YMMV; BestBuy Geek Squad UPS on clearance

[kef7]

Being it's BestBuy finding these might be hit or miss. The store I purchased at (Minnetonka MN) had 5 of the 1500VA model and 1 of the 1285 left.

From what I've read these are rebadged Cyberpower units.

Geeksquad info

Review of Cyberpower model

Unfortunately the Geek Squad units only have a 1 yr warranty vs 3 yr for the comparable Cyberpower.

 

[Jugernot]

Anyone know what kind of power these units suck up beyond the equipment plugged into them? In other words, what kind of additional power is required to keep the batteries charged?

I'm trying to keep my power bill as low as possible and don't want a UPS if it's going to suck down a lot more power than the equipment alone.

Any ideas?

Jugs

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Originally posted by: Jugernot
Anyone know what kind of power these units suck up beyond the equipment plugged into them? In other words, what kind of additional power is required to keep the batteries charged?

I'm trying to keep my power bill as low as possible and don't want a UPS if it's going to suck down a lot more power than the equipment alone.

Any ideas?

Jugs

Once it's powered up it should be pretty minimal. It basically would be a pass through device once it's charged, except for the control elements of the UPS (like the LCD and any monitoring stuff on it).

Maybe a few watts increased? If you're worried about it, just turn off your pc and monitor when not in use if you don't already. It's unlikely to make any noticeable difference in power use.

 

[aceO07]

I haven't had an outage for 2 years now, but still tempting. It'd be good to keep modem/router/laptop on during outage. Also good for charging up batteries/phones if needed.

 

[imported_nunya]

Those a really good prices. It's too bad about the big Geek Squad logo though, kind of embarrassed to bring that into my house...

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: Jugernot
Anyone know what kind of power these units suck up beyond the equipment plugged into them? In other words, what kind of additional power is required to keep the batteries charged?

I'm trying to keep my power bill as low as possible and don't want a UPS if it's going to suck down a lot more power than the equipment alone.

Any ideas?

Jugs

i'll plug in my kill-a-watt to my APC later and find out. while it's not these exact same units, they can't be that different.

 

[Mojoed]

I love vague specifications.

"Up to 100 minutes of battery backup in case of power failure"

Is this rating at full load? What if I just have my DSL router and Vonage device plugged in?

 

[drw97]

Very nice.

From the linked product description:

"Geek Squad® Agents were locked in a research facility in New Mexico to create an awe-inspiring, uninterruptible power supply. Since we have no social lives and well-made power devices turn us on, we did a good job. See an Agent for details."

 

[cubeless]

Originally posted by: Mojoed
I love vague specifications.

"Up to 100 minutes of battery backup in case of power failure"

Is this rating at full load? What if I just have my DSL router and Vonage device plugged in?

days...

 

[skulkingghost]

Let me chime in and say I have one. The 1500va one. Here is my mini review. I live it, I bough it for $150 and it has lasted through many storms that used to blow power supplys left and right. I just pulled the plug to see how much time I would get if the power ran out right now.

With all this plugged in to the batter side, I would have exactly 18 minutes till power went down:
28.5" Monitor
20" Monitor
Logitech Z-5500 (playing music at time of test)
Pc with 5hard drives, gtx260, 600w power supply
USB Hub
Wireless N Router
Modem
Brother Printer

If I turn off the 30" and the speakers and printer, It goes up to about 35/40 minutes.

 

[etrin]

as much as I hate bb this is a nice deal.
do they keep them in the computer dept or do they sell them out of the back of their trucks LOL

ok enough on bb thanks for the post

by the way I am confused on the review.

I understand and believe the run times posted here but I don't understand the info from cyberpowers site.

Battery InformationOn battery runtime
Batteries: 2 x 12V/8.5Ah Maintenance Free
Sealed Lead-acid User-replaceable Hot-swappable
Backup/Run Time:
? 3 Minutes 900W Full-load
? 11 Minutes 450W Half-load
Battery Life: 3-6 Years
Battery Recharge Time: 8 Hour(s)

why are these times listed so low?

