IT systems. A tested and effective design giving good electrical protection to devices running from the battery plus surge protection and limited ability to charge mobile devices. Note that this size battery (850VA) won’t keep full PC systems operating for long, but is ideal to allow graceful shutdowns and keeping routers running to maintain internet access via mobile devices (charged ideally by other means) during an extended power cut.

    The UPS works very well with recent Apple Macs – it is detected directly by MacOS as a UPS and needs no extra software. Easy and effective if you just want a safe and automatic way of powering down your Mac in the case of a power cut.

    In contrast, the provided Windows PowerChute software looks old-fashioned and is a little fiddly but is very powerful and useful. It gives detailed information on energy usage and UPS performance and therefore indicates how long the unit’s battery would be expected to power your IT system for. This lets you decide how to respond to a powercut and manage any business risk.

    Follow the documentation (download the full manual) and in particular plug the UPS directly into a mains socket rather than through e.g. a smart plug or home-plug adapter.

    Test that the battery will fully charge before putting a load on it, and make sure you are familiar with the different warning lights and audio beeps.

    The batteries are easy to replace when they reach the end of their useful life – the unit gives a warning when it considers this the case.

    In summary, a good small-capacity UPS with quality software. As such, it is different from the many battery-based chargers for mobile devices or a mini ‘powerstation’ as advertised for camping or solar charging. Not better or worse, they just meet different needs.

  9. rokh says:

     United Kingdom

    Golden Review Award: 5 From Our UsersI got this to deal with brief outages that have happened recently. I got the 850va/520 watt model and it keeps the PS5 and TV running for about 20 minutes (around 5 mins 20 seconds to drain about 25%). That’s easily enough to cover both small power cuts or to save and power off the PS5 to investigate if the RCD has tripped.

    In fact, I also bought a more expensive CyberPower model and I’d still recommend this APC model due to more sockets overall, more sockets with battery backup and roughly the same battery life. I’ll be returning the ridiculously heavy CyberPower model soon.

    The battery is also replacable, but I’ve noticed on a second one that I bought, the connectors are very stiff and I couldn’t remove them if I want to replace the battery later. So maybe units aren’t produced to the same standard every time.

    As for volume, it’s nice and quiet while running, at least for my setup. I got someone else to test a PS4 Pro and different model of TV and it started buzzing, also didn’t last nearly as long, about 5-7 minutes. So higher loads seem to make it more noisy. It features a beep that lets you know it’s on the battery and this repeats unless you press the silence button. Still, this is intended as a last resort to save and power down, not a way to play continually off-grid so it’s not much of a problem either way.

    I haven’t tested it’s PC software, but I’ll update the review if I do. Otherwise, this does exactly what I wanted it to do and better than a more expensive option.

  10. Anonymous says:

     United Kingdom

    We got this to provide continuous power to the modem and main wifi mesh unit during an electrical rewire so that I could work from home. We’ve also plugged the virgin TV box and TV itself into the surge protection side.

    I like the user replaceable battery, but I wish this was line interactive too, sadly it’s standby only. My understanding is this negatively affects battery life longevity but the replaceable nature partly helps with peace of mind.

    It looks like a massive hunk of plastic but it’s out of the way behind the TV. Very reassuringly heavy and relatively quiet.

    When running on the battery there is no siren unlike our other model. It does make a subtle click when switching between AC and battery but otherwise silent. Just something to be aware of if you need to be aware of its power supply. I believe you can connect it to fancy internet features though possibly, as it has a LAN / Ethernet point. We’re not using it for anything other than plugs though.

  11. Anonymous says:

     United Kingdom

    Golden Review Award: 4 From Our UsersWhile I used to use UPS(es) in the past, until the recent energy crisis there was not much use for one; I don’t remember how many years back we had a power-cut (accidental cable cut in high-street?) that required the expense of an UPS. But times have changed… ;(

    If you are running a NAS, server, etc. then an UPS is a must; connect the (now included) USB cable and the UPS will show up as a battery, effectively turning your NAS, server, desktop, etc. into a laptop which can then turn off when the power drops (or increases) which then allows it to cleanly shut-down.

    You don’t need included software which is antiquated but does the job and allows some settings, e.g. sensitivity, testing, firmware updates (any available?) but in general I’d say don’t bother.

    For this there are 6 sockets, with further 2 with just surge protection (e.g. for printer, phone, etc.) that are decently spaced but still some AC adapters may struggle. You may need to try various combinations or even use extenders.

