Do I need a UPS for a IMac 24”

It's not about what kind/model of computer but more about how you use it. I believe any computer that generates income should have one.

And, yes Macs are robust. At a time when Windows computers seemed to eat their drives on a regular schedule, Macs did not. Of the many Macs I have owned and supported, only two ever suffered full drive failure requiring replacement. However, both total losses happened immediately after power outages.

I use battery back-up power on our work-critical iMacs. We live in a part of the US NW that can have short, wind-related power outages year-round. The UPS is as much a part of our backup scheme as our multiple external backup drives.

We have one big 1000W unit that serves my 27-inch iMac 5K, some light-demand peripherals like hubs, and the modem/router. We have a smaller one of about 400W that protects my wife's 21.5-inch iMac.

Some thoughts:

• Never connect a laser printer to a battery backup. When the printer's fuser fires up, it can suddenly demand more watts that the UPS can supply.
• We buy only Tripp or APS units. Tripp has been in the power management business since the late 1920s, and APS has also been a long-time leader in the field.

Not necessary, the iMac is designed to withstand and auto-recover from power outages. Additionally, a UPS in a home environment introduces new risks, best avoided.

You would need to be the judge of that. It sounds from your question that you want your iMac power supply to behave like a MacBook/laptop with a battery, but of course they are different computers and a UPS won't bridge the gap between the two.

A UPS will not be like a generator when the power is off, as far as I am aware it is a device which gives can power your electrics for sufficient time to save what you are doing and satisfactorily close down. I understand that different types of UPS will provide power for different lengths of time, from a few minutes to an hour or more, but not for an afternoon's work. Hopefully somebody with more experience than myself can add a comment regarding their duration.

I too have an iMac and there are times I've found that I've had no power for it when the rest of my household has MacBooks with a reserve of battery power. It's just something you accept when you have a desktop. 😃

If you do lots of work that you want to be sure is not lost from a power outage then yes you should have one. However, some programs have auto backup every few minutes. I have one because power is always going out when I least expect and it provides me about 15m of power. But only you can decide.