 

[cubeless]

none in orlando...

 

[Demo24]

Originally posted by: aceO07
I haven't had an outage for 2 years now, but still tempting. It'd be good to keep modem/router/laptop on during outage. Also good for charging up batteries/phones if needed.

Outages are relatively rare where I am but I have 2 in my apartment to control power spikes/dips. A lot of times the power will just blip, and if bad enough can shut down some stuff. Been great since I went UPS though as they never shut me down now.

60-75 for a decent UPS is a pretty decent deal.

 

[imported_typhoid]

This is a very good price, but note that these do not produce a true sine wave when on battery.

Some computer power supplies with Power Factor Correction don't like anything but pure sine wave. For example, I have 2 Antec Earthwatts 500s that won't work with a CyberPower 1500VA. However, a Corsair 550W PSU works just fine with the same UPS. Antec tech support told me that their power supplies are not guaranteed to work with simulated sine wave UPS's.

If you buy one of these, or any other simulated sine wave UPS, test it with your equipment before you rely on it.

 

[Lucifer Lost]

Originally posted by: typhoid
This is a very good price, but note that these do not produce a true sine wave when on battery.

Some computer power supplies with Power Factor Correction don't like anything but pure sine wave. For example, I have 2 Antec Earthwatts 500s that won't work with a CyberPower 1500VA. However, a Corsair 550W PSU works just fine with the same UPS. Antec tech support told me that their power supplies are not guaranteed to work with simulated sine wave UPS's.

If you buy one of these, or any other simulated sine wave UPS, test it with your equipment before you rely on it.

That sucks. I was gonna grab one of these for my HTPC but I've got a Antec Earthwatts (EA-500D) in it... you probably saved me some hair-pulling.

What specifically should I be looking for in the specs of a UPS to make sure it will work?

 

[imported_typhoid]

Originally posted by: Lucifer Lost

Originally posted by: typhoid
This is a very good price, but note that these do not produce a true sine wave when on battery.

Some computer power supplies with Power Factor Correction don't like anything but pure sine wave. For example, I have 2 Antec Earthwatts 500s that won't work with a CyberPower 1500VA. However, a Corsair 550W PSU works just fine with the same UPS. Antec tech support told me that their power supplies are not guaranteed to work with simulated sine wave UPS's.

If you buy one of these, or any other simulated sine wave UPS, test it with your equipment before you rely on it.

That sucks. I was gonna grab one of these for my HTPC but I've got a Antec Earthwatts (EA-500D) in it... you probably saved me some hair-pulling.

What specifically should I be looking for in the specs of a UPS to make sure it will work?

You might want to give it a try and return it if it doesn't work. I actually have one Antec EA500 that works with a simulated sine wave UPS, so I'm 1 for 3. You might get lucky.

For my 2 that don't, I found it to be cheaper to replace the power supplies than to get a true sine wave UPS. Take a look at prices for APC Smart-Ups UPS's and you'll see what I mean. I ended up getting Corsair 550VX power supplies for about half the price of a reasonably sized Smart-Ups and I'm good to go.

 

[imported_typhoid]

Best Buy in Webster, TX had one returned 1285 in a beat-up box left - and they wanted the regular shelf price for it.

 

[skulkingghost]

Originally posted by: typhoid
This is a very good price, but note that these do not produce a true sine wave when on battery.

Some computer power supplies with Power Factor Correction don't like anything but pure sine wave. For example, I have 2 Antec Earthwatts 500s that won't work with a CyberPower 1500VA. However, a Corsair 550W PSU works just fine with the same UPS. Antec tech support told me that their power supplies are not guaranteed to work with simulated sine wave UPS's.

If you buy one of these, or any other simulated sine wave UPS, test it with your equipment before you rely on it.

That is so weird, I have an antec earthwatt 500w plugged in to this exact PS right now and have never had an issue.

 

[imported_typhoid]

Originally posted by: skulkingghost

Originally posted by: typhoid
This is a very good price, but note that these do not produce a true sine wave when on battery.

Some computer power supplies with Power Factor Correction don't like anything but pure sine wave. For example, I have 2 Antec Earthwatts 500s that won't work with a CyberPower 1500VA. However, a Corsair 550W PSU works just fine with the same UPS. Antec tech support told me that their power supplies are not guaranteed to work with simulated sine wave UPS's.

If you buy one of these, or any other simulated sine wave UPS, test it with your equipment before you rely on it.

That is so weird, I have an antec earthwatt 500w plugged in to this exact PS right now and have never had an issue.

Yep, some work, some don't. I have three EA500's, and only 1 works with simulated sine wave UPS's. I have 2 CyberPower, 4 APC Back-Ups, and 1 old Belkin and 2 of my 3 EA500's refuse to work with any of the UPS's. The 3rd EA500 works with all of the UPS's. I tried to get Antec to replace the 2 that don't and was told that they are only guaranteed to work with true sine wave UPS's. By "work", I mean that when the utility power goes out, even for an instant, the UPS doesn't keep the computer running.

I finally broke down and bought an APC Smart-Ups (true sine wave) and everything works with it.

Can you guess how often my power blips by the number of UPS's I have? :disgust:

 

[imported_nunya]

Anyone have a sku on either of these? The local BB is out but thought it might be worth calling around a bit.

 

[heymrdj]

I called my local Best Buy (Warner Robins) and was told they are not carrying this unit anymore but would sell me a 170$ APC unit if I was interested . Ah well, it was nice dreaming.

As for the SKU, all the BB's i've talked to no longer have those numbers, and they've both been removed from BB's webpages.

So I think it's dead.

 

[GearGuy]

Picked up a couple of the 1500VAs myself.
Read somewhere that the CyberPower version of software is better than the included version. Download for free from the CyberPower website.
CyberPower Software
I used the PowerPanel Personal Edition, not sure if any of the other versions would work.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Chapel Hill BB in NE Ohio has one 1500 va one as of Friday, but it was kind of beat up and didn't indicate any kind of price on it. Going to check out N Canton's today.

 

[geigs]

I recently got a Antec Earthwatts EA500d and just found out why my pc has been rebooting with the loss of utility power or running a self test on my APC Back-UPS XS 1300, thanks to what typhoid said here about them and from the customer reviews over at newegg. So the EA500's are only guaranteed to work with true sine wave UPS's, I looked up the APC Back-UPS XS 1300 and it stats under Waveform Type: "Stepped approximation to a sinewave" which is a "stepped sine wave" output, not 'true" or "pure" sine wave. APC research has reported that any PSU with active power factor correction (PFC) is likely to shutdown during UPS switchover as small as 8ms. The shutdown is by design and stems from a current inrush during even the smallest switchover time. If you need your box to keep going under UPS power, consider looking for a passive PFC PSU. I have a Antec True Power Trio TP3-650 650W PSU in another pc that is also is Active PFC, connected to a APC Back-UPS XS 900 which is "stepped sine wave" output and can handle the switch over from utility to battery power. So figure that one out, either way the EA500 has got to go since I wont be getting a Smart UPS true sine wave. I'll probably put in my cooler master rp-600-pcar which is a Non-PFC PSU for now.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: geigs
consider looking for a passive PFC PSU.

That's going to be difficult these days, everybody and their brother is touting "Active PFC" as the best thing since sliced bread. But in terms of everyday usage, especially when dealing with a UPS, it may be detrimental.

I have two PCs on Ativa (APC rebadge) 1200VA UPSes, with Antec Basiq 500W PSUs on them. I haven't yet been present when there is a brownout or a blackout, so I cannot say if the PCs will reboot when it tries to switch to UPS power.