    The format (a taller double-sided multi-plug extender format) may suit more than the usual “tower” UPSes.

    Note that as another reviewer mentioned, mine also had an internal connector uncoupled and thus was not charging the battery. In effect, the AC power board was disconnected from the battery charging board. Hard knocks in transport? Bad quality control? Even with test results in box?

    Anyway, I was just going to send it back when I though to open it up (thankfully easy) and immediately noticed the cable dangling around. Note – disconnect AC power and remove battery first! Yep, one cable was dangling around – pushed it into connector, connected AC power and works perfectly!

    The other issue is that is not that cheap, verging into the “pure sine wave” output territory that is nice to have at the same cost if you connect audio equipment for example.

  12. Anonymous says:

     United Kingdom

    I’m using it to provide power to BT router and Openreach line termination for a fibre to the home installation. This is needed as both the Yale alarm and BT Phone require the internet to work and communicate a problem. This means the old style phone still works if the power goes off, and the Yale Sync Smart alarm tells me if I am not on site. We often lose power due to lightning which triggers our trip switch, so this has already done it’s job twice on short breaks (40mins is the longest so far). It works very well and isn’t very noisy. I can plug other things into it as well (e.g. FM radio)

  13. Anonymous says:

     United Kingdom

    Golden Review Award: 2 From Our UsersI have quite a big rig with multiple large monitors, a fairly powerful PC and a number of external hard drives and this unit provides enough battery backup time to shut the system down safely, which is all I’m looking for. If you have a big system and you want to be able to use it in a power outage, get a bigger capacity battery/system.
    Very easy to set up and install the associated software. I get a warning when I use the printer that the battery is overloaded but I will just change the plug to the non battery linked socket.

  14. Anonymous says:

     United Kingdom

    Good for what it is but customer support said that I got mis sold. Apparently it isn’t meant for mechanical devices. I only contacted them cause the battery led went from full to empty in an hour. But I still got 6 hours of power with 1 device plugged in which I found strange. I had a power head 4w plugged in. I only need it for blackouts for my fish tank.

  15. YVZJeanamgahgx says:

     United Kingdom

    Good pice of kit and bought for great price but if you have transformer type plugs ie. a bit bigger than normal, I had to revert to putting some double plugs in to raise one side to a level where it doesn’t clash with it’s opposite. What I’m saying is the sockets are quite close together with not a lot of room for bigger plugs.

  16. Anonymous says:

     United Kingdom

    Golden Review Award: 2 From Our UsersFeels like a very high quality product – has delivered excellent results since installed protecting three low powered servers plus some usb devices.

    Had multiple power cuts since it was installed due to earth leakage on UPS device tripping house RCD! Apparently UPS’s are prone to this and if you have a bit of additional earth leakage (we already have some with a solar battery backup) then it can trip an overly sensitive RCD on your consumer unit.

    You can fix this by installing a separate RCD just on the ring mains where you place the UPS. This gives it a dedicated variance just for that circuit and isolates it from the RCD on the consumer unit.

    You can connect the usb from the UPS to a Mac / Linux box and it will warn on switch to battery power. It works really well and had servers running for 45 minutes whilst I was troubleshooting the power situation and it kept everything alive and well.

    Definitely recommend.

  17. Anonymous says:

     United Kingdom

    A good backup supply. Has enough battery supply sockets for the most important devices (I have this set up for my home working office so wanted a backup that would give me time to shutdown all my work properly when power supply is interrupted). There is a warning buzzer alarm sound when the mains power is off to alert you when I tested the setup. There was enough time to shutdown all my work, but I did not try to see how long the battery supply would run for before the battery drained. The USP sockets are useful for charging. The only grip I have is the sockets are close together and none of them can rotate – which is fine for devices with standard small plugs but not so good for devices with large power pack plugs or the back to front plugs.

  18. Bryan VanGelder says:

     United Kingdom

    Golden Review Award: 9 From Our UsersThis looks like a good piece of kit and compares well for cost and features with others I looked at, and comes from a reputable company. However, it has two flaws.

    The first is that the sockets are too close together to use them all. Given that plugs come with wires at the top and the bottom and are often oversized, this UPS would be much improved with the lines of sockets further apart, or even on each side of the unit. At least this unit has more sockets than most but don’t expect to be able to utilise them all.

    The other problem is that the Dataline Surge Protection comes at quite a cost – it literally halves the internet speed. I get 200Mbps to my router directly but just under 100Mbps if I route the ethernet cable via the protection. Which makes it pointless and means I won’t use that feature.

