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This review first appeared in issue 354 of PC Pro.
As remote working continues to boom, there’s no shortage of solutions aiming to improve the resilience of your power or networking provision. However, Reskube’s Home Pro is the first device we’ve come across that promises to do both: it’s an uninterruptible power supply, offering up to 500W of backup power, and also provides fallback data connectivity through an integrated 4G LTE router. If the mains goes down, the Home Pro keeps its two forward sockets powered from the internal battery; if your internet connection is lost, it switches to the mobile data connection.
The design is basic but robust, with no controls aside from the power button. The front features two simple LED strips indicating battery life and current power output. At the back you’ll find the mains power input plus an FM12315 port for solar power, again rated at 500W. The rear is also home to two Ethernet ports, which handle incoming WAN and outgoing LAN connections, plus SMA connectors for two mobile antennas and RP-SMA connectors for two Wi-Fi antennas. Above these, you’ll find primary and secondary SIM trays.
Reskube claims the Home Pro is powerful enough to run a small office with five PCs or laptops, a switch and a printer. I’m not sure about that: it’s certainly not sufficient for larger laser printers, which can draw around 1kW during their warm-up phase. However, it should be fine for a couple of home workers or a limited mobile retail setup. I tested the Home Pro under a constant 500W load and found the battery lasted for a decent 1hr 22mins before giving out. Over this time it supplied a total of 633Wh of power, about 82% of its stated 768Wh battery capacity, which is competitive for a compact battery power bank.
It’s worth mentioning that, during the 500W load test, the Home Pro’s cooling fans ran continually at top speed. The noise was audible, but not as loud as the warning buzzer, which sounds constantly when you exceed a load of 475W. At a 200W load the fans were quieter, and the battery delivered a total of 595Wh – roughly 77% of its claimed capacity.
The fans are distinctly audible when recharging, too. This happens at a fixed 500W rate, tailing off shortly before the batteries are fully charged. I measured a total power consumption of 801Wh for a complete recharge, so assuming the batteries went from fully discharged to fully recharged, that equates to an impressive 96% efficiency.
The Home Pro’s power failover function works brilliantly. When I cut the incoming power, it switched to battery power in less than 10ms – much faster than most general-purpose battery backups, and certainly quick enough to avoid any glitching on my IT equipment.
Internally the Reskube Home Pro uses lithium-iron phosphate batteries, which have safer charging characteristics than standard lithium-ion chemistry. They also have a longer service life: Reskube says they’ll maintain 100% capacity for 3,000 cycles, dropping to 60% after 5,000. That being the case, it’s disappointing that the standard warranty is only 12 months, especially when other power supply manufacturers offer five years.
The Home Pro’s networking capabilities are on the conservative side. The unit supports 4G at speeds up to 150Mbits/sec, carrier and signal strength permitting. For the best possible reception you can upgrade Reskube’s standard stubby antennas with cabled ones, but even then you shouldn’t expect best-in-class network performance: the Home Pro’s Wi-Fi network only supports 2.4GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi, and its Ethernet ports are limited to 100Mbits/sec.
Those limitations have a noticeable impact on network performance. My ISP line normally gives me download speeds of 100Mbits/sec, but that dropped to 62Mbits/sec over the Home Pro network. That’s a shame, as for maximum resilience you’ll want to keep your critical devices connected to the Home Pro. Still, there’s enough bandwidth here to be productive, and the switchover to LTE is impressively smooth: I measured around nine seconds of downtime when switching from my fixed line to mobile data – fast enough that a YouTube video kept playing without interruption.
The Home Pro’s web-based configuration interface is easy to use, and provides access to a huge range of configuration options. Oddly, though, you can’t check the battery status, or change any power-related settings, such as selecting a slower charge rate or modifying the warning buzzer threshold. Reskube also offers a remote management option for £39 a year. This adds a command-line interface and full online access to the web dashboard, making it ideal for supporting remote users without needing to go onsite or cause downtime.
The Reskube Home Pro is a simple concept, delivered well. It wouldn’t hurt if it were quieter and had faster network support, but it offers the core protections you need in a single box that’s easy to deploy and manage. It’s also surprisingly good value, costing £999 exc VAT – only a little more than you’d pay for a similarly specified backup power supply and a dual-WAN router. Alternatively, the Reskube Home Pro can be leased for £444 per year. This means you don’t have to worry about the stingy warranty, and it includes remote, telephone and online support. If you’re looking to back up your key business systems, that seems like a price that’s more than worth paying.
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