Goldenmate 800W UPS review: Minimal, but effective power supply

AppleInsider

Goldenmate's UPS is a simple but effective solution for keeping your setup safe from outages and surges with 800W of load power.

Goldenmate 800W UPS review

Outages, voltage sags and spikes, and power surges are dangerous on sensitive equipment like your computer. Having a UPS can go a long way to protecting your expensive electronics from these unwanted events, increasing their longevity.

Goldenmate is a battery company that specializes in lithium iron phosphate batteries, which they use in their power supplies.

Goldenmate 800W UPS - Design

Unlike most UPS's, this one comes in white with a yellow accent from the logo on the side. This model comes in a four and eight outlet model, and I tested the four outlet model, which was the perfect number of outlets for my desk.

Goldenmate 800W UPS review - Under my desk with LCD screen.

The AC outlets are slanted, which I find convenient for plugs that take up a lot of space, so they don't block other outlets.

There's also an LCD screen on the front that shows input/output power information, which is useful for checking your status if the UPS has to switch to using its battery.

Goldenmate 800W UPS review - Four AC outlets on the back.

Goldenmate 800W UPS - Specs

Product Detail	Spec
Weight	5.8Kg / 12.13 lbs
Outlets	4
Rated Load Power	1000VA/800W
Charging Time	~10 hours
Output Waveform	Pure sine wave
Back-Up Time	~30 minutes
Noise (1 meter)	~50dB
Heat Dissipation Mode	Fan

Goldenmate 800W UPS - Use

Although I didn't have any power issues during my test use, but the UPS proved to be great assurance, which is mostly what you're paying for. Of course, the UPS can actually hold its own in the event of an outage (or unplugging it yourself).

If power issues occur, the UPS will let you know immediately with incremental beeping, while using the battery to keep everything powered. With two monitors, USB-C dock, and PC plugged in, it took around an hour and thirty minutes for the UPS to get to half battery.

Goldenmate 800W UPS review - Side profile, all four outlets being used.

That's plenty of time for you to keep your computer(s) on long enough to finish what you were doing and turn things off if you have a long-term outage. Although, unlike other UPS's I've used, this one does not have a mute button, meaning you will have to bear with beeping for quite a while, potentially.

The UPS is pretty big compared to a regular power strip, but has no problem fitting under most desks. It accumulates more heat, but also has fans to dissipate it, and was never hot to the touch, even when using the battery.

Goldenmate 800W UPS - Nothing fancy, not much wrong

Goldenmate's 800W UPS is simple in nature, but still works well for those who want casual surge and outage protection. My only real complaint that the one-button design leaves out a sanity-saving mute button, but overall it does everything you'd expect from it.

If you want extra safety with your house electronics for under $200, this UPS is a good pick.

Goldenmate 800W UPS Pros

• 800W of load power


• LCD screen for information


• Good outlet design

Goldenmate 800W UPS Cons

• Noisy, no mute button


• Glossy white design may not blend in

Rating: 3 out of 5

Where to buy the Goldenmate 800W UPS

The Goldenmate 800W UPS (4 outlets) is available on Amazon for $159.99 (11% off), and the Goldenmate store for $139.99 (51% off).



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jingo

I can never understand why UPS devices do not specify their capacity, just their maximum output. Surely capacity is a key spec for them (I would argue the most important one)? Even if the manufacturer doesn’t quote this, any review should make a point of saying what it is. I assume the capacity of this unit is 400 Wh based on 30,minutes run-time at 800w output, so why not say as much. Given the figure for capacity it becomes easy to calculate how long it will last in your setup, particularly if you test it using a watt-meter.

mfryd

According to the Amazon listing, this unit has a capacity of 230 Wh (Watt hours).   If there were no losses (and there are always losses) this means that it could run a 100W incandescent light bulb for 2.3 hours, or a 50W load for 4.6 hours.

A typical consumer UPS has two 12V 7 amp hour batteries, which yields a capacity of 168Wh.

Therefore we would expect about a 36% longer run time from this unit than a tradition unit using SLA (sealed lead acid) batteries.

These are all ballpark figures.  There are a lot of other variables that affect usable power.  The important issue is that this unit offers more capacity.  I would not rely on being able to use 100% of the stored power in any UPS.

dominikhoffmann

I would add this on the Con side:

The unit does not have a USB interface. Almost all of the APC units with lead-acid batteries have them. That way, a computer can probe the charge status and determine when to shut itself down, so as not to run down the battery completely. In fact, one of my rack-mounted APC UPSs has an Ethernet interface, which allows my router to send out a notification to me, when the power goes out and comes back on.

macgui

Is the battery user replaceable and if so available from other than Goldenmate.

sunman42

jingo said:

I can never understand why UPS devices do not specify their capacity, just their maximum output. Surely capacity is a key spec for them (I would argue the most important one)? Even if the manufacturer doesn’t quote this, any review should make a point of saying what it is. I assume the capacity of this unit is 400 Wh based on 30,minutes run-time at 800w output, so why not say as much. Given the figure for capacity it becomes easy to calculate how long it will last in your setup, particularly if you test it using a watt-meter.

The article lists specs, presumably from the manufacturer, than include a 1000 VA rating. Isn't that the capacity for the 30 minutes of battery runtime also in the specs?

mfryd

sunman42 said:

jingo said:

I can never understand why UPS devices do not specify their capacity, just their maximum output. Surely capacity is a key spec for them (I would argue the most important one)? Even if the manufacturer doesn’t quote this, any review should make a point of saying what it is. I assume the capacity of this unit is 400 Wh based on 30,minutes run-time at 800w output, so why not say as much. Given the figure for capacity it becomes easy to calculate how long it will last in your setup, particularly if you test it using a watt-meter.

The article lists specs, presumably from the manufacturer, than include a 1000 VA rating. Isn't that the capacity for the 30 minutes of battery runtime also in the specs?

The 1000VA rating specifies the maximum "speed" that energy can be supplied.    A UPS with a 150Wh with a 1000VA rating can power a 100W incandescent for about 1.5 hours.   A 500Wh UPS with a 1000VA rating can power that same 100W lightbulb for about 5 hours.

What the 1000VA rating tells you is how many 100W lightbulbs it can power at the same time (in the case of 1000VA the answer is 10).   The Watt-hour (Wh) rating tells you how long it can keep those bulbs lit.

Generally you need a high enough VA rating so that it can power all your devices at once (computer, monitor, external hard drives, etc.).  Then you need a high enough Wh rating to keep it running for as long as you need.