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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2024
I really wish UPS vendors would not advertise "VA", but just stick with Watts. It's sort of like amplifiers going with "Peak maximum output power" instead of RMS. In this case the "VA" rating is 700, but the Watts rating is only 420: a full 40% less than the advertised VA rating.
Anyway, I have a 3D printer and generally it's not good for them to lose power while operating (especially if you're running it off an OctoPi server like I am, then both need backup power). I did read the 420 Watts rating before ordering. And my 3D Printer is spec'd at 400W - so just under, right (the Pi is like 5W)? Well, it turns out the printer actually draws 450W during pre-heating, for 2-3 minutes. When it does, that causes the UPS to alarm. Annoying, but I just leave the mute on. Preheating is short, a small portion of the printing time, and not catastrophic if interrupted (assuming the UPS internal circuitry could not keep up). The alarm goes away as soon as the power draw drops to about 440W or so. Once preheat is over and the unit is printing, power draw tends to stay between 200 and 250W. APC's calculator says that should be good for about 7 minutes of runtime.
I've tested "power failure" (unplug) up to a minute or so and the printer just goes about its business none the wiser. So it is definitely effective. Schneider generally puts their name only on pretty good equipment, so I expect this to give a few years of service. And hope that I won't need it much.
The form factor is nice, as I set my lamp and octopi atop to watch print progress. The USB ports maintain power too during an outage.
Overall I recommend, but do test - measure if you can using something like a P3 Kill-A-Watt meter - and watch your watts!
Anyway, I have a 3D printer and generally it's not good for them to lose power while operating (especially if you're running it off an OctoPi server like I am, then both need backup power). I did read the 420 Watts rating before ordering. And my 3D Printer is spec'd at 400W - so just under, right (the Pi is like 5W)? Well, it turns out the printer actually draws 450W during pre-heating, for 2-3 minutes. When it does, that causes the UPS to alarm. Annoying, but I just leave the mute on. Preheating is short, a small portion of the printing time, and not catastrophic if interrupted (assuming the UPS internal circuitry could not keep up). The alarm goes away as soon as the power draw drops to about 440W or so. Once preheat is over and the unit is printing, power draw tends to stay between 200 and 250W. APC's calculator says that should be good for about 7 minutes of runtime.
I've tested "power failure" (unplug) up to a minute or so and the printer just goes about its business none the wiser. So it is definitely effective. Schneider generally puts their name only on pretty good equipment, so I expect this to give a few years of service. And hope that I won't need it much.
The form factor is nice, as I set my lamp and octopi atop to watch print progress. The USB ports maintain power too during an outage.
Overall I recommend, but do test - measure if you can using something like a P3 Kill-A-Watt meter - and watch your watts!
