[ConservativeMind]

Cyber Power looked like a bargain, but the sort of reliability problems users have had make their cheapness look, well, cheap. You don’t want a home fire from bad UPS batteries or circuitry.

APC and Tripplite both are reliable brands.

There was one Cyber Power that was just over $200 that looked promising to me, but I decided against it.

You want the great joule rating you can get on your power strip or UPS.

[IC Ken]

Sent you an email with a link to Copper Crouse Hinds. Absolutely the best. Go Industrial strength. Used their for my Dad’s whole house surge protection, who lives in Florida. In 25 Year he hasn’t lost a thing nad has been hit numerous times.

[Pox]

Either vendor is likely going to have a good quality product that will meet your needs. I don't have a specific recommendation, but your mention of lighting strikes brought back a memory.

When I lived in Clearwater, Florida, Lightning strikes were daily and disturbing! I had an APC UPS at the time and my PC and Cable Modem were connected to it. One wonderful day I was on my PC and lightning hit right outside my apartment and nailed the underground Cable run heading to my apartment.

The surge went through my cable modem, out the RJ45 port to my PC’s NIC on the motherboard, and arced from that point to my sound card (a lot of years ago), and I watched a puff of smoke exit my PC case. That put my sound card out of action, but the rest seemed to survive just fine.

Difficult to protect against lightning strikes.

[meatloaf]

Buy a Clary if you can find one. Those are normally sold for support of IT, medical and military applications. They’re not sold as consumer items.

The rack mounts show up frequently on eBay. Heathkit/Zenith UPS units from back in the day are Clarys too.

If you get hit by lightning the charge circuit, and the unit, will be toast. I’m not sure if the sine wave gen circuit survives or not. Anything connected will survive.

[SuperLuminal]

Been using all sizes of APC since forever... Never a problem...

[mass55th]

I use two APC battery back-ups, so that if the power goes out, I can shut things down until the the power comes back up. Just for my MacBook Air though, I use a regular surge protector. I used to have a MacBook Pro that was 11 years old, but replaced it with a new MacBook Air not long ago, and had to buy a new surge protector with a longer cord, as the power cord that came with the new laptop wasn’t as long as the old one.

[mass55th]

Sorry, re-read your request, and realized my reply wasn’t really what you were looking for, but I can vouch for the APC back-ups. The ones I’ve had over the years have lasted far longer than expected. I’d recommend them, as APC will give you a discount when you purchase a new back-up, and send the old unit back to them. They even provide you with the shipping label to do it.

[IndispensableDestiny]

If you are skilled to work inside your electrical panel, get something like an EATON CHSPT2ULTRA or Siemens FS140 surge protector. You’ll also need a 40 to 50 amp breaker for it. It will protect everything connected to the panel. I installed one in an outdoor panel at the swimming pool, one in each of my inside service panels.

You can buy a professional RF 0-6 GHz surge protector for your cable to replace the cheap one the cable company installed outside. I don’t know if that will screw up the cable service. It will require adapters for the connectors.

I’ve always had luck with APC UPS, big and small. I try to rely on external surge suppression.

[upchuck]

Any thing made by American Power Conversion. Been using their surge protectors and UPS units for years and years. Never been disappointed.

Examples.

[discostu]

Whatever is at Ace Hardware has always been good enough for me. Unless you live in an area with really flaky electricity, the tech of a surge protector really isn’t that exciting and more expensive gains you nothing. Plug design and outlet layout, those matter.

[rarestia]

APC UPS provide both battery backup AND surge protection. They offer a $1M warranty if any equipment is fried while plugged in to a properly functioning UPS.

I have dozens of them and give them as gifts to family and friends. When the batteries go out, just go to a local purveyor of batteries, trade in your old for new, and it just keeps going.

[Drago]

Have used APC in the past, current have a Cyberpower similar to this:

https://www.cyberpowersystems.com/promotions/pfc-sinewave-ups/

No problems with it over a couple of years. I think the build quality is the eq. of APC w/o the higher price.

[mad_as_he$$]

Go APC and don't look back. I have 30 of them at work and not one problem in 10 years. Of course the battery(s) need to be replaced every 5 years or so.

[Cold Heart]

After a couple years the battery in my UPS went bad. I took apart the “No User Serviceable Parts Inside” case and replaced the gel battery. I got a few more years out of it until the electronics went bad.

Now I have a surge protector (recommended by IT guy) protecting my electronics. I put my standby power system separate. I have a deep cycle Interstate battery on trickle charge and a 1000 watt inverter in a box waiting for use.

I designed my system for long term power outage. Generator to recharge battery as needed.

[daltec]

For surge protection, there are some good-quality Made in USA options available, but they will cost you. High quality, though, and of a different technology than the MOV surge protectors that are what you find nearly always. Example: Zero Surge. 10-year warranty, and limited degradation that you get with MOV surge protectors. They aren't designed to blow themselves up protecting your stuff, in other words.

If that is more than you wanted to spend, then just get the highest joules and lowest response time, at the price you are willing to pay. I have always had good luck with Tripp Lite Isobars. Over 3000 joules, under 1 nanosecond response time. About $60 for 6 outlets. I use them for home and for my office where I am the "IT guy."

You may wish to invest in a good-quality UPS, also. As with surge protection, you can get made in the USA units, but they will cost you. Eaton is a good example of that, but beware, some of their units are made in China, and some of their units (even TAA-compliant ones) are "assembled in USA." Also, the batteries themselves will almost certainly not be made in the US, for any unit you might wish to buy.

That being said, at home I use Tripp Lite online dual-conversion UPSes (not the rackmount versions). At work I use rackmounted CyberPower dual-conversion units, because I could not justify the cost of Tripp Lite rackmounts. Dual-conversion UPSes provide battery power and protection greatly superior to "normal" stand-by UPSes (especially in an area like mine that is susceptible to brownouts and sags). But they come at a price. They cost substantially more, they are much larger and heavier, and they are noisy.

However, if you have critical or sensitive equipment downstream, that depends on clean, stable power, a dual-conversion UPS means that equipment will never even know the mains power has fluctuated (until the battery drains, that is). With stand-by UPSes, even if it only takes a few milliseconds for the battery to engage, some equipment will react poorly to the interruption in power.

If that is not a concern for you, then a decent 1500-va UPS can be had for $150-$200 or so. APC and Tripp Lite are fine. As with MOV surge protectors, there isn't much difference between them, at this price point.

I hope this helps!

[matt04]

I have used APC and TrippLite. For me I use a MacBook Pro so really didn’t need a high VA as I only wanted to run my modem and router. I splurged and got one with a larger wattage battery so I could have internet for about 2-3 hours in a longer outage, luckily I have yet to test that for that long.

The manufactures usually have a online calculator where you can plug in your load and it will recommend a unit.

[PIF]

You get what you pay for. APC is a good brand, Belkin not so much anymore. Getting one with a high Joule rating is best. Also consider battery backup.

[trebb]

I have an APC - been trouble-free for close to 2 years now.