    [EDIT – confirmed with Schneider that 100Mbps is the most the unit can cope with – it’s in the full technical specs but not on the Amazon pages]

  19. Anonymous says:

     United Kingdom

    Golden Review Award: 5 From Our Users“APC by Schneider Electric BACK-UPS ES – BE850G2-UK – Uninterruptible Power Supply 850VA (8 Outlets, Surge Protected, 2 USB Charging Ports), Black – 113.49 on 8 November 2022”

    Early days, ONLY issue I had was attaching the negative lead to the battery – it works fine but I thought I was going to break it, it is a wee bit tricky – GOOD insulation though, always a good sign.

    Set it up next to a wall socket, plugged in, taped over the switch and left it overnight.

    Plugged in this morning – even before I installed the software, it showed a fully charged notification in the tray (Windows 11 Pro).

    Only issue is auto updates of software – it keeps saying no internet.

    I was looking at more expensive ones which, frankly, have very little extra capacity.

    I am running a monitor, CPU and two powered USB hubs on the UPS sockets, printer & label printer on the surge ones – so far so good.

    IF it’s reliable I will get another one for my AV system – partly for the Android TV to do a soft shutdown, mostly for the BluRays – same reason as with HDDs. Would save me a mains socket too.

    It is lighter than I expected, no issue unpacking – barring a plastic bag it is all card and moulded papier mache (whatever you call it) supports inside.

    The quickstart booklet is small, but as with all tech I downloaded ALL the available documentation and the software then printed the documents on A4 BEFORE buying.

    Check the Tech Reviews and download documentation and software as appropriate – assess BEFORE splashing the cash. Good way to tell if the model is supported.

    BECAUSE I struggled to get the correct documentation on an Eaton brand one I did not buy theirs; they are useless via DM by the way.

    It was a toss up between THIS and Cyber Power’s 170 one – THIS one edged it because of reports they now include the RJ45-USB 2.0 cable – they did with mine FBA.

    The other thing I liked about CyberPower’s was being able to stand it on its end – space saving, but frankly I would recommend keeping these flat with as much space around as poss.

    Mine is on a pair of steel riser shelves (it is long) – heatsink and decent air circulation plus I can hide away all the PSUs.

    Not found the correct replacement battery yet but will do as a precaution soonest.

    If you have dexterity issues etc this is a very good choice – simple, easy to access battery compartment and change it.

    Only real issue would be that the mains sockets are very close together, could do with being an inch or two wider and three inches longer to accommodate this.

    I use the simple system of shutting down and unplugging at night – works fine, no overheating but it is the end of autumn, summer to come.

  20. Chris Jefferies says:

     United Kingdom

    I have been familiar with APC’s products for many years, so this is a ‘trusted brand’. However some reviews stated that the RJ45/USB lead was not included, and that getting a ‘free’ one from APC was difficult. So I reluctantly ordered the recommended separate lead – at a ridiculous price. However when the UPS arrived, there was an RJ45/USB lead in the box! Fortunately Amazon accepted the return of the extra unnecessary lead, and refunded the ‘ridiculous price’ that I had paid for it. that just leaves the question, “Why can’t APC fit a standard USB-A connector on their UPSs instead of using RJ45?” It’s a bizarre choice of connector for USB!

  21. Anonymous says:

     United Kingdom

    Golden Review Award: 3 From Our UsersBought this to be used as a power backup for my nano marine tank ; Its been used for many months now without any issues; I have my circulation pumps( 1 jebao sw2 + 1 jebao crossover Scp-70m) connected to it and I can confirm it would hold them running for about 4 hrs It is very important for aquarists to have a backup source of power to avoid a “catastrophic” power loss specially during energy crisis and uncertaintyits definitely a great addition to my setup..

  22. JeniferHgr says:

     United Kingdom

    I haven’t had to use this unit in a real situation yet. I am happy to say but when I flipped the breaker switch in the house off whilst doing some messing around on my Mac Studio with a 27″ LG monitor, a USB desktop drive and the router all plugged into the UPS I got almost fifteen minutes of standby power which allowed me very easily to save work, make sure stuff was backed up before powering the computer. I reckon that the most I’d need would be between five and eight minutes and so as long as the battery is in reasonable condition this unit is a bargain compared to the (ancient) one it replaced which was half the power and three times the price. I called this a ‘basic’ unit because it is. Literally nothing other than a big battery, a power cord and a series of UK standard three pin sockets. It is a heavy lump and a bit bulkier that I was expecting but, again, smaller and lighter than my old one.

