>>>Hi,
>>>
>>>I am shopping for a small office UPS. Mainly to protect the Cable Modem and the Wi-Fi router, during the times of power outage.
>>>
>>>I see two brand names on Amazon, The CyberPower and APC Back-UPS. Staples sells APC Back-UPS. When I read reviews, some people talk about connecting to the UPS from a computer. I really don't care for it. All I want is to plug it in the power outlet and plug the Cable Modem and Wi-Fi into it. And to know that when the power is out, for 2-3 hours, we don't lose Internet.
>>>
>>>The reviews of APC Backup-UPS 600VA vary from "junk" to "works excellent".
>>>
>>>What do you use and are you happy?
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>>I've had a few APC units over the years. At the moment I have a Back-UPS CS 500 backing up my cable modem and router.
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>>One thing about APC is they offer runtime graphs for their products e.g. http://www.apc.com/products/runtimegraph/runtime_graph.cfm?base_sku=BK500&chartSize=large . IME the graph is a bit optimistic, my modem plus router pull less than 50 watts but the last time I had an extended outage I think I only got about an hour out of the UPS.
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>>The vast majority of UPSs use sealed gel-cell lead-acid batteries. There are only a few different sizes of these batteries. One thing you often see is a maker will offer 3 different models, say, 400, 500 and 600VA. They all use the same battery so they all store the same amount of energy. The higher VA models have upgraded circuitry so they can support higher loads (for shorter periods) if necessary, but they don't offer longer runtime at low loads.
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>>Looking at the APC runtime graph, you see that the load does not go below about 30 watts. This is the power used by the UPS's inverter to convert the DC battery to 120VAC output. So even if you have nothing plugged into it, it will not last longer than about 100 minutes, and my real-life experience with a modem and router is about an hour, tops.
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>>That holds true for just about all consumer UPSs under 750VA or so. They have only one battery and maximum runtime is usually much less than 2 hours.
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>>Larger capacity units use 2 or more batteries and offer longer runtimes at low loads, but are a lot more expensive. If you want to know if units use more than 1 battery, look for the tech specs e.g. http://www.apc.com/shop/ca/en/products/APC-Back-UPS-500-beige/P-BK500 : my unit uses the RBC2 model battery, quantity 1.
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>>In my area extended power outages are uncommon, but if they happen they're often 4 hours or more. Most outages or other issues are well under an hour, so my unit can bridge them. No size of UPS would bridge the longer outages so I just accept that when they happen I lose service.
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>>It's worth pointing out that extended/widespread outages may include your ISP's facilities, either in your neighbourhood (e.g. those grey metal boxes you see on concrete pads) or their central office. Some of those may be backed up with their own UPSs or generator, but you have no way to know. If those lose power, you lose service, regardless of how much runtime you have in your local UPS.
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>>UPSs are also useful protecting against brief brownouts or spikes/surges, and can extend the life of connected equipment by isolating them from those issues.
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>>Many smartphones can act as WiFi hotspots, so in an emergency you could go that route. I think that's hard on the phone's battery life, and chews up your data plan, but you could use that to extend your connectivity once your UPS runs out. I think you can also get lithium-ion phone chargers that can recharge phones one or more times, so you could extend service that way. I think there are also new higher-power products using lithium ion batteries and inverters to support 120VAC loads but I haven't researched availability/prices, and I'm not sure they're aimed at IT usage (with power conditioning/protection).
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>>I've had experience with 1 CyberPower unit, a 1500VA business-class rackmount UPS. Its software was less polished than APC's but that doesn't matter for your use. For your purposes you only need to look at battery capacity/type and quantity, and the reliability and warranty of candidate units. All makes available at Amazon and bricks-and-mortar stores meet relevant electrical regulations. If you're looking at reviews on Amazon, look at why a unit got a bad score. If it was bad out of the box or failed early, that's a problem. If a user is used to the extra features and manageability of business class units and is pissed off that those features are missing in consumer models, that doesn't matter to you.
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>>Another make that used to be second only to APC was Tripp-Lite. I haven't looked at their offerings for a long time.
>
>Thank you very much for a detailed and very helpful review. At Staples they have 450 VA /255 Watt and 900 VA/480 Watts APC models. The difference was about $30 dollars. So I will probably buy the "higher" model. Of course the hours they show on the box are quite optimistic. But if I could get 1-2 hours of time, that would be some help. Especially if my wife is watching a show on Netflix, I don't want to be the cause of interruption :)

On the Staples site you should be able to get the exact model numbers. You can then use those on the APC site to get the runtime graphs and the battery model/quantity used in each. If the two models use the same battery, for your use there's no value in spending the extra $30.