Just a basic UPS suggestion?

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bratboy

bratboy

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Mar 24, 2005
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Denver CO
Okay, well summer is about to hit and in my area we often get little power blips, at least thats what I call em. Basically the power goes out or flickers just enough to cause my HR-22 to reboot, the TV and amp half the time don't even seem to go off at all. Anyway I keep saying I'm going to get a basic UPS so I don't have to go thru the 5 minutes or longer it takes for the box to completely reboot. Last year was really frustrating because, one day in particular, the pwr blinked so the system rebooted, just got back to displaying the show and bam, another power blip and waiting for it to reboot again.

I don't need a UPS thats going to keep the box running more than a few minutes, if the powers out for a length of time not gonna be watching the TV anyway, but mainly just so when the blips happen the DVR doesn't lose power and reboot. Could someone recommend an inexpensive UPS to serve my purpose or at least tell me what size I need to look for? I only plan on running the HR-22 and the OTA deal from DTV that gets its power via daisy chaining with the DVR.

Thanks in advance
 
bratboy said:
Okay, well summer is about to hit and in my area we often get little power blips, at least thats what I call em. Basically the power goes out or flickers just enough to cause my HR-22 to reboot, the TV and amp half the time don't even seem to go off at all. Anyway I keep saying I'm going to get a basic UPS so I don't have to go thru the 5 minutes or longer it takes for the box to completely reboot. Last year was really frustrating because, one day in particular, the pwr blinked so the system rebooted, just got back to displaying the show and bam, another power blip and waiting for it to reboot again.

I don't need a UPS thats going to keep the box running more than a few minutes, if the powers out for a length of time not gonna be watching the TV anyway, but mainly just so when the blips happen the DVR doesn't lose power and reboot. Could someone recommend an inexpensive UPS to serve my purpose or at least tell me what size I need to look for? I only plan on running the HR-22 and the OTA deal from DTV that gets its power via daisy chaining with the DVR.

Thanks in advance
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I would recommend a simple APC unit, your not needing too much seeing thats all your putting into it.
Don't know how much you expecting to get one for but I would look at BB.

APC - 550VA Battery Back-Up System - Black - BE550G

or here

APC - 750VA Battery Back-Up System - BE750G

On sale now $40 or $70 depending which one you decide on.
 
Be sure you just hook the DVR up to the outlets with UPS protection, as the more you want to plug into it, the more powerful a unit you will need. All the other things (TV, sound amp, etc.) can be plugged into the surge protected outlets, just to be safer, though.

I have both APC and CyberPower units around here and they all seem to work just fine. (We have the same problem, in the heat we lose power temporarily, and sometimes go to the whole house generator as the local utility sucks - E.Off is what name should be.)
 
Costco has a Tripplight UPS that works very well. for less than $100.00. It has a digital display that shows your current household voltage and provides some voltage regulation.
 
I've used smaller APC and Cyberpowers with no problems, although the batteries seem to last only 3-4 years and a replacement costs more than a whole new UPS.

Be advised that many of these units have a beeper in them that goes off anytime theres a power glitch, and some of them dont let you turn that off. I had to open up a couple of APC units and desolder the beeper. Many of the cyberpowers let you flip a dip switch or connect to them via USB from a computer and disable the beep.

Otherwise you might get a nice cacophony of beeping at 2am.

Do pay attention to the efficiency rating, as many of these units will waste off 5-10% of the voltage they pass through.

I've also used these for places with lots of short term transient power glitches, sags and brownouts:
Amazon.com: OPTI-UPS SS1200 Stabilizer Series 6-Outlet Automatic Voltage Regulator (600W, 1200VA): Electronics@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41XP1CYXC9L.@@AMEPARAM@@41XP1CYXC9L

Not much more than a good surge protector, but this offers both surge protection and voltage regulation withing a pretty good margin. Its not going to take a full second of voltage loss or handle more than a second of brownout below 100v but its an inexpensive way to handle blips and low voltage situations.