  23. Anonymous says:

     United Kingdom

    Golden Review Award: 2 From Our UsersSeems to be a nice unit, but the orientation of the sockets is ridiculous – the banks of sockets mirror each other – plugs with wires that come out of the top (such as many wall watts) will block the opposite socket. Diagonal orientations would probably be better. Make sure the plugs you’re intending to use will work okay with the orientations of the sockets.

  24. Anonymous says:

     United Kingdom

    Golden Review Award: 2 From Our UsersI’m really happy with this purchase. The software is easy to use and connects really easily. The battery seems to run a decent amount of time also.
    All I’m using this for is my virgin router (the new one). The software says around 70 mins total running it. Not the best amount of time, but still impressive. Anyone who has a virgin hub knows any slight knock of power will take 10 mins to boot the thing. This Solva that issue.

    Also will be pretty good as a backup for power cuts if they happen over winter. (Internet should still work for local power cuts as long as your router is still on) so will be fine for news updates for a bkt before relying on a battery radio of the car radio.

    Beeping starts when power is out and your laptop gets notified which is nice. Tells you the running costs also.

    Honestly, can’t fault it. Knocking a star off for wishing it lasted a bit longer. However I’m aware that it does tell you how many watt hours it runs, so I could have worked that out myself before buying.

    Nice product, good price!

    Idea on battery life for those buying, and my review

  25. AltaCritchfield says:

     United Kingdom

    Golden Review Award: 8 From Our UsersNot the “best” product but a very solid entry-level model from a major UPS manufacturer. I had a larger budget assigned, but chose this after a lot of deliberation.

    Pros:

    1) It uses a user-replaceable battery.

    2) It uses standard UK 3-pin mains sockets, rather than IEC sockets, IEC being more common in UPS systems. So you don’t need to buy a bunch of new cables to get going (not that IEC mains leads are expensive.)

    3) It DID come with the proprietary USB cable, which has an RJ45 plug at one end. The cable is (only) ~1.5m long, and so I had to use a common USB extension cable to reach my NAS. I don’t understand why the cable is “special”, its just USB, and so the manufacturer could use a standard USB socket.

    4) Immediately recognised by my Synology NAS.

    Cons: (?)
    The only potential downside is that it has a recessed push button ON/OFF switch on the top surface. In my domestic environment that is at risk of “inadvertent rogue feline interaction”! It requires a press of 2 seconds to trigger, but that’s not impossible with our hefty and slow cats, so I’ve taped a small piece of hard plastic over it.

    Overall, very happy to have some resilience for my home office NAS and servers ahead of potential UK power outages this winter 2022.

  26. BNAMonserrate says:

     United Kingdom

    Golden Review Award: 7 From Our UsersI bought two of these when the National Grid (UK) announced possible power cuts this winter. Not being an electrician, I bought the largest capacity (850VA/520W).
    Turns out that is c.35Wh. As a test, I ran a 27″ LCD TV, a Freeview PVR and some low power speakers.
    About 40 minutes later the UPS was out of juice. I was expecting a lot more, but you can’t buck physics.
    This is a UPS NOT a power brick.
    I have subsequently bought a Bluetti EB3A with 268Wh for about 3x the price. Would power the same kit for about 5 hours. Handy if there are power cuts! When I get the Bluetti, I will test it and submit a relevant review for that product. BTW, the Bluetti has built in UPS function.
    In conclusion:
    The Bluetti is a power brick with UPS built in at 3x the price. If you can afford it, I would go for that. However, this Schneider is a relatively cheap way of protecting devices in the event of power cuts/surges. Both are valid options. My Schneider came with all the necessary cables, inc. TWO RJ45-USB that I do not need 😀

  27. Max27Ycenutnpht says:

     United Kingdom

    Golden Review Award: 5 From Our UsersI purchased this UPS to provide continued power for my fibre broadband ONT (my router is on a separate UPS), so that I have continued broadband for a limited amount of time and digital voice

    The UPS is well built, and has 6 UPS enabled outlets, along with 2 surge protected outlets and 2 USB outlets. For the UPS and surge protected outlets, they are standard UK plug types which is useful and is easier to connect domestic devices than many other UPS devices that typically power IT related equipment and have the common cloverleaf cable outlets

