Belkin F6C1500TWRK 1500VA Battery Backup UPS

F6C1500-TW-RK Packaging & Accessories (cont):

There's not much on the exterior of the UPS, on the front is the power button and three LEDs. The back of the UPS is an entirely different story with about as many connectors as could physically fit without overcrowding. First lets start with the good, A++ for the placement, rotation, and spacing of the power connectors! Most people will undoubtedly use this UPS vertically which means all the connectors are facing to the sides. This is key if you are going to be plugging in any AC adapters (aka 'wall wart' or 'power brick') as you want to minimize blocking other electrical sockets. Also the sockets are spaced enough to where you can get your hand firmly around each plug.

To save on weight (and cost), Belkin decided to make the chassis from plastic, this is not uncommon for many inexpensive UPSes. My APC Smart-UPS has a steel chassis which is much more rugged, but does add to the weight total. Since you really shouldn't stack anything on a UPS anyhow, I see nothing wrong with using plastic.

There is both a USB and serial connection for communication with a PC, both can be used at the same time (going to different PCs) but only one can be a "master" link. The network and phone connections provide surge protection too, and to the best of my knowledge there is no active buffering. I'm kind of baffled how the network can have one connection going 'in' but have two going 'out' and work properly. Unfortunately neither the manual nor online support site give any in-depth information so I'm kind of hesitant to use the network protection.

There is also an LED that will light up if your wall socket is improperly wired. If that should happen it is imperative that you get a licensed electrician to correct the issue, otherwise your devices could get damaged in the event of a power surge or some other event.

Now for what is missing from the Belkin 1500VA UPS. First, there is NO display on the exterior of the UPS telling you the current battery capacity or load level, this is only available via the software. About the only way to know when the batteries are getting low is when they reach 20-25% the UPS will start beeping wildly. Second, there are no "surge only" outlets on the back. For the price range and abilities of this UPS I would of tossed the optional SNMP upgrade and used that space on the back for a pair of surge protection only outlets (not battery protected). A lot of people like to have these outlets on their UPS so they can plug higher-current / non-essential devices like laser printers or speakers into and not have to buy a separate surge protector.

To access the batteries one simply has to slide the front panel sideways. Inside are a pair of standard gel-cell 12V / 7Ah batteries wired in series. For comparison, my 1500VA APC Smart-UPS has a pair of 12V / 18Ah batteries, that's about 2.5x the capacity! Yet another reason the Belkin model weighs less.

The manual was not all that detailed on how to disconnect the batteries from the UPS, and there wasn't a big fat connector like APC has. I had to fiddle with the batteries for a little bit in a gentle tug-o-war until I found the proper positive and negative connectors that were running back into the UPS chassis. If you are planning on using this UPS where the devices need to be "always on" (and possibly having to hot-swap the batteries when they need to be replaced), I would highly recommended practicing once on removing the batteries before you put this into service so you know what to expect down the road.