Tips for Keeping Your Broadband ISP Router Cool in a Heatwave

It’s going to get hot today in the United Kingdom. Really hot. The current heatwave is, in some parts of the country, potentially predicted to peak at 40c. The interesting thing about 40c is it’s also the maximum ambient working temperature for some routers, computers and other network devices. But how to keep them cool? A few tips.

Practically speaking, all electronic devices emit heat, even if you can’t always feel it, and the least efficient ones tend to produce more than most. Most router manufactures are aware of this and design their hardware to operate at temperatures of up to around 40c (varies between manufacturers).

Sadly, an overheating broadband ISP router is something that can happen, although even many of the devices with a stated tolerance of up to 40c may actually continue to function for a handful of degrees past that point. But experiences do vary, and we should point out that your mobile phones, laptops, video game consoles and tablets may also run into similar issues.

A router that overheats, or which nears the point of overheating, will often do one of several things. The most likely outcome is that the device’s processor (CPU / APU) will throttle back and performance will be reduced, which could affect response times on the device’s User Interface (UI) and might also impact your LAN and WiFi speeds or stability. But a lot of routers will simply restart themselves or completely shut down.

Suffice to say, keeping your router cool is important and, on this front, some people do make easily avoidable mistakes. For example, people sometimes place their routers in locations where the temperatures can easily rise beyond the device’s rated maximum, so here are a few quick tips for keeping your router cool.

Top Tips for Keeping Routers Cool by ISPreview.co.uk

1. Never place it in direct sunlight, obviously.

2. Never allow your pet to use the router as its own personal sleeping mat. It might seem cute, but the slim risk of this causing an electrical fault, fire or overheating is something best avoided. Just remember, cats can be jerks, so they won’t obey your orders and even placing said device within a ring of defensive orange peel may not be enough to stop their unwanted advances toward your personal centre of internet excellence.

3. Place the router on a hard and flat surface (ideally something cool), which should allow the air to move freely around it (especially below the device). Wall mounting the device can also help (vertically), provided the wall itself isn’t transmitting a lot of heat (e.g. south facing walls with no cavity insultation). In other words, never put your router on a surface that doesn’t allow heat to escape (e.g. on a leather sofa).

4. Some older / cheaper routers and chipsets are more susceptible to heat problems, especially if they’ve had a lot of usage, and at the extreme you might need to consider buying a newer device. Granted, this is a pretty rubbish “tip“, so let’s move on.

5. Consider buying a cheap laptop size cooling mat / pad for the router. Kit like this can be had for around £10 (example) and often includes a small internal USB fan, which is handy because some routers include low-power USB ports that can be used to run the fan(s). Alternatively, any old cheap fan pointed at the router will probably do.

6. If the heat is truly horrific in your home (i.e. 40c+), then it may be wise to switch the router off when not in use. In fact, get out of the house yourself and find shade. But don’t restart it too often as most broadband DSL (ADSL, FTTC etc.) based connections don’t respond well to being repeatedly switched on and off during the day (may result in a loss of speed). But in our experience, there’s usually not much harm in turning it off once in the day for a period. However, this really is a last resort.

7. Disable non-critical router services when not needed. The less the router has to do, the less heat it will produce and the faster it can operate. Some routers allow you to disable specific services (e.g. wifi, connection logs etc.) and, during hot weather, this can help to keep the device running smoothly. On the other hand, it’s probably best not to fiddle with these things unless you know what you’re doing.

8. Situate the router in the coolest room possible, which is often the lowest point in your home with the thickest walls. Unfortunately this might constrain the performance of your wireless network, thus there’s a careful balancing act to consider.

9. Buy Air Conditioning for your home, provided you can afford the energy bills or have a solar/battery system to off-set the usage.

Naturally, it should go without saying that pouring ice water over your router, or even putting it into the fridge, are both things that should generally be avoided. If anybody else has some useful tips, then please feel free to add them into the comments below.

Otherwise, yours truly will mostly be updating ISPreview.co.uk from a Microsoft Surface Pro 7 and a 5G based Mobile Broadband connection today, while outside with my feet permanently affixed to a bucket of ice water – harnessing nature’s natural fan (as well as an atomising water fan as backup).

We do have an Air Con system, but it’s loud enough to be quite irritating, and sadly somebody has to monitor the kids today as they try to murder each other with water guns (hopefully nowhere near my Surface Pro!).