    The UPS seems to be of great quality and is easy to use, at it’s most basic level, plug in, power up, plug in devices and you’re ready to go. If used to provide power to desktops/laptops etc., a USB connection can also be used, along with some downloaded software to manage what happens if there’s a general power outage

    Overall, I believe this UBS to be very practical for a home user not looking just to connect IT equipment and in terms of the UPS products sold by my broadband/phone provider, BT, this is much more practical a product and provides much more functionality

    I would definitely recommend and I will be looking to purchase further units to provide power to other key items in my house

    Update: following a power outage as a local transformer blew up, I was without power for around 5 – 6 hours, during which time I had no problem in keeping my ONT alive as well as my backup 4G router, if my main BT router went offline (that’s served by a separate, much lower quality BT supplied UPS). For my purposes, a cannot recommend this UPS highly enough

  28. TheronHFHB says:

     United Kingdom

    Golden Review Award: 4 From Our UsersHaving recently upgraded my NAS to the Synology DS920+ and paid a small fortune on 4 massive hard drives, the thought of a power cut corrupting all my data was making me concerned. But I didn’t want to spend a fortune so this APC UPS seemed the right fit, with good reviews and decent features.

    Since installing it, we’ve had three power cuts, two because of the grid and one because one of my little ones decided to put a key in the toaster. On all occasions the UPS has kicked in, keeping my NAS, modem and router all powered on and, thanks to the configuration in the Synology software, it sends me an email alerting me to the interruption in power supply and telling me how long the battery should last (around 40 mins with only the things I have plugged in). In the Synology software I’ve configured the NAS to shut itself down if power doesn’t return in ten minutes, after which it would come back on only when AC power is returned. I get another email when things go back to normal. Really impressed as I’m not massively techie but it was all easy to configure.

    Buying in March 2022, I did receive the data cable which I was a bit worried I may not – this is needed to connect the NAS to the UPS to trigger all the warnings and shut down process, etc.

    Totally recommended. Mine doesn’t get warm/hot or make any noticeable noise.

  29. Brian Fagioli says:

     United Kingdom

    Golden Review Award: 11 From Our UsersMy old APC BACK-UPS ES700 stopped working suddenly this week – unable to kick-in when power cut, just gave a continuous beep and cut power immediately (thus computer went off without protection). Startup battery test did not show a dead battery and the battery itself held charge. So looked like a dead unit somehow. So went in search of a replacement on amazon wishing to try a different brand. Bought a Cyberpower BR700ELCD but after a full charge and test I could see this would also not work – the battery appeared not to hold charge. Would state on the display that it was 90% and then drop all of a sudden through the numbers to zero and cut-out, literally within 2 mins, after an 8 hour charge! Help chat with Cyberpower determined I should send it back. So poor experience there. Also the power button didnt really work properly on the unit – instructions said hold for 2 secs but on holding for 30 nothing happened. Customer services also said that was weird. Perhaps I got a return that was faulty. I did notice the package did not have a seal on it, and the battery was connected, with a date of manufacture some 11 months ago – so likely it was properly dead by then! Anyway purchased this item from APC – which is an update of my old one. Was concerned the plugs are now much closer so might not be able to access all the slots for some of the weird shaped plugs I have. Anyway this has 8 rather than the Cyberpower’s 6 and I only use 2 or 3 anyway – so decided to go ahead with the purchase. This came in a properly sealed box, and the battery needed connection before it is used so it is not shipped connected (much more sensible APC!). Charged for 24 hrs, and tested on a single light then my iMAC and it works a treat – shut down as per my settings in Energy Saver dialogue box. I had read that an iMac needs pure sine wave UPS (even the CyberPower Website FAQs says this), but this appears to be nonsense designed to get you to fork out for a more expensive unit. This discharged 5% during the 3 mins before the machine shut down (you can see this decrease in the imac settings). So just right for the load I have. Anyway – good replacement for me, we’ll see how long this unit lasts – at least it’s a different design to the old APC one, and slightly higher capacity. Oh, and mine came with the data port connector – looks like APC have changed tack on that since lock down. During my research I also found that replacement batteries are very standard and are easy to source for about 30. Hope the review helps.

  30. Anonymous says:

     United Kingdom

    Golden Review Award: 6 From Our UsersTypically, since installing this there have been no brown-outs or black-outs in our power supply. We live remotely and they sometimes occur on a near-weekly basis. Therefore, it’s not been tested ‘in anger’ but does what is expected when I simply pull out the mains supply plug …

    Several reviews have complained about the lack of an included USB-A to RJ45 connector. You need this to have a controlled shutdown of an attached Mac or PC. The unit I bought (UK, October ’21) included one within the box. The unit is completely silent when working (unless the power is off in which case there is an irritating alarm) and generates little or no heat.

