How hot does your BT supplied (for FTTC) modem get?

[zappaDPJ]

As some of you know I've been having issues since having FTTC installed. It seemed good to start with and then kept dropping after a lot of packet loss. When it was first installed I had the modem sitting where the engineer left it on the (wooden) floor for a day or two. The router was also sitting on the deck a foot or so away from the modem. After a couple of days I switched it all off to tidy things up a bit but got distracted and didn't touch any of it for a couple of hours. Had I sorted it out immediately I might have done things differently.

The whole show is now neatly stacked (router on top of the modem) with what I'd consider adequate ventilation all around. It's been playing up again for the last few hours so I went to power it down and notice a huge amount of heat coming from the two units. The BT unit is so hot I literally can't pick it up.

I don't think this is safe, in fact I know it's not and I've separated the two units. It may or may not account for the burning smell my other half was banging on about last night. I'll see what difference it makes keeping them apart but I'm just wondering if anyone else's BT unit is getting as hot as mine?

[Glenn]

I would think that there is a problem with it Zap, a unit produced for the home consumer market shouldn't get that hot.

[Gary]

I would agree, I had an old Netgear DG834GT that got really hot, it dropped connection alot, then died in a nasty smell of burning circuit board, I would get it checked out.

[esh]

I'd generally say if a piece of networking equipment gets warmer than a hard drive surface something is up; that is to say 40 degrees or so. The old ADSL1 router I had got very warm, but certainly not hot. However I had 2 PoE devices that got absurdly hot, unsurprisingly when they get like that they stop functioning. If it is literally "too hot to handle" (perhaps BT can use that in their advertisements?) then I would agree something is off. Or move it to your front room and turn the heating off.

[Bill]

a huge amount of heat coming from the two units. The BT unit is so hot I literally can't pick it up.

My BT modem is vertically mounted on the wall, but it only gets just barely warm. If I put my hand above it I can just feel some warm air rising from it.

I'd say you've got a duff unit.

[.Griff.]

My Openreach (Huawei HG612) modem has been on now for 16 days and it's barely warm to the touch.

[zappaDPJ]

Thanks for the replies, that confirms mine is getting hotter than it should. Since I've separated the two units it is a lot less hot and the smell of burