With my experiences - I rebuilt restored donated near 500 Macs as learning hobby -
and power surges (no lightning was involved) stopped taking out logic boards when
I sought to find suitable solutions to filter the power as well as provide alternative
backup power on an automatic basis. The cheap onsite insurance of having the unit
just work, and replacement of the batteries inside it every 3 to 4 years, is worth the
cost of the unit and maintenance of the UPS unit. ~And I feel any guarantees offered
by the maker, is where the ghello hits the wall. Useless to me, once damage is done.
My other backup power supply has been an onsite generator that provides soft
enough power to adequately run Apple Macintosh computers directly; but since
I want a buffer between my costly hardware and any errant electrical grid issues,
the investment in these idiot blackbox solutions (for about $150+ at Costco/Sams)
has been a suitable one for my needs. When an outage in my remote area -- I learn
what is happening because of a longer term existence in marginal environs -- may
be expected to be longer than an hour, I will manually start the genset. While I'm
doing this, the computer can still be running on the UPS battery. Asleep.
Naysayers aside, one in particular occasionally reappears, even under guise of new
namesake, you can do more than stand by and hope your investment in hardware
and in software doesn't plunge faster than natural depreciation.
At this point, my oldest Apple is PowerMac 7300 running pre-X MacOS 8.6. The newest
is a Late 2012 i7 Mini quad-core server. In between the other ones are about 11-12 yr/old.
As my Late 2012 i7 is still worth more than I paid for it in resale, due to demand, I feel
to keep these UPS units around is to my personal advantage, & a good idea, too.
(And to buy replacement batteries from industrial electronic suppliers locally; the shipping
for a lead-acid or other heavy battery, to here, is costly. Battery replacement is easy DIY.)
The backup automatic power conditioning UPS of at least 1500VA, is worth about 15 min
depending on the load you put to the battery side; there are a few filtered surge ports on
the unit too. I only use those power-strips with off-on switches, to ration power or to use
as an easy reset for internet base stations, wi-fi, and other items; instead of pulling plugs.
{Everyone has an opinion. Some are just a pile of words.
May as well be selling a political agenda against sanity.}
I don't have an agenda. I don't own any stock, but have my Macs.
Some can afford to gamble with or without a hint of insurance.
In any event...
Good luck & happy computing!