One of my RT-AC86Us died and shipped to Asus...

[OzarkEdge]

...22 days short of its 2-year warranty expiration. It stopped working, stopped responding, and only displayed a half-lit LAN port4 LED. I paid the shipping. We'll see what they ship back. They say that Covid-19 is hurting their supply line.

Edit: I did try my spare AC adapter... no joy. The RMA paper work allows for noting the pieces returned, so I noted and included the AC adapter and the antennas, all in the original packaging.

We all know Asus' recent track record, hardware and firmware... I'm tempted to piss and moan about it... but it happens, even to manufacturers, so let's see if they can improve their QC... there's room for improvement.

I gotta say... being able to immediately re-purpose my 86U remote node as my recovery router was very handy... my network was down for less than 20 minutes. Can you do that with those other shrink-wrapped consumer mesh systems?

OE

 

[Val D.]

my network was down for less than 20 minutes.

Pray the second one lives at least until ASUS returns the first one to you.

 

[quadra2030]

When it was manufactured - 2017 or 2018? As 2017 batch seemed to be more reliable, at least according to this forum..

 

[bitsbytes]

not another one,good luck with process OE. can you give us the router's date of manufacture? my original one i bought almost two years ago same as yours and it's working fine. the replacement for the faulty one i got from amazon is stable but it's not as stable as my first one and i feel it's gonna cause me problems soon.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Pray the second one lives at least until ASUS returns the first one to you.

My first thought... probably why I shipped it off within 3 hours of it going down. If you own an 86U and hang around here, you're hoping it doesn't fail.

Build year was 2018. I received two with adjacent serial numbers. The first one died.

Before it died, I was experiencing an intermittent browser delay. Every now and then a page load would fail but then usually recovered in the end by itself. This was happening for about the past week on a new PC I've had for about 4 weeks, so I wanted to suspect the new PC (I had recently re-installed the Killer/Rivet Networks drivers without their Control Center bloatware). But steady browsing since yesterday on the recovery 86U suggests the dying 86U may have been the culprit. Given that issue, I'm glad it fully died... I'm feeling solid again... but still praying.

OE

 

[Val D.]

I received two with adjacent serial numbers. The first one died.

Oh, this is not good! If they have the same life expectancy, you know...
How's the 30 seconds younger brother doing? Ozark? Ozark? Do you copy?

 

[royarcher]

...22 days short of its 2-year warranty expiration. It stopped working, stopped responding, and only displayed a half-lit LAN port4 LED. I paid the shipping. We'll see what they ship back. They say that Covid-19 is hurting their supply line.

Edit: I did try my spare AC adapter... no joy. The RMA paper work allows for noting the pieces returned, so I noted and included the AC adapter and the antennas, all in the original packaging.

We all know Asus' recent track record, hardware and firmware... I'm tempted to piss and moan about it... but it happens, even to manufacturers, so let's see if they can improve their QC... there's room for improvement.

I gotta say... being able to immediately re-purpose my 86U remote node as my recovery router was very handy... my network was down for less than 20 minutes. Can you do that with those other shrink-wrapped consumer mesh systems?

OE

Could be worse could be 22 days past warranty

 

[OzarkEdge]

Oh, this is not good! If they have the same life expectancy, you know...
How's the 30 seconds younger brother doing? Ozark? Ozark? Do you copy?

Leave me alone, I'm busy reading the UDM datasheet!

OE

 

[Val D.]

Leave me alone, I'm busy reading the UDM datasheet!

This one is a beast. WiFi like a lawn sprinkler. I don't know how they do it.

 

[gfondeur]

When it was manufactured - 2017 or 2018? As 2017 batch seemed to be more reliable, at least according to this forum..

What about the batch manufactured on 2019?

 

[Grisu]

seems they are better, much less reported problems here.

 

[gfondeur]

seems they are better, much less reported problems here.

That's why mine being running excellent since last year

 

[Val D.]

That's why mine being running excellent since last year

An electronic device may run trouble-free for a very long time or fail in few months, no one knows. All RT-AC86U are the same hardware revision and it's hard (and too early) to tell if 2019 ones are more reliable. Make sure you have a backup router, no matter what make/model is your main router. ISP provided modem/router combo or an older router currently not in use are good "Plan B" options.

 

[Val D.]

@OzarkEdge, are you willing to invest $20 in your routers' health?

Many people will tell you it's OK to run them on 75C or above 24/7 because the CPU is designed to withstand even 110C and it has thermal protection, but keep in mind the heatsink inside the router transfers heat to all other components of the PCB. I used to have 2 x 12V 70x70mm ball bearing fans attached to the back of the router with double sided TESA tape (the spongy thick one, small squares on 4 corners of the fans), powered by the routers USB 2.0 port on 5V. It was a DIY setup, about $10-12 in materials - fans from Amazon, unused USB cables for the connectors, some heat shrink tubes. The spongy tape, ball bearing fan design and the lower operational voltage results in virtually unnoticeable noise, only very close to the router. Once per few months I used to blow the dust with a compressed air can, without removing the fans. The CPU was running on 50C under load in a 26C room. It won't hurt anything, may only help prolonging the life of the routers.

