APC Automatic Voltage Regulator, LE1200, Line-R 1200VA

I have had and used one of these for years. They do a great job of conditioning power. I figure it's a small price to pay to protect expensive electronics.

My apartment was having power surge issues where flicking the bathroom light switch would kill the power to my monitor. With this voltage regulator, that issue has since vanished. The regulator has also been able to thwart incoming power surges or fluctuations which could have been damaging to my gaming computer hardware. As long as you two stage your setup, you're probably best off. Three stage for those of you who are extra paranoid. (2 stage) Voltage regulator and general power strip/surge protector. (3 stage) Uninterruptible power supply, voltage regulator, and power strip/surge protector. I'd recommend this product to most.

I've had this unit for a couple of weeks. I tested the output with my multimeter. It stabilizes the output voltage as advertized, per the selector switch on the back of the unit. Right now, I have it set to 120V. It is quiet. I almost bought a cheaper unit by a lesser known brand. But numerous review said those units were noisy. Well the Line-R from APC does not make much of a buzz at all. My only complaint is that there was a hot-plastic smell from the unit for a few days of initial use. After that cleared up, there have been no issues. I plan to use this to power my computer systems as well when the power goes out and I use my generator. I will come back and post additional comments, or raise or lower my review at that time. So far, it seems like a quality unit. APC is a good brand. Update, 3/17/2014: I had a couple power outages and put this unit between my generator and sensitive electronics. No problems to report. Only complaint is that I think the unit is making some small amount of ozone continuously. Since it has been over two months since I have owned the unit, I do not think the ozone smell is going to go away at all. I am going to ask APC about that. Update, 4/11/2014: I had an email exchange with APC (Schneider Electric) and they indicated that the ongoing ozone smell did not sound like proper operation. They immediately offered to RMA and exchange the unit for a new one. They shipped out the replacement unit without hesitation, and I sent the original unit back to them. Overall, the service was very good. My only complaint is that I had to pay for return shipping. However, I was able to fit the unit and some padding into a flat rate USPS box so that this only cost me about $13 or so. If I used a normal box and had it shipped via weight, it would have been over $50, and not worth it. The new unit is working as well as the old and it is not making the ozone odor. I have some more peace of mind that when I run my generator, my electronics are protected against voltage under/overloads. Overall, I am still happy with this device. Leaving the review at 4 stars since the return shipping change was on me, however, as well as receiving a defective unit the first time. Thus I ended up paying more than what I originally purchased it for. Edit 6/8/14: Replacement unit working flawlessly. No ozone smell whatsoever. Edit 12/20/17: Still working well several years later. Protects and regulates as expected, even occasionally on generator power.

I've had this voltage regulator for 8 months now. Power conditioning is absolutely necessary in places like the modern US strained and aging power grid where power is unreliable and fluctuates wildly. For example, each day the voltage at my house ranges from 115 to 132V. The 132V wears out light bulbs, which only last a few months and is pretty far above the accepted operating range that is supposed to be valid for home power lines. The power company workers, when not out of their mind on meth or crack, insist that everything is perfect and nothing can be done about the fluctuations. So, power conditioning devices are needed to prevent all your delicate expensive electronics from burning out prematurely. The three lights in the front are useful as I can see at a glance how haywire the electricity has gotten, albeit to a rather coarse quantization level of low high or OK. When the lights switch, the internal circuit switches transformers with a fairly loud clicking noise. This is only a few times a day, unless I turn on a vacuum cleaner, or allow my laser printer to stay on as its power cycling has a huge draw that seems to drag the entire house circuit with it, dimming the lights, even though it's on a completely different circuit. When the indicator is in the center, the OK level, the voltage is passed through. Right now for example the voltage in is 124.2Vrms according to by digital volt meter, and the output of the LE1200 is 124.1Vrms. Note that this is still a bit high. When the input voltage goes up or down, so does the output voltage. Then, when it hits the trigger level, you hear a click, and the output voltage is divided down a bit. But still varies proportionally with input. These observations, which you can do yourself with a meter if interested, are different from claims that the device actually regulates the voltage and smooths out small changes. That is not what I see here at all. It seems pretty clear to me, lacking schematics for the device, this is not really a voltage regulator at all, but is a voltage switcher with a step up, step down, and unity pass through taps on a power transformer, a voltage overage and underage detector, and a a three way magnetic relay switching circuit (obvious from the loud clicking noise when it switches) which chooses the transformer tap. (For those who would like to debate whether this is a regulator or a switcher, please first do measure the voltage outputs yourself with a good digital meter to see its behavior at various input levels.) So it seems to works pretty good, but it's not going to even out your voltages like a true regulator would, it's going to prevent damage from under and over voltages within a certain range. It works much better than my previous $125 APC battery backed up voltage regulated surge suppressed unit whose batteries only lasted a few months and would often fail. It would often just turn itself off without switching to the battery, causing everything to suddenly turn off when ever there was a voltage fluctuation. That doesn't happen anymore. The old unit also let surges through that burned out a lot of my equipment anyway. I trust this unit more and am likely to buy another one.