I recently bought an AR750s and have been very happy with this purchase. One thing I have noticed though is that it gets a bit warm, but this seems to be normal behavior for a (mini) router.
This led me to wonder: is it better to turn off my AR750s every night after I finish working, or is it better to just leave it running 24/7?
My thoughts are that turning it off might be better as it would mean the electronics aren’t always heated and can cool down - which means the router will last longer? However, I have also heard some electronic devices aren’t made for turning on/off constantly, so leaving it on might be better.
What are your thoughts/advice on this? I also assume GL.iNet travel routers are made to be turned on/off constantly, so would turning it off be better for the longevity of the device?
P.S. I don’t mind waiting the 2-3 minutes for the router to boot up if I have to turn it on every morning.
Various schools of thought on this -
[1]Electronics hate being turned On/Off/On/Off as it may cause surges through the equipment possibly damaging components or stressing motherboards due to the changes in temperature
[2] Leaving equipment turned On all the time keeps the components at a constant temperature as well as reducing stress on the motherboards
I turn everything Off at the wall before retiring and it all gets switched back On in the morning - with two exceptions - the power to the desktop PC is not switched Off at the wall but the actual unit is as it’s cheaper to replace a Router than a PC & the power to the Cable Modem is also left On
I do the same except every night I run a nice lukewarm bath for mine every night and clean him up good. i do unplug it from the wall for both our safety. I did notice when I throw in a rubber ducky with him he seems to run cooler the next day. Others keep telling I should not worry as there are heat governors built in and some say its a waste of energy. I worried more about the plug wearing out so I bought this
I think its just a matter of preference, just think of the electricity you will also save if you do the same with your alarm clock.
As @exitguy already wrote, electronics like stability. Turning electronics on and off increases the chances of something blowing up. There are capacitors inside almost all devices, and when you plug something in, there is a rush of current flowing into the device, then a period of instability. It is during this time the device is likely to die. You might wonder why sometimes a device is DOA directly out of the factory. The factory most likely only tested it one time and it passed without issues, but did not test it a few times and over a long period, and when you receive it blows up. Most things will blow on the first few times you power it on. Later in their lifetime they will die because of turning them on and off.
Another example is some servers that have been running without issues 24/7 for years, my server at home has been running for 15 years without being turned off, just during power outages. I’m sure that if i start turning it on and off, the power supply will die on it pretty fast.
Our country also has mostly renewable energy from wind, nuclear and hydro, so leaving on electronics on standby, that all together are less than a few 40W bulbs is not a big thing for me. If you live in a country using coal for example, or oil, then i would definitely turn everything off.
Obviously everyone else does not leave it on 24/7!
Mine goes off every night, along with most other electric items I own (phone, TV, satellite receiver, etc.)
If you use CE and FCC marked power bricks, then there won’t be any issues with fires and so on. If you have ever seen a powerbrick blow, it just explodes internally, makes some bad smell. You never get a fire. On the other hand if you use some non compliant power brick, that is another thing.
You should have fire alarms all around your house anyway. I have all my chargers and routers and servers in the same room. The only things nowadays that can catch fire are mobile phones charging at night, dishwashers running at night, or if you don’t clean properly and you have a lot of dust behind things like refrigerators.
So basically what will catch fire are things you are not thinking about that might. Your electronics are so low power they won’t make any issues, they just say poof, let out their white smoke, and sit quietly.
Here are the most causes of fires, if you are interested:
I leave mine on all the time basically, however, I have it sitting on a cooling fan blowing air over and through the units vents all the time. (120mm, usb powered fan).
This is probably unnecessary, but the case of the AR750S feels pretty warm to hot after running a while, which made me uncomfortable about what that was doing to longevity, and how hot it was getting internally.
With airflow from the fan on low, it doesn’t even get warm now. That may not really do anything at all but use more electricity to give it a cooling fan, but I’m even more certain that doesn’t hurt the device.
I have multiple GL-inet devices (including an AR750s) running as VPN gateways for months at a time with no active cooling, powered by a multi-USB charger, a proper UPS, and a voltage regulator to protect it from the iffy power situation here. They’ve never had any issues.
Yeah just to be clear, 40 or 50 degrees is fine for all devices, harddisks on PC’s for example (actual spinning ones, not ssd), usually love 43 degrees and hold this for 10’s of years. It might seem hot to the touch, but its really not.
The GL devices are also designed to hold a specific temperature while running, and don’t need any active cooling. If that was the case, GL would have added larger heatsinks or have a different design.