    The unit contains a very normal looking 9Ah 12V battery. My previous APC UPS’s have a finite battery life and some have stopped working until a replacement battery is fitted. A standard 9Ah battery should cost about 19 and I’ll try one of those rather than buying the APC ‘approved’ (and therefore more expensive) unit.

    There are more than enough surge or surge+power protected ports for a home office. Make sure you use the surge sockets for the power-hungry but non-essential electrical, saving the surge+power for the mission-critical things.

    5.0 out of 5 stars Good choice for a home office

  31. Anonymous says:

     United Kingdom

    Golden Review Award: 5 From Our UsersThis was bought to replace an older APC unit which had died, saying it needed replacing. This was not due to the battery requiring replacement, but rather that the unit’s internal electronics had failed, apparently. (The standard APC PowerChute software showed the battery as 100% charged but the unit would not operate to provide the uninterruptible power supply.) I had bought this older unit some five or so years ago and it had given “excellent service” so, when a replacement was necessary I had no qualms about choosing another APC model.

    This new unit is physically quite a lot smaller than the one it replaced, which created, for me, one of the problems which led to me awarding only four stars; more of that later.

    I knew the unit would arrive with the battery disconnected but found the procedure to actually fit the connecting lead not at all easy! Accessing the battery compartment was easy (following the instructions supplied) but accessing the actual battery itself was not so obvious – deliberately it is a “tight fit” inside its storage compartment – but securing the battery lead to the connector requires no small amount of brute force! And it is not immediately obvious which way up the connector is intended to go, though it will fit only one way!

    Having won that battle and then connected the unit to the mains, it powered up immediately and it seems the battery was already nearly full. Then came the problem of the “smaller size” as compared with my previous unit. Both have 8 x 13 amp sockets, 6 with battery back up and surge protection, 2 with surge protection only. The older unit had the actual rows of sockets more widely spaced than the new one. This is not a problem if all the plugs you are using are standard 13 amp.

    However, I have three external USB3 drives, which are connected to this unit and which have “wall-wart-type” individual power supplies, to convert the incoming 230 volts to each unit’s requirement of something like 5 volts. The size of one of mine effectively prevented it from making proper connection with its socket because it “overlapped” the standard 13 amp plug opposite to it and so could not be properly seated. (This had not been a problem with the older unit because the space between the two rows of sockets was much wider.) The only solution I could find was to purchase a short 13 amp plug to socket extension lead, plug that into the UPS and the power supply for the particular drive into the socket.

    Other reviewers have commented on the lack of the appropriate cable to connect the unit to the PC and so have the PowerChute Personal Edition software “monitor” the unit. Because I had had an APC unit previously I already had such a lead and simply plugging the ethernet plug into the unit and the USB into the computer activated the connection and the PowerChute software immediately recognised the unit and began monitoring it.

    For users who don’t already have this lead APC say they can supply one (though I note other reviewers say they have failed to receive one even after requesting to be sent one) but I think that any USB to Ethernet (RJ45) cable should fulfill this need. I did see one listed on Amazon, about 7, I think. Might be worth the cost of purchase?

    Overall, I am very pleased with this purchase but the actual setting up is not easy and, if you need to connect anything larger than a standard 13amp plug the lack of space between the rows of sockets could prove to be a problem!

  32. WillyAkdieqq says:

     United Kingdom

    This is installed in our living room primarily to keep the broadband router, DECT phone and two PVRs going during short power outages. It is surprisingly slim but there needs to be some clearance left around the sides to allow heat to dissipate. The USB ports are a bonus as they deliver enough current to run a Fire TV or Chromecast (adaptor needed to convert one of them from USB-C). They make the UPS more of an everyday asset, rather than just useful at the time of surge or power outage. A couple more would have been ideal as I still need a USB power bank nearby for other items.

    The one niggle from this “slim” unit is that the sockets are very close together and three of my “wall wart” power supplies cover up half of the opposite socket. A solution is to give each one a “double plug adaptor block” (of the layout where one socket is on the face opposite the plug pins) to raise the height of the wall wart so that there is space for a conventional plug to fit into the socket underneath the overlap.

    The unit does not make any noise except for clicking and beeping when the power goes off.

