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RT-AX86U cooling fans

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Does your AC86 truly need that type of additional cooling?
I have my AC86 and several other pieces of electronics on two shelves (6ft) in a hall closet. I do not have any issues with temperature. My router temp consistently stays within (72C-78C).
 
Does your AC86 truly need that type of additional cooling?
I have my AC86 and several other pieces of electronics on two shelves (6ft) in a hall closet. I do not have any issues with temperature. My router temp consistently stays within (72C-78C).
72-78C is pretty dang warm I'd say, yes actually my AC86U is running at 45C usually with the fans whereas before the fans I had issues with drops and other stuff going on, after fan attachment most or all of that went away, ymmv I guess.
 
I was once a WoRT (Worrier of Router Temps), yet I have never had any issues that were temp related.
The Forum provides a "better search" button on the top banner.
"Router Overheating"

If I were to use the cooling solutions you linked, I would not use the router for power. I had my AC88U on a laptop cooler (briefly), but had the usb plugged into an adapter plug/outlet. My only reasoning, I ask my router to do many things, so I don't need to add to the router's workload unnecessarily.
 
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Thanks for the link, but temps at that level over the longer haul can just not be good. My RT-AC86U temps currently:

Legend: 2.4 GHz - 5 GHz - CPU
Current Temperatures: 41 °C - 49 °C - 44 °C
 
I agree with you YMMV. The router temps and cooling solutions have been posted since before I joined the SNB Family.
I wasn't aware the AX86 had any temp issues, but you may want the cooling you are currently achieving.
Happy Holidays and Stay Safe
 
I agree with you YMMV. The router temps and cooling solutions have been posted since before I joined the SNB Family.
I wasn't aware the AX86 had any temp issues, but you may want the cooling you are currently achieving.
Happy Holidays and Stay Safe
appreciate that, same to you.
 
Curious....How are you getting the Temp of the AX86U? Are you running Merlin???
 
The SoC of these routers is rated for 140C before they shut down. 75C is not even 'cold' yet for them. :)

You're unnecessarily pushing dust and other pollutants into the router which is much worse than the cooling benefits it doesn't need.

These devices aren't made to last forever. But I haven't seen many die (except for a few RT-AC66U's) since Asus has started making routers worth owning (beginning with the RT-N66U, of course).

You're only making the cost of ownership higher, along with having to put up with a noisier router too.

And for the record, I have a customer whose original RT-AC68U (bought in 2014) is still working at temperatures hovering around 92C to 96C. And it is still working in their home (with two adults and two teens on Wi-Fi constantly).

The RT-AX86U's I have in AiMesh (wired) mode are running at only 75C. Do I look worried? :D
 
I've thought about this before and imagined that fans pulling additional air flow through the AX86U in this way could potentially cause overheating due to excessive internal dust buildup... if the router resided in a dusty environment. I suppose you could open up the router and remove that extra dust buildup but that's kind of a hassle. Adding fans is an interesting idea. Thanks for posting the information. I like knowing that it can be done but this is the kind of mod I'll leave for the router overclockers.

...If I was going to suggest what fans to use on a router in this way I would look for ball bearing based fans that rotate at a slower rate. You could modify the fan wire with a resistor to slow down the fan rate of rotation.
 
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When Asus RT-ZZZzzzz routers come with an i9 Eight-Core or better CPU, a 1TB+ PCIe 5.0 SSD, 64GB (and upgradable!) RAM and a choice of OS to run them with, I'll accept a fan on them. :)

Right now, a fan on any home networking equipment just sounds like a way to annoy me with noise and annoy me when it breaks/clogs or otherwise acts up and renders the network, null.
 
<snip>72-78C is pretty dang warm I'd say<snip>

There are perfectly appropriate times for using external fans, either dictated by usage environment or the device itself... I lost a radio (post warranty) on an ac88 to thermal failure, as that particular model is known to run very hot... I run a fan on it's replacement today 'just because'... the normative cautions I read here are nonsense - and in some cases, have changed like the wind direction over time (pardon the pun)... a low cfm, almost silent fan is cheap insurance if the device requires it - or if it simply gives you piece of mind... there's no downside...
 
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@Clark Griswald, at the rate the CPU's are upgraded on consumer routers? I'll have to take an interstellar flight back from Alpha Centuri to use that kind of upgraded consumer, model. :D
 
An answer from ASUS Technical Support regarding CPU and WiFi modules temperatures on RT-AX86U

Thank you for contacting ASUS Support.
Yes this is normal,these devices are passively cooled.
It can reach above 100 C and won't shut down so don't worry.
The wireless modules run cooler than the main CPU at around 50-60 C .
 
An answer from ASUS Technical Support regarding CPU and WiFi modules temperatures on RT-AX86U

" It can reach above 100 C and won't shut down so don't worry. "

ok - that's funny... "don't worry" - from the same company that can't seem to do a better firmware build than one guy in canada, that many of us choose to use instead of their stock firmware... Enjoy your Confirmation Bias...
 
The 'same company' that just 9 short years ago unleashed the RT-N66U on the world. They know their products by now. :)

The 'one guy in Canada' is effectively part of Asus' router team today, even if unofficially. They have shared a lot of code and I'm sure ideas back and forth over the years.

Not discounting the work, or genius of RMerlin, but it is sometimes easier to fix what's there than to create something out of the air too. We couldn't have had and enjoyed one without the other.
 
The 'same company' that just 9 short years ago unleashed the RT-N66U on the world. They know their products by now. :)

The 'one guy in Canada' is effectively part of Asus' router team today, even if unofficially. They have shared a lot of code and I'm sure ideas back and forth over the years.

Not discounting the work, or genius of RMerlin, but it is sometimes easier to fix what's there than to create something out of the air too. We couldn't have had and enjoyed one without the other.
I wasn't speaking to you... if I want wrong answers, guesses on your part or bad advice, I'll ask you...
 

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