The Family Handyman Magazine – Coupons, Promo Codes & Special Offers (2)

I relied on information on their webpage re how long battery back up units will run a home wifi network. The site is labelled “family handyman” and doesn’t seem to have any of the standard ‘contact us’ links that I could find to contact the author about my issues with their test of battery back ups. I felt compelled to post something since the results were so outrageously off and I bought a unit based on their test results and the information regarding the underlying specs to base assumptions on the performance of similar products. It proved to be utterly useless! The author states: “UPS units are rated by volt-amps and watts, which is a power limit and a rough estimate of how long the battery will last…A 350-VA unit costs about $50 and should power a router for almost two hours, depending on the router’s wattage.” The three units they tested (Amazon Basics 600VA, APC 600VA, and Cyberpower 600VA) were 600VA and ran from 4 hours to 5.5 hours. So, I bought an APC 1,000VAC unit assuming by extension of the information provided that it should run my Xfinity gateway for far longer — employing simple math roughly 8+ hours. I set mine up according to the instructions in the user manual charging it initially for just over 12 hours in preparation for our planned 9 hour power outage. When our power went out I turned the backup on and the display indicated an initial runtime of 120 mins. It fluctuated quite a bit for approximated 10 minutes and settled on just over 2 hours. Two hours! After 15 minutes of operation 40% of the battery life was gone based on the display indicator. This is FAR from even what the600VA test units provided in the test reported on the website. At this point I don’t know if I have a defective BU or whether the test results and accompanying information in the handyman story are grossly misleading and/or inaccurate. I also fault Comcast/xfinity for not providing basic information on their router/modem/gateways about their units’ energy consumption (presumably in watts) to inform customers. I searched the web and tried calling only to come up empty. As an aside, I find it pretty crazy that this 15 pound battery back up was so feeble and incapable of providing power to a simple cable modem/router for at least 6-8 hours when my built-in apple laptop battery can run a computer and display for 18 hours and wi-fi.