    Mine came with a test report taped to the underside – it had passed of course, but I like that little insight into the production line!

    It really should come with that USB cable that others are upset about, but as I don’t need it in this case, I cannot really knock off a star for that.

  33. Caleb Clark says:

     United Kingdom

    Golden Review Award: 95 From Our UsersAs far as UPS’s go, this is nice enough. It looks good, has 3-Pin plugs rather than IEC, is silent in normal operation, has 4 lights to show how charged the battery is, has an easily (tool-less) replaceable battery, has a mute-able alarm, can be used as a normal power strip without the battery if you turn it off, etc.

    However, APC have decided to cheap out and NOT include a USB cable to plug into your PC / NAS to provide a shutdown request in the event of a prolonged power failure.

    “No problem”, I hear you say, “I have loads of old USB cables lying around”. Unfortunately, no, this uses a proprietary RJ45 to USB cable that you don’t have lying around.

    So, have a dig through the user manual and you will see, tucked away, a line saying that they no longer include the cable ‘for environmental reasons’, and to contact them to be sent one. So I have contacted them, but unfortunately they don’t have any either, and can’t get hold of any for 4 months.

    Great. Thanks APC.

    So this raises the question, ‘Why are they still using this daft RJ45 to USB method’? Why not just use a normal USB port like everyone else? The answer – because then they can sell this cable to unwitting accounts departments for an eye watering 47.99 RRP. Yes, that’s 47.99, exactly half the cost of this entire UPS, for just a telephone cable with a USB plug shoved on the end. And yes, if you want to BUY it from them, then they magically do have it in stock. Surprise surprise.

    So, it’s a nice product, but hugely let down by APC’s penny pinching and lack of support.

    Edit: 6 months on and I’ve been using this daily to provide backup power for an 8-bay Qnap NAS. The USB cable DID eventually arrive (in fact they sent 2?!) so I plugged that in and the Qnap immediately recognised the unit – all good.

    We had a power failure over the weekend and the NAS did its job and cleanly / safely shut down the Qnap. I had previously rated this as 2 stars simply due to the customer support, but feel that’s not fair to the product itself, which is actually very good and a great improvement over the previous gen.

    Would I buy again? Yes. Would I recommend? Yes.

  34. Anonymous says:

     United Kingdom

    Golden Review Award: 11 From Our UsersTo be very clear, this review is of an APC BE550G-UK 330 Watts/550 VA.

    * The UPS is supplied with one pole of the battery disconnected; a prominent yellow sticker warns the user of this crucial fact. On the underside of the unit there is a sliding cover that has to be removed to access the battery, it is then necessary to connect the detached lead to the blank terminal. Push it on firmly, brethren.
    * The approximate dimensions of the unit are 10 x 9 x 3 inches. In technical terms it is a big old beast, thumping the scales at 12.8 pounds.
    * It is a rare pleasure to find a computer/electrical device that plugs directly into the mains, ie without a power adapter. I always worry about those nasty wee things bursting into flames and implementing a DIY cremation.
    * The UPS is entirely usable out of the box, it does not need configuration. There are 8 13A sockets in 2 rows of 4; one row is surge protected, the other row is both surge protected and backed up by the battery. In truth, that’s all you really need to know.
    * A supplied CD installs the UPS management utility PowerChute; note this is Windows only. It installed on Windows 10 without issues. The version showed as 3.0.2 and an online check revealed no update. There is an RJ45 (ethernet) to USB lead supplied, connecting this from the UPS Data Port to a PC USB socket enables a number of parameters to be set. Most importantly, it allows the battery backup alarm, which notifies of power failure occurrences (brownouts), to be disabled altogether or only enabled between specified hours. I disabled it because I can usually spot a power failure by the lights going out, and I don’t want a cheeping alarm waking me at 4:30am. Without PowerChute there is no way to disable that alarm, so those without access to a Windows machine might want to consider if this is the right UPS for them.
    * Beyond the alarm control function, PowerChute offers some fairly trivial tweaking functions, and I would say the average user will not need it other than to disable the alarm.
    * Don’t think it will power your kit through power cuts of many hours. As a test, I found it powers a 2-drive Seagate NAS for about thirty minutes.

    Conclusion

    The unit cost me 56.99 and I consider it a bargain at that price. All my computers are laptops, not particularly vulnerable to power cuts, and I use the UPS to hold up my router and landline phone during supply interruptions. It does a very good job and I’m pleased with it. Go in peace now, with the Old Timer’s blessing.

