1.0 out of 5 stars Acting up after 5 months of light service

2026-01-17    -TC Shooter

Purchased in January 2013. Worked fine through 3 brief outages. But a month ago it just went off ac power even though the power didn't go out. Unplugged, plugged in and turned it on and all was well. Today it shut down the same way. But this time, when I powered it back on it went right to ON BATTERY mode. The ac power is there at the outlet -- the PC's plugged into it right now. With my PC, LED monitor and cable modem on it showed 70 minutes of reserve time so I sure wasn't loading it down. I switched everything to direct connection to ac and left the UPS plugged in but turned off. After 3 hours I just turned it on and it cycled back and forth between ONLINE and ON BATTERY. After growling loudly a few times it settled at ONLINE, with no load attached. I'm going to leave it turned on overnight to see what happens before I trust it again. Well, running overnight with no load, it stayed on. Time to shut down and hook up the system to it again. Wish me luck. I really don't want to have to ship this monster back for repair.Something else you should know: You can't buy a replacement battery. This direct from their tech support: "The replacement battery for the SMC1000 is not available for purchase yet, but it is APC part number APCRBC142."I've had good luck with non-sine-wave APC UPSes in the past, but I would not recommend this particular model. We're coming into the season when we most need UPSes in Florida, and mine's acting flakey.EDITED/CORRECTED June 18, 2013: After posting about the problem on an APC-hosted discussion forum (their email tech support is "temporarily suspended") I got a possible solution. In the supplied software you can set upper and lower limits for line voltage, above or below which the UPS will switch to Battery Mode. The default upper limit voltage is 130. Sure enough, just before mine went to Battery Mode the line voltage was 129.8 volts. For some reason, the UPS reports higher-than-specified voltage as a "power failure," rather than an "overvoltage event" or something that would give you a clue. You can set the upper limit as high as 136 volts. Of course, since I did that the software monitoring routines indicate my line voltage has never exceeded 126 volts. But at least the UPS hasn't gone off on me again.APC should fix the software so the info logged is more informative. Had I seen "overvoltage" in the log I might have been able to figure out a solution myself. As it happened, while I was waiting to find out what was going on I had a momentary power outage -- while I wasn't using the UPS! You know what that can do to Windows 7.

2.0 out of 5 stars Shut down all equipment for no apparent reason and has a continuous buzzing sound

2026-02-04    -BC

I purchased this for our Church network. About a month later it shut down for no apparent reason taking all equipment down with it. People were in the office at the time and indicated there were no power glitches. The device is at only 25% capacity. An alarm code was displayed. APC support had us reset the device. Although it is currently working, I don't have high confidence in it. It also has a loud buzzing sound all the time which is very annoying in an otherwise quiet office. The APC support staff were very friendly. I would have preferred an exchange though.

5.0 out of 5 stars APC quality.

2026-01-16    -PrionW

Excellent quality. Easily keeps a PC and monitor going while under heavy load, which was necessary for me to avoid loosing multi-hour calculations in progress (BOINC). Some of the options are confusing like the estimation of your power source's reliability. But once set right it is very reliable.

1.0 out of 5 stars Acting up after 5 months of light service

2026-02-28    -TC Shooter

Purchased in January 2013. Worked fine through 3 brief outages. But a month ago it just went off ac power even though the power didn't go out. Unplugged, plugged in and turned it on and all was well. Today it shut down the same way. But this time, when I powered it back on it went right to ON BATTERY mode. The ac power is there at the outlet -- the PC's plugged into it right now. With my PC, LED monitor and cable modem on it showed 70 minutes of reserve time so I sure wasn't loading it down. I switched everything to direct connection to ac and left the UPS plugged in but turned off. After 3 hours I just turned it on and it cycled back and forth between ONLINE and ON BATTERY. After growling loudly a few times it settled at ONLINE, with no load attached. I'm going to leave it turned on overnight to see what happens before I trust it again. Well, running overnight with no load, it stayed on. Time to shut down and hook up the system to it again. Wish me luck. I really don't want to have to ship this monster back for repair.Something else you should know: You can't buy a replacement battery. This direct from their tech support: "The replacement battery for the SMC1000 is not available for purchase yet, but it is APC part number APCRBC142."I've had good luck with non-sine-wave APC UPSes in the past, but I would not recommend this particular model. We're coming into the season when we most need UPSes in Florida, and mine's acting flakey.EDITED/CORRECTED June 18, 2013: After posting about the problem on an APC-hosted discussion forum (their email tech support is "temporarily suspended") I got a possible solution. In the supplied software you can set upper and lower limits for line voltage, above or below which the UPS will switch to Battery Mode. The default upper limit voltage is 130. Sure enough, just before mine went to Battery Mode the line voltage was 129.8 volts. For some reason, the UPS reports higher-than-specified voltage as a "power failure," rather than an "overvoltage event" or something that would give you a clue. You can set the upper limit as high as 136 volts. Of course, since I did that the software monitoring routines indicate my line voltage has never exceeded 126 volts. But at least the UPS hasn't gone off on me again.APC should fix the software so the info logged is more informative. Had I seen "overvoltage" in the log I might have been able to figure out a solution myself. As it happened, while I was waiting to find out what was going on I had a momentary power outage -- while I wasn't using the UPS! You know what that can do to Windows 7.