You know the smell of a hot iron? This was the smell coming out of the router the moment I turn the fans on.

 

[gfondeur]

An electronic device may run trouble-free for a very long time or fail in few months, no one knows. All RT-AC86U are the same hardware revision and it's hard (and too early) to tell if 2019 ones are more reliable. Make sure you have a backup router, no matter what make/model is your main router. ISP provided modem/router combo or an older router currently not in use are good "Plan B" options.

Of course, having a backup router ready to go should be teach at schools

 

[OzarkEdge]

@OzarkEdge, are you willing to invest $20 in your routers' health?

I could... I've got parts... but I don't think my routers run hot. I would have to feel it or see it before I'd bother to apply ventilation. The 86U vertical form factor helps with its cooling, imo.

If you look around, many if not all consumer routers are pretty much the same... a small plastic box of passively cooled electronics. Nothing new there. The 86U may just have something too marginal in it. Even though they have not bumped the hardware build version, they may have fixed a supplied component issue.

I did just install two 120mm Noctua NF-S12A-PWM case fans in my new Dell PC (Noctuas are a bit pricey for fans but are a very nice product experience). It needed these to run cooler and quieter. Dell wants to sell you the CPU and GPU but they don't want to sell you a suitable case with proper cooling. But I anticipated this before the purchase and had a plan to upgrade the one 92mm case fan.

Someone running Asuswrt-Merlin on an 86U can tell us what temps they see, yes?

OE

 

[OzarkEdge]

Of course, having a backup router ready to go should be teach at schools

Oh sure... right up there with personal finance and politics so we understand these primary life forces we are subject to from birth until death.

OE

 

[Val D.]

Someone running Asuswrt-Merlin on an 86U can tell us what temps they see, yes?

The more relevant question is:
Do you know what temperature your router was running at before it died and for how long?

Usually RT-AC86U CPU runs around 50C above the ambient temperature, if the router is in open air. Inside a cabinet - higher. Thermal protection shuts down cores and lowers the maximum clock rate around 100C. Mine was running most of the time around 75C, reaching as high as 90C. With active cooling was never going above 55C. Radio modules temperature rises/lowers in relation with CPU temperature, as expected. The higher the temperature, the lower the life expectancy, even within manufacturer's specifications.

As per ASUS, operating temperature range for RT-AC86U was 0-45C, non-condensing.
Why was? Because this information was removed from specifications for some reason:
https://www.asus.com/us/Networking/RT-AC86U/specifications/

I remember looking at it and wondering how exactly this router will behave in tropical countries where air conditioning is not always an option, if mine managed to reach 90C in a 26C room... this is when I decided to put fans on it. And this is how I sold the router, with the fans attached. It's still alive, by the way.

P.S. Oh, there are so many errors on ASUS web page... RT-AC86U doesn't have a Repeater Mode, as per ASUS. I remember it does, even with the stock Asuswrt firmware. Did they remove it from Asuswrt on RT-AC86U?

 

[DarkKnight75]

...22 days short of its 2-year warranty expiration. It stopped working, stopped responding, and only displayed a half-lit LAN port4 LED. I paid the shipping. We'll see what they ship back. They say that Covid-19 is hurting their supply line.


Edit: I did try my spare AC adapter... no joy. The RMA paper work allows for noting the pieces returned, so I noted and included the AC adapter and the antennas, all in the original packaging.

We all know Asus' recent track record, hardware and firmware... I'm tempted to piss and moan about it... but it happens, even to manufacturers, so let's see if they can improve their QC... there's room for improvement.

I gotta say... being able to immediately re-purpose my 86U remote node as my recovery router was very handy... my network was down for less than 20 minutes. Can you do that with those other shrink-wrapped consumer mesh systems?

OE

Asus sent me the label at no cost and replacement ac86u is arriving next week ( total turnaround time 8 biz days..not bad).

Will see how the replacement works and if issue resurface will request for a new one.

 

[OzarkEdge]

The more relevant question is:
Do you know what temperature your router was running at before it died and for how long?

Usually RT-AC86U CPU runs around 50C above the ambient temperature, if the router is in open air. Inside a cabinet - higher. Thermal protection shuts down cores and lowers the maximum clock rate around 100C. Mine was running most of the time around 75C, reaching as high as 90C. With active cooling was never going above 55C. Radio modules temperature rises/lowers in relation with CPU temperature, as expected. The higher the temperature, the lower the life expectancy, even within manufacturer's specifications.

As per ASUS, operating temperature range for RT-AC86U was 0-45C, non-condensing.
Why was? Because this information was removed from specifications for some reason:
https://www.asus.com/us/Networking/RT-AC86U/specifications/

I remember looking at it and wondering how exactly this router will behave in tropical countries where air conditioning is not always an option, if mine managed to reach 90C in a 26C room... this is when I decided to put fans on it. And this is how I sold the router, with the fans attached. It's still alive, by the way.

P.S. Oh, there are so many errors on ASUS web page... RT-AC86U doesn't have a Repeater Mode, as per ASUS. I remember it does, even with the stock Asuswrt firmware. Did they remove it from Asuswrt on RT-AC86U?

So, Asus is conspiring against its customers? Perhaps. Doesn't seem to be in their best interest, imo.

OE