  35. Anonymous says:

     United Kingdom

    Golden Review Award: 2 From Our UsersI’ve owned an APC Back-UPS CS 650VA for five and one-half years, and have changed the lead-acid battery once after it died not long after the three-year mark (when you’re supposed to change the battery anyway). So I’m familiar with APC UPS devices and the PowerChute Personal Edition version 3.0.2 software I use with that kit, and didn’t want to lose that facility when I bought a further UPS on replacing my back-up laptop with a back-up PC; and I read in Amazon reviews (thank you, M D Speight and Mr Kemp) that the Back-Ups ES 400VA lacked the necessary USB connection. The CS 650 has four IEC sockets, three with battery backup and one surge protection alone, and I’ve just the PC, the monitor, and my data back-up gadget plugged into that; and the current price of that is 96 against 54 for the BE550G. Also, I needed to replace, by reason of available space, a four-socket extension lead on the floor. The downside to the BE550G is that it’s twice the size of the CS 650VA; on the upside, it has eight ordinary three-pin socket outlets, four on the battery and four surge-only, and is much more versatile than my old CS 650. One of the battery sockets is designated the master, into which you plug your PC, and (optionally) turning off the PC will kill the power to three of the four surge-only sockets (so you might automatically turn off the monitor, the printer, the data back-up drive). It also has the facility of network and telephone/fax line protection if you need it.

    Setting up the BE550-G is straightforward. You can’t forget to slide back the battery cover on the bottom and push the second battery connector onto the lead-acid battery because there’s a metre of yellow tape on the casing to remind you to do so (and it sparks!). I plugged my four mundane electrical devices into the surge-only side of the UPS, the (all-in-one) PC into the master socket, and the USB cable into the UPS and the computer. The Internet connection is via powerline, there’s no fax and I’m not concerned about the telephone, so that was it; the back-up gadget will come later. I couldn’t be arsed to load PowerChute from the supplied CD-ROM, so I downloaded it from the APC website – and turned off the unwanted bleeps. The PC alone runtime is 22 minutes.

  36. Anonymous says:

     United Kingdom

    Golden Review Award: 2 From Our UsersGotthis for two reasons. Firstly, since we had a new circuit breaker board put it every time a bulb blows the power goes and secondly I have an 18 month old who has discovered switches are fun.
    The first problem has been solved by this, sadly not the second though as the ups has a switch on it that is lit up and just calls to my son. Can’t blame APC for that though, I’ll just have to invest in some card and Sellotape to cover the switch over.
    I chose this one over the other versions as a balance between cost and power, and because it has the connection tithe computer to give its status and allow the computer to shutdown in the event of a power loss. I am powering a raspberry PI (home server) and a Synology DS406 NAS from this, and a Netgear gigabit 16 port switch.
    I fitted the battery easily enough when it arrived, but I can see why some will have had problems. Stuck it on overnight with no load to give the battery a charge and then plugged my devices into the UPS. This is where my first problem came in, 4 sockets are protected by battery, 4 are just surge protected, and I can see no marking as to which are witch. Once I had got over that through trial and guesswork I powered on the PI and NAS with no problem. (Edit) I see now that this was my mistake, the sockets are marked on gray against a black background, I guess it was a bit too dark under my desk for me to see that initially. (End edit)
    This is where my second problem kicked in. To managed the settings on e UPS you need to install the supplied Powerchute software, which on the CD I received was 3.0.2, the current version. I tried to install this on my windows 7 PC but this failed, stopping at the point where you enter the install path. Doing a search on the Internet this is a common problem, but the solutions all point to uninstalling McAfee, which is PC has never had. A mail to APC support was answered the next day, but the person who answered had not read the problem I was having and gave me a solution to a completely different problem. His next solution was to download the (same) latest version from the Internet and try again, which the same results. Since when APC have not responded so I guess they have given up. (edit) It took 3 attempts together APC to respond but they did eventually. Apparently their 2nd line support were having connectivity problems. It turns out the resolution to the problem is to re-register a dll and they have an article to do this which they sent me. I followed their instructions and this finally resolved the problem (end edit)
    Luckily I have an old XP machine and manger to install the software onto that, but I can’t really use it because the software requires a bigger screen resolution then that machine, but I have managed (I think) to configure the UPS as I want it.
    Not had to test it in anger yet, but given APC’s position In the market I’m quietly confident it will work as required. I will see if I can edit this review in time if I get any further with the software.