APC J25B 8-Outlet J-Type Power Conditioner with Battery Backup

I am a big fan of APC UPS and power conditioning units. I have several in my house for various uses and they have never failed me. I was excited to see this unit specifically for AV purposes.

The unit is very clean looking and fits perfectly with other AV equipment. It is well constructed and is very easy to get up and running. The batteries come disconnected (for safety in shipping) but it is as easy as popping off the front cover, which is very sturdy and well constructed, pulling the battery out by grasping the provided tabs, flipping it over and pushing it back in. My unit was 100% charged when I got it.

There are many usuable outlets on the back of the unit. Most of them are battery protected and there are two that are only surge protected. The display is a cool blue color and is easy to read. It displays the approximate current run time with the load it currently has.

The only downside flaw with this unit is that I could not get the coax filters to work with my DirecTV satelite boxes. When I used the coax surge filter the box would say searching for satelite continually and never find it. As soon as I connected directly it worked just fine. I have other surge protectors with coax filters and they work fine with the DirecTV boxes. I contacted DirecTV and they stated the UPS is filtering too strongly and has weakened the signal below the level that the DirecTV box allows. APC confirmed this as the most likely cause. DirecTV actually told me they recommend NOT using any coax surge filters anyway as they can't gaurantee signal strength if you do.

So, if you can live without the coax surge filter then this is a good product for you.

-Edit from 1/21/13-

Based upon a comment to my original review I want to add this information. According to the commenter, it MAY be possible to get DirecTV to change the signal strength so as to overcome the associated signal loss introduced by adding this device.

When I talked with DirecTV however they stated there was nothing else that could be done to get it to work as designed. You may want to try contacting DirecTV yourself if you think they may be able to assist.

I really enjoy the product, but today the front panel is red and is stating "warning fan defective". I have opened a case with APC to see what their resolution is. I feel that a product failure after only 5 months is unacceptable. I suppose it is nice that the system was able to detect the failure, though. I hope that their support department is able to assist me in an inconvenient manner it would be quite a pain to have to ship this back to them for a defective $3 fan. I will try to update this review with my support experiences.

Edit: Within 24 hours their support dept had contacted me and asked me to basically turn the UPS off, unplug everything, disconnect the batteries for 30 seconds, then plug it all back in again. The error cleared and hasn't been back in the week since. But the support rep said that the fault indicators "are usually very reliable" so I'm not sure if I should believe the error or their support rep.

Buy APC J25B 8-Outlet J-Type Power Conditioner with Battery Backup Now

Does what it's supposed to and it has the right size and shape to go with your home theater system. It has a nice readout on the front to give status. Costs a little more than the average UPS made for computers, but it's really solid and a standard computer UPS would look lame in your living room. A few years down the road when the 7Ahr batteries give out, they can be replaced with 9Ahr ones that fit in the unit nicely.

Read Best Reviews of APC J25B 8-Outlet J-Type Power Conditioner with Battery Backup Here

This is exactly what I wanted for a Conditioner+UPS on my A/V system. Simple plug-and-go setup is perfectly fine for typical use. For fine tuning there is a nice configuration menu, no computer required. Conditioner-only outlets are separate from UPS outlets, gives high quality protection for all equipment while getting longer run life for things that I want to keep alive across brief power outages. A nice bit of industrial design for the battery compartment: no switches or terminals to connect/disconnect, just turn the battery around backward in the bay for safe shipping.

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Where do I start & how do I review something like this:

I'm a little confused by the players involved in this purchase process . . .

For example, I bought the APC J25B 8-Outlet J-Type Power Conditioner with Battery Backup (aka: J25B) via Amazon.com; however, the order was fulfilled by "Ocean Reef Electronics".

So, when it came to contacting someone regarding 'the defunct coax ports' with this unit, I initially contacted Ocean Reef Electronics (& they were absolutely useless as they responded w/ "we're not able to provide any product support"); and I also contacted my cable provider, Comcast Cable (to rule out their end of the equation & make sure it wasn't a cable signal issue); then I started corresponding w/ Dan Camara of Schneider Electric (who is apparently the company/person that provides product support for APC products).

Dan was incredibly helpful in his efforts to help me problem solve my issue w/ the coax connections & after all the problem solving efforts were exhausted, Dan offered to immediately send out a replacement unit at no cost to me . . .additionally, he provided me w/ a prepaid return mailing label for the old unit.

All this to say, this review is really a 'customer service review' rather than a product review; because, really, how do you evaluate this product if everything is running fine and I have no real issues w/ my electricity at this time. I can say that EVERYTHING in my AV/HT system runs through it . . . and that brings me some peace of mind. So, that's a pretty significant plus for me and as far as the initial product goes, it did have a faulty 'coax connection' . . . but it's difficult to assign fault here; it could have been either (1) a manufacturing defect of ADP or (2) could have been damaged in transit as "Ocean Reef Electronics" shipped the item in it's original packaging ONLY (meaning they didn't double box it; which ADP did when they sent the replacement unit). So, who really knows where the fault lies.

I do know this, back to the customer service review, I will NEVER again make a purchase from Amazon.com if the order is fulfilled by "Ocean Reef Electronics." And I say that for two reasons, (1) First & foremost, they're were useless when it came to remedying my initial situation . . .they simply responded w/ "we don't provide technical product support," & (2) the manner in which they shipped this unit to me: they didn't double box this unit. This is a heavy unit and should have been double boxed (again as ADP did when they sent me the replacement unit).

So, there you have my 2-cents on this purchase . . . beware of "Ocean Reef Electronics"; but give praise to Dan Camara and the folks at Schneider Electric.

Thanks,

Shek5150

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