Product ReviewsPowercool Smart UPS 650VA 2 x UK Plug RJ45 USB LED Display

For the price, it's great value for money with a few caveats

I bought this to protect my home media server from short term blackouts which caused the server to restart without clean shutdown - thus triggering the mirrored RAID array to rebuild if it happened to be writing at the time. Also, random reboots of a server aren't good at the best of times.

For this it works perfectly...

The supplied software is also capable of shutting down the server if the power stays off for a specified time or the battery voltage drops as well. I could not get this to work, even on a Windows 10 PC. Until I twigged why. UPSmart doesn't have any kind of service element - it's a standard app. So it only does anything when it's running and even then you need to run it with admin rights to allow it to shutdown.

So even when configured to load on startup, it can't shutdown as that doesn't start it with admin rights.

I have two workarounds here: first is to use the app to write a text file at shutdown and then a scheduled task running as admin every minute to check for this text file and shutdown if found. This does work but relies on account been logged in. Second would be to run UPSmart as a scheduled task - lots of references on web/Always Up. Not tried this yet but should work in theory...

This isn't sold as a commercial grade UPS so expecting many minutes of run time is a little unrealistic. It's only got a single 12V 7Ah battery. But the suggested 15-20 minute run time is rather optimistic. My server is currently drawing 40W. Maximum is 100W - tested using a mains power monitor. But UPSmart is showing a battery life of just 5 minutes.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: cclcomputers

proper job

nice item. quiet adequate for normal computer loads and near silent in use. good price for a brand new item.

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: cclcomputers

Protection of electronics

After a series of power surges and cuts which signed the death knell of my Win 7 Desktop I decided to purchase a UPS to combat this. After due research I found this item on ebay. It arrived well packed, promptly and was very easy to set up. It has proved very quiet in operation and stays relativly coolRead full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: cclcomputers

Good so far.

Seems pretty good so far. This is the sort of product you can only really assess after a couple of years. So I will probably update the review after I've had it a while.

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: cclcomputers

Useful UPS

Keeps the power going for about ten minutes as expected.
If you want more time then you would need a much bigger battery attached.

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: adamkfellows

Already been put to good use and saved my PC.

Really good value compared to the competition. Has already been put to good use and saved my PC.

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: cclcomputers

Good if you don't need monitoring under Linux

Does what's expected, downside is that it's not supported by NUT under linux to monitor battery status.

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: cclcomputers

Kept it up perfectly.

Plugged it in and forgot about it until the next loss of mains which happens all too frequently here in the sticks. Worked perfectly in maintaining power to the broadband and phone systems.

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: cclcomputers

All Powered Up!

Easy to set up. Easy to use.

Great so far

It works as it should, so great so far

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: cclcomputers