As for a deal on UPS's, I'd look at the hot deals section at Slickdeals and set an automatic notify for any deals with "UPS" in the title. I used to be able to get UPS's on sale with a rebate and a coupon for well under $50 that were suitable for a dvr, but maybe staples/officemax got wise to the triple dipping deals and dont offer them anymore because I havent seen a really sweet UPS deal in a while.
 
Here's about the best deal I can see right now:

FRYS.com | CyberPower

Cyberpower with enough capacity to run a dvr for about 20-30 minutes. $39 after rebate.

Make sure if you use an external esata disk drive on the receiver that its also plugged into the UPS.
 
wildbill129 said:
Costco has a Tripplight UPS that works very well. for less than $100.00. It has a digital display that shows your current household voltage and provides some voltage regulation.
Click to expand...

I looked at those today, before I saw this post.....
Only problem is you have to look at the actual wattage, not the VA info.
The one as Costco is only 500 watt, it would cover my TV, but nothing else.

I do not know for sure what the wattage is for the D* recvrs, I'm gonna guess and say 100, so if I plug my 5000 w tv and the 100 watt recvr, it is more than what it's rated for.

What happens when you have more than what it's rated for, when you actually need to use it ?
 
cfb said:
Here's about the best deal I can see right now:

FRYS.com*|*CyberPower

Cyberpower with enough capacity to run a dvr for about 20-30 minutes. $39 after rebate.

Make sure if you use an external esata disk drive on the receiver that its also plugged into the UPS.
Click to expand...

I've seen Cyberpower at BB before.

What do you guys think of them ?
Are they any good ?

I would prefer to stick with a good APC rated about 1000 Watts, but could get by with about 900 probably, but I'm sure they are expansive, more that a couple hundred.

I also would be interested in Tripp Lite rated about the same, but Tripp Lite are harder to find.
 
Well, like I said in my case, I don't need anything that will keep an amp/tv/DVR running. I mainly need it so that the darn DVR doesn't reboot every time the power dips for a sec. I went ahead and ordered the smaller one and will hope for the best.
 
I've had about equal luck with cyberpowers and apc's. Battery life seems the same, hadnt noticed any serious issues with either one, for a particular price point the cyberpowers seem to offer some nice features, like the ability to turn the BEEP off, and the one I have hiding behind my main tv right now lets me plug in a laptop and it'll tell me the high and low voltage points since it was last started and a nice log of all the power events.

For the $ I usually pay for these, in an APC I get a beepy unit with nothing much extra.
 
Jimbo said:
I've seen Cyberpower at BB before.

What do you guys think of them ?
Are they any good ?

I would prefer to stick with a good APC rated about 1000 Watts, but could get by with about 900 probably, but I'm sure they are expansive, more that a couple hundred.

I also would be interested in Tripp Lite rated about the same, but Tripp Lite are harder to find.
Click to expand...

Costco usually has Tripplite UPSs. $99.95 for 1500 VA. I have occasionally seen APC units at Costco but Tripplite is more common.
 
cfb said:
I've used smaller APC and Cyberpowers with no problems, although the batteries seem to last only 3-4 years and a replacement costs more than a whole new UPS.

Be advised that many of these units have a beeper in them that goes off anytime theres a power glitch, and some of them dont let you turn that off. I had to open up a couple of APC units and desolder the beeper. Many of the cyberpowers let you flip a dip switch or connect to them via USB from a computer and disable the beep.

Otherwise you might get a nice cacophony of beeping at 2am.
Click to expand...

Most of the units that offer the ability to switch off the beeper via software reactivate the beeper if the unit is detached from a computer. Most Cyberpower units offer the ability to deactivate it from the front display but this may be reset after an extended loss of pwer.
 
Geronimo said:
Most of the units that offer the ability to switch off the beeper via software reactivate the beeper if the unit is detached from a computer. Most Cyberpower units offer the ability to deactivate it from the front display but this may be reset after an extended loss of pwer.
Click to expand...

