How many years does a router typically last? My oldest child lasted 8 years. If two of these five aging signs appear, don't fix it

friend contacted me last month: the router at home has been used for seven years, but recently it keeps disconnecting. They asked me to fix it or replace it with a new one. I asked him to show me the camera, and the body looked yellowed in the photos. I only replied: I'm getting old, don't fix it. Routers don't have an official retirement age, and manufacturers don't expect you to be sentimental, but my family has retired three units in total, plus about ten units I've checked for relatives and friends, so the pattern is actually quite clear—a typical home phone lasts 5 to 8 years, and major updates to WiFi standards are a hurdle. This article will lay out the judgment experience I have gathered.

first show the retirement age for my family's Santai to give you a reference

first was TP-LINK's WDR7600 Gigabit version, bought in 2013 and used until 2021, a full 8 years. The last half year of the year: 5G bands couldn't be found every other wall, restarts went from once a month to once every two or three days, and summer was bound to be a big deal. The second is the Redmi AC2100, bought in 2019 for 179 yuan, retired in 2024, 5 years old—strictly speaking, this one isn't broken, but after having more WiFi 6 devices at home, it can't keep up, and gigabit broadband gets stuck in the WiFi 5 tier. The third is a Redmi AX3000T, released in 2024 and still in service.

three machines and three retirement methods, this means you have to take it apart to see how many years it can last: one type of machine is faulty, and another is that the specs don't keep up. The former refers to hardware lifespan, while the latter is standard lifespan. Most families are stuck in the latter.

Where exactly is

router old: Three places

first is capacitance. The electrolytic capacitors on the router's motherboard are a shortcoming in the device's lifespan. The electrolyte will gradually dry up at high temperatures, and once the capacity drifts, the power supply will also drift. If your router is packed in a weak current box, the temperature inside can reach fifty degrees in summer, and the capacitor ages several times faster than when it's on the table. The behavior is very regular: it gets stuck while using it, immediately alerts after restarting, and after a couple of days it relapses again—this "restart fixes" problem is almost certainly the power supply system throwing a tantrum.

Second, firmware updates have been suspended. After a manufacturer discontinues a model for three to five years, the firmware is no longer updated. The new phone launched with no compatibility patches, nor any security vulnerabilities. My WDR7600 hasn't received any updates for the last two years. Later, when I bought a new phone, I tried to connect to their 5G and kept failing to shake hands with them. This is a classic case of firmware not keeping up with the device.

third is the iteration of WiFi standards. Old WiFi 4 machines, new phones negotiated a speed of only 144Mbps when connected; WiFi 5 machines can negotiate up to 867Mbps, which seems like a lot, but that's just the air port speed. In reality, running half that speed is already pretty good. A device with gigabit broadband and WiFi 5 is like spending gigabit money to run 5000 Mbps of internet. It's not that the device is broken, it's that the standards are outdated—how to choose between WiFi6 and WiFi 7 I did the math in detail, and the AX3000 for gigabit broadband is just right.

five signs of aging, two appear and you're ready for your worst aftermath

this is the most valuable section of the entire text, all the experience I gained with real machines. First, restarts are becoming more frequent. From once a month, to once a week, and then to once a day, once this acceleration trend appears, hardware is declining. Clearing cache and restoring the factory are just temporary solutions.

second, 5G is getting weaker and weaker. At the same location, previously two bars of signal, now only one bar, or even just 2.4G can be detected. 5G amplifier modules are most sensitive to component aging; they go first, and 2.4G can last a long time.

third, problems inevitably occur in summer. When the weather gets hot, it freezes or disconnects; touching the body feels hot to the touch, and it heals automatically in autumn. This is a typical sign of deterioration in capacitor high-temperature characteristics; when the temperature rises, the power supply cannot hold up.

Fourth point: The negotiation rate for new equipment cannot be increased. If you connect a WiFi 6 phone, the negotiated speed is only one or two hundred Mbps, but connecting to someone else's WiFi 6 router can reach over 1200Mbps. Whether the device is old or not, the new phone is the most honest.

Fifth point: The management backend is all stuck. When you enter a backend page like 192.168.1.1 in your browser, clicking on anything takes you in circles for ages. A machine that struggles even to run a web interface can imagine its internal state.

here we need to distinguish this from another situation: if you have many smart devices at home, fifty or sixty units are all down, you can still disconnect and lag, but that's overload, not aging. Just clean out the zombie devices and it's fine. the article about the device loading I wrote a complete troubleshooting method. The way to tell them apart is simple—after clearing the equipment list, if the channel is still the same, it means the machine itself is old, so don't blame the load.

three moves to extend life, it could fight for another two years

If you only hit one of the five signals, there's still hope. The first tip: improve heat dissipation. Move the machine out of the weak current box, place it upright, don't block anything in front or back, and keep away from heaters like optical modems. Just from that moment, my WDR7600 lasted almost two years.

second trick: Restart on time. Let the system automatically restart once a week to clear the running memory and processes. Xiaomi devices have this feature in the background, how to set a scheduled restart The article has a three-step tutorial, which is similar to other brands.

third tip: keep the firmware updated. Machines still under maintenance should be installed as soon as they are updated, especially those involving compatibility and security. Whether to enable automatic upgrades is discussed separately on different machines. the article about firmware automatic upgrades I wrote about three types of machines and three methods, so just copy them.

repair or replace? First, spend 30 yuan to investigate a wrongful conviction

tell me a mistake I almost made. The year before last, my mom's old Mercury phone kept losing power. I figured it was because the machine was old. I had already ordered a new router and casually touched the power adapter—it was unbelievably hot. Flipping out a multimeter, the output voltage is only 9.8V, rated at 12V. Many cases of "router aging" actually occur because the power adapter ages first, capacitors will dry out, and when the voltage drops, the device will have all sorts of strange behaviors. Spent 30 yuan to buy a new 12V 1A adapter, but the current cut disappeared completely, and the new router was retired.

so the order is: first replace the adapter to eliminate the wrongful conviction, then try the three life-extending tricks; only if none work, can retirement be discussed. As for sending it in for repair—replacing the capacitor material costs a few yuan, the technician's labor fee is 50 to 80 yuan, and after repairing this one, everything else is done quickly, so there's no need to settle the bill. Redmi AX3000T and Mercury X30G WiFi 6 devices priced around 200 yuan start at 256MB of memory, which is much more cost-effective than repairing older devices. How to choose a new one without elaborating, how much memory is enough That article has a three-level comparison table.

don't throw away your retirement; you can continue to use it for re-employment after degradation

finally gave the old machine a way out. If WiFi can't keep up with the main battlefield, switch to AP mode to connect the network cable to supplement the room's signal, and use router as a switch/AP with wiring diagrams; For corners without network cables, switch to wireless repeaters. relay mode settings just follow these instructions. The speed is halved, but bringing a non-essential device is sufficient.

has a more comfortable destination: dedicated to smart home devices. 2.4G vacuum cleaners, cameras, and sensors don't require speed; older machines have dedicated SSID management for this setup, and the main router only serves phones and computers. How to separate and coordinate new and old machines, mixing WiFi5 and WiFi 6 that article tested three connection methods, so I'll just copy the assignment.

to wrap up, here's a complete order of judgments: clear the device list to rule out overload → touch the adapter to rule out miscarriages → relocate and time restart to extend life → if two or more of the five signals occur and the first three steps still disconnect, replace with a new one → switch the old machine to an AP or an IoT private network for reemployment. Most routers don't break down; most are obsolete due to standard iterations. Once you understand this, you'll know when to spend your money.