asus life expectancy

[royarcher]

What is the life expectancy of say an Asus rt ac 88 u.Surely the hardware must get old and die but how long can one expect to get out of one say using it to stream about 8to 10 hours a day? And what would be the first part to fail?

 

[degrub]

heat and moisture and dust are your main enemies. Mostly heat. dust makes it worse.
4-5 years would not be surprising in a reasonably clean, cool environment. A couple years if the system runs hot.
less than a year if you put it in a box with no ventilation. LOL, maybe a few hours ? ;-)

 

[royarcher]

heat and moisture and dust are your main enemies. Mostly heat. dust makes it worse.
4-5 years would not be surprising in a reasonably clean, cool environment. A couple years if the system runs hot.
less than a year if you put it in a box with no ventilation. LOL, ok thanks mine must be getting close then,about three years old, the cpu run's at about 77 c .I think that it might explain why it plays up when I use a VPN for a few days at a time.Good excuse to go shopping

 

[Ronb55]

I'm on my third one in 4 years. The first was on me I did a failed flash wrong and hosed it. Second one just went dead, this one (3rd one) went south but was able to restore it to what seems to be a working router again. One was a T-Mobile second was 68U this one is 68P..Not saying Asus is bad..it is what it is maybe bad luck?

 

[royarcher]

I'm on my third one in 4 years. The first was on me I did a failed flash wrong and hosed it. Second one just went dead, this one (3rd one) went south but was able to restore it to what seems to be a working router again. One was a T-Mobile second was 68U this one is 68P..Not saying Asus is bad..it is what it is maybe bad luck?[/

 

[Grisu]

I think that it might explain why it plays up when I use a VPN for a few days at a time.Good excuse to go shopping

If you reply to a previous post you have to write your own text AFTER {/QUOTE}

 

[el pescador]

Had my AC88U since launch.
I live in a hot dusty environment too.
Still got the AC66U as backup which works still.

 

[royarcher]

If you reply to a previous post you have to write your own text AFTER {/QUOTE}

Yes I know I don't know what happened to that reply sorry about that

 

[royarcher]

I'm on my third one in 4 years. The first was on me I did a failed flash wrong and hosed it. Second one just went dead, this one (3rd one) went south but was able to restore it to what seems to be a working router again. One was a T-Mobile second was 68U this one is 68P..Not saying Asus is bad..it is what it is maybe bad luck?

Sorry about writing in your space I don't know what happened there

 

[Gregory Phillips]

I put my routers on a laptop cooling pad so they always have air blowing through them.

 

[royarcher]

I put my routers on a laptop cooling pad so they always have air blowing through them.

I have mine elevated a bit so it gets better air flow around it but I'm not sure about fans .It sits in the lounge room right next to the tv so the noise would drive me crazy

 

[Gregory Phillips]

I have mine elevated a bit so it gets better air flow around it but I'm not sure about fans .It sits in the lounge room right next to the tv so the noise would drive me crazy

The fan is a large 200mm unit and is very quiet so it doesn't disturb anyone near it plus it has a speed control.

 

[FTC]

Hi,
- My DSL-N55U lasted for 3 years at home + 2 additional years in use by the one I gave it to when I went FTTH.
- My RT-AC3200 lasted almost 4 years before one of the radios broke. It had an added fan so it lived with low temps, however it was also overclocked to 1.4Ghz.
- My RT-AX88U is new (<2 months now), and I expect a long life from this one .

All in all in my experience I agree that 4 years is a fair expectation in general for one of these routers.

 

[tallytr]

I hate fans (noise). My routers typically last a couple of years, 2 to 3 years for sure, most often I upgrade before they die.....

 

[umarmung]

That 4 year lifetime expectation for Asus routers seems spot on - at least for pre-2017 devices. Mine were under mild temperate conditions and no more than light carpet dust.

All these reduce lifetime: heat, large temperature variation, dust, improper power supply adapter, power cycling, input power issues ...

The most common single component failure would be (cheap quality) electrolytic capacitors in either the router or the power supply. Since cheap quality electrolytics are almost universally used in consumer hardware, especially in cheap devices, you begin to see the problem.

My suggestion to any non-technical consumer is to look for manufacturers known to have the longest active firmware support, especially good if this includes feature support. This seems to be a reliable indicator for both hardware and software longevity. In the retail market, Asus is the only mainstream router manufacturer with such long support, as far as I know.

There are many more reliable options in the SOHO/SMB market -- the kind of reliability that measures uptime in years, not days and some with even lifetime firmware support -- but they require more technically competent users and most are much more costly and have much less retail consumer feature support.

 

[dlandiss]

All in all in my experience I agree that 4 years is a fair expectation in general for one of these routers.

I can add the following data point: we have been installing ASUS routers in our customers' houses for about 7 years and now have over 30 in service. I think we have had 1 power supply failure on an older N66U, but I cannot remember any actual router failures.

 

[L&LD]

I can add the following data point: we have been installing ASUS routers in our customers' houses for about 7 years and now have over 30 in service. I think we have had 1 power supply failure on an older N66U, but I cannot remember any actual router failures.

I can state the same. Except for the RT-AC66U which I've seen more than one die in use.

 

[FTC]

I hate fans (noise). My routers typically last a couple of years, 2 to 3 years for sure, most often I upgrade before they die.....

I also hate noise, but you can add a 90-120mm very low speed (800rpm-) fan to these routers and they will be kept very cool and virtually silent. In this specific case I tend to be more picky on the kind of interferences that the fan could induce near those wifi antennas if not a high quality fan.

 

[tallytr]

I also hate noise, but you can add a 90-120mm very low speed (800rpm-) fan to these routers and they will be kept very cool and virtually silent. In this specific case I tend to be more picky on the kind of interferences that the fan could induce near those wifi antennas if not a high quality fan.

Not for me personally, router is right behind my desk on a shelf and I prefer it silent if you know what I mean