PSA: My neighbor swore by leaving his router on 24/7, but my bill dropped when I started turning it off at night.

This happened about three months ago. My neighbor, Dave, saw me unplugging my router before bed and said, 'You're killing it faster by doing that... the power cycles wear it out.' He was so sure, saying his last router lasted 8 years because it never got turned off. I listened for a week, but my next electric bill from the utility in Knoxville was $12 higher than usual. I checked my smart plug's reading and found the router and modem were pulling a steady 15 watts, even with no one using them. That's not a huge amount, but it adds up. I went back to my old habit, and my bill went back down. I think the wear from daily power cycles is way overblown for modern gear. Has anyone else actually seen a router fail from being turned off daily?

3 comments

3 Comments

phoenixgonzalez2mo ago

How many routers have actually died from being turned off?

evanr799d ago

I've personally seen three routers die from power cycling issues in my IT work. They weren't ancient either, two were under two years old. @noahbaker your daily reboots might be fine, but that doesn't mean power cycling is harmless for everyone.

noahbaker2mo ago

Yeah, this feels like one of those old tech myths that just won't die, like @phoenixgonzalez is getting at. People apply rules from ancient electronics to modern stuff that's built totally different. My current router's been rebooted daily for years and it's fine, so the power saving seems worth it.