APC Back-UPS BE350G: To Beep or Not to Beep, that is the Question!

One item I wanted for this past Christmas was a small UPS to backup our AT&T U-Verse gateway during power outages. So I ordered an APC Back-UPS BE350G from Amazon which I knew would supply plenty of power for such a small device (and could also help a laptop or tablet or phone running for a while too.) I knew we had ordered APC BE550G units for work before and they have been quite reliable, but I did not need 550VA (330W) for just a gateway, a phone and maybe a laptop. So I ordered the BE350G and knew that would be sufficient for the purpose.

So when I received it excitedly on Christmas morning, I knew what I would do later that week, use the PowerChute software to turn off the annoying alarm (like I had done for all our APC units at work) and then peacefully let it backup our AT&T U-Verse modem/router at home. But when I opened up the box, I was in for a sad reality - the BE350G does not have a USB interface and does not let you silence the alarm! All the APC units we have at work allow you to do this from the BE550G to the BR1000G, BR1500G, all the way to our bigger Smart-UPS series units. But the cheap little BE350G does not let you hook it up to a computer and turn off the alarm. The last thing we want in the middle of the night is the annoying UPS alarm going off non-stop, so we decided not to install it at home. Instead I will probably get a Cyberpower EC350G which I have already checked - it does allow you to disable the alarm. I was also going to return the APC BE350G to Amazon, but they do not accept returns on UPS products because of its weight, so instead I just brought in into work at the university, where we do not care if the thing beeps nonstop during a power outage.

Seriously though, APC why do you need an annoying audio alarm on all your UPS systems, when we all know when the electricity is out? APC also came out with a very interesting looking device, the BGE70 network backup designed precisely for backing up a cable or DSL modem and router, but guess what - you cannot disable the alarm on that either! Now this item seems to be designed explicitly for home or small business use, so turning off the alarm would be a pretty important feature in a home environment, but APC did not seem to care. How much would it cost to put a little switch on the case where you could turn it off? I guess they do not mind losing the entire home market to CyberPower and other competitors.

Comments

TCGM said…
I just came across this when googling to figure out if the beep could be shut off. Read your post, then simply gave up searching, opened up the case and removed the buzzer component from the PCB with a soldering iron. Can confirm the unit still works afterwards, sans the annoying beep.
4:24 PM
Unknown said…
take a philips screw driver, crack it open and snip the peso wires.
i sis and i regret nothing!
5:45 PM
Genesis Amadeus said…
Unfortunately, some companies are short sighted. I bought 2 of these to replace my two oldest units that had failed. I was disappointed to find they didn't support Powerchute. I was even more disappointed last night when both beeped for what seemed like hours last night, one on each floor of the house.
Make sure you use the the power switch on them liberally ;)
5:52 AM
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