5.0 out of 5 stars One year later--this is the APC I knew and loved

2026-01-02    -TooCheapToBuyCheapGoods

Thanks "dtalk" for pointing out this true sine-wave UPS! I returned two cheaper APC units--the first wouldn't charge and the second developed a bad rasp. For about twice the money, this SMC1000 has a metal case, a 3-hour recharge (vs. 8) and a happy little humming sound inside. This UPS is solid. A special plug and socket on the back panel connects the internal battery without having to open the case. I will need to add an APC ProtectNet Ethernet Surge Protector but at least the UPS has a grounding screw on the back panel. The silent mode is welcome and the event counter lets you know about outages you missed.One odd thing--the unit says my router and "green" network switch are pulling zero watts. The UPS powers the equipment when I pull the plug, so I can't complain about a meter that won't measure a tiny load when it's designed to handle 600 watts.May 29, 2014 update:The control panel says I had 15 power events in the first year of use. It trips during brownouts to maintain voltage which is welcome. The control panel also indicates that my PC, LED monitor, router, switch, cable modem, etc. together draw about 150 watts for a 45 minute run time. Pleased as punch.

4.0 out of 5 stars understand the tradeoffs

2026-02-01    -me

This unit gives you sine wave output with no frills at an attractive price.Be aware of the limitations of this new model at its price point. This is not a desktop product, so don't expect extras like ethernet or coax surge protection. It is less capable than some other APC UPSs with equivalent VA ratings; for example, the SMC1000 is rated for 600 watts, vs. 700 for the SMT1000. It has a 2-year warranty, rather than the 3 year warranty carried by most recent APC products.Most importantly, this unit uses the new "Microlink" protocol, and does not have an expansion slot for adding a UPSLink interface. This means it will never be possible to fully interact with this unit using open source software, such as NUT or apcupsd; you can only get the most basic information out of it, such as line power up or down. Neither NUT nor apcupsd will be able to query it for load, output voltage, recent events, or many other things.If these limitations don't concern you, it's a good value, and is the lowest-priced APC UPS with sine wave output. It's perfect for protecting the availability of a small server.I noted that another reviewer complained of noise, but mine is nearly silent except when operating on backup power.

5.0 out of 5 stars APC quality.

2026-02-14    -PrionW

Excellent quality. Easily keeps a PC and monitor going while under heavy load, which was necessary for me to avoid loosing multi-hour calculations in progress (BOINC). Some of the options are confusing like the estimation of your power source's reliability. But once set right it is very reliable.

4.0 out of 5 stars understand the tradeoffs

2026-02-25    -me

This unit gives you sine wave output with no frills at an attractive price.Be aware of the limitations of this new model at its price point. This is not a desktop product, so don't expect extras like ethernet or coax surge protection. It is less capable than some other APC UPSs with equivalent VA ratings; for example, the SMC1000 is rated for 600 watts, vs. 700 for the SMT1000. It has a 2-year warranty, rather than the 3 year warranty carried by most recent APC products.Most importantly, this unit uses the new "Microlink" protocol, and does not have an expansion slot for adding a UPSLink interface. This means it will never be possible to fully interact with this unit using open source software, such as NUT or apcupsd; you can only get the most basic information out of it, such as line power up or down. Neither NUT nor apcupsd will be able to query it for load, output voltage, recent events, or many other things.If these limitations don't concern you, it's a good value, and is the lowest-priced APC UPS with sine wave output. It's perfect for protecting the availability of a small server.I noted that another reviewer complained of noise, but mine is nearly silent except when operating on backup power.

5.0 out of 5 stars One year later--this is the APC I knew and loved

2026-01-21    -TooCheapToBuyCheapGoods

Thanks "dtalk" for pointing out this true sine-wave UPS! I returned two cheaper APC units--the first wouldn't charge and the second developed a bad rasp. For about twice the money, this SMC1000 has a metal case, a 3-hour recharge (vs. 8) and a happy little humming sound inside. This UPS is solid. A special plug and socket on the back panel connects the internal battery without having to open the case. I will need to add an APC ProtectNet Ethernet Surge Protector but at least the UPS has a grounding screw on the back panel. The silent mode is welcome and the event counter lets you know about outages you missed.One odd thing--the unit says my router and "green" network switch are pulling zero watts. The UPS powers the equipment when I pull the plug, so I can't complain about a meter that won't measure a tiny load when it's designed to handle 600 watts.May 29, 2014 update:The control panel says I had 15 power events in the first year of use. It trips during brownouts to maintain voltage which is welcome. The control panel also indicates that my PC, LED monitor, router, switch, cable modem, etc. together draw about 150 watts for a 45 minute run time. Pleased as punch.

2.0 out of 5 stars Shut down all equipment for no apparent reason and has a continuous buzzing sound

2026-01-21    -BC

I purchased this for our Church network. About a month later it shut down for no apparent reason taking all equipment down with it. People were in the office at the time and indicated there were no power glitches. The device is at only 25% capacity. An alarm code was displayed. APC support had us reset the device. Although it is currently working, I don't have high confidence in it. It also has a loud buzzing sound all the time which is very annoying in an otherwise quiet office. The APC support staff were very friendly. I would have preferred an exchange though.