So do the TrippLight units from Costco. I can turn my beep off with the simple push of a button on the front panel.....I'm buying another one this weekend...
 
wildbill129 said:
The one I have is 1000VA, 500w....It tells you if it's overloaded. I run all my audio/video gear without an issue. It tells you if it's overloaded...
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I know they have larger ones, the ones they have at Costco's is the one you have and is the only one I have seen there.

I would like to have my important TV /A/V stuff on it, but could probably get by without the Yamaha Recvr and be ok...

Back to the one you have ... it only covers 500 Watts

My Pioneer Elite TV draws 500 watts, the D* recvr draws probably a 100-150.

The EHD is minimal I would imagine, we'll say 50 watts.

So getting the bare necessities, I'm looking at 700 watts

Thats without the Yamaha recvr and that draws 560 watts, so if I added that all up, I would need something about 1300 watts and that would be REALLY expensive.

Without the Yamaha recvr, I could probably find something, but even that is going to be over $200.
 
Jimbo said:
I know they have larger ones, the ones they have at Costco's is the one you have and is the only one I have seen there.

I would like to have my important TV /A/V stuff on it, but could probably get by without the Yamaha Recvr and be ok...

Back to the one you have ... it only covers 500 Watts

My Pioneer Elite TV draws 500 watts, the D* recvr draws probably a 100-150.

The EHD is minimal I would imagine, we'll say 50 watts.

So getting the bare necessities, I'm looking at 700 watts

Thats without the Yamaha recvr and that draws 560 watts, so if I added that all up, I would need something about 1300 watts and that would be REALLY expensive.

Without the Yamaha recvr, I could probably find something, but even that is going to be over $200.
Click to expand...

Yah....I had my Yamaha receiver, DVR, and 50" Panasonic Plasma TV connected to it and it was way too much. Now I just have the DVR, Blue Ray and the Yamaha Receiver connected to it. I wll mounted my TV and wired a surge outlet behind it, so I can't have it on the UPS anyway. We get voltage spikes and 2 second power outages here all the time, so I just don't want my DVR resetting every time.....I can pick my lazy butt up and turn the TV back on.....:rolleyes:

You are right, if you want the TV on there too, you will need more than that TrippLight from Costco....
 
wildbill129 said:
Yah....I had my Yamaha receiver, DVR, and 50" Panasonic Plasma TV connected to it and it was way too much. Now I just have the DVR, Blue Ray and the Yamaha Receiver connected to it. I wll mounted my TV and wired a surge outlet behind it, so I can't have it on the UPS anyway. We get voltage spikes and 2 second power outages here all the time, so I just don't want my DVR resetting every time.....I can pick my lazy butt up and turn the TV back on.....:rolleyes:

You are right, if you want the TV on there too, you will need more than that TrippLight from Costco....
Click to expand...

There is a APC at BB that would do the trick, I think it's a BX1500g or a BX1300g for like $ 150-200 if I want it bad enough, they will handle 750w I think it was, if I decide to spend the money I could go that route ... Tripplite also has one that would do the trick, but I would have to have it shipped , nothing locally big enough.

Interestingly, I found the Tripplite from thier website to be about 50 less than the ones I found at BB and around town, so now I know how much the push up the profit.
 
For my system, I use an APC to protect my DVR from power outages. I see no need to protect a TV from power outages, only surge protection and clean power. I use a Monster HTS 6100 for surge protection and clean power for my Pioneer PRO-FHD1 and other sensitive components. That way I can use a APC 550 watt unit and not overload it.
 
dlma1 said:
For my system, I use an APC to protect my DVR from power outages. I see no need to protect a TV from power outages, only surge protection and clean power. I use a Monster HTS 6100 for surge protection and clean power for my Pioneer PRO-FHD1 and other sensitive components. That way I can use a APC 550 watt unit and not overload it.
Click to expand...

So you don't wan't your Pioneer TV on the battery back up ?

I am looking for a APC or Tripp Lite that will handle approx 900-1200 watts, so I can safely cover my TV (500w), my HR24 (unknown wattage, I would Guess maybe 250 w) and EHD (maybe 100 w).

If anyone has the info on wattage on the current D* recvrs.
 
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