Aargh. I missed that, thanks. My current UPS, APC Power-Saving Back-UPS Pro 1000 (discontinued) is a stepped sine wave.lazydavid wrote: ↑Fri Sep 25, 2020 4:37 pmI personally own two of those (one is the 1250 variant), and they're absolutely quality units. But they're MUCH older (mine are coming up on their second battery replacement), and in addition to not having USB charging ports, have stepped wave rather than sine wave output. I'm very happy with them and am going to keep them until they die, but if I were buying today I would definitely get the current model.LadyGeek wrote: ↑Fri Sep 25, 2020 4:07 pmThanks! The APC product selector didn't find that model until I dropped the power draw. I guess they're being conservative (or pushing more expensive products).lazydavid wrote: ↑Fri Sep 25, 2020 7:55 am We just bought almost 600 of these, which are rated for 810w and have true sine wave output:
https://www.apc.com/shop/us/en/products ... P-BR1350MS
They run about $180.
I followed the "Buy" link to Newegg which has it listed for $175. Searching further, I found a model without the USB charging ports for $155.
APC website: APC Back UPS Pro BX1350M, 1350VA ($155 at Newegg) This unit does not have a price, so I'm wondering if it's for resellers only.
FYI - APC has a trade-in program for up to 25% off. Unfortunately, their website prices are far too high to make it worthwhile to take advantage of free recycling.
If there were no differences in the specs, I may have decided to go with the cheaper model (stepped sine wave). I figure that APC knows what they're doing and the approximation is "good enough".
However, the pure sine wave model has a wider range of accepted inputs. Both on voltage range (8 V higher) and frequency (+/- 3 Hz deviation from 60 Hz).
Every once in a while, the power to my home drops a phase. No clue why, but my lights will flicker and the UPS will kick in. Less than a second later, I'm back to normal. Having better specs gives me confidence that the UPS will work better under slow transient conditions.
I decided to add $20 to my cost and switched to the pure sine wave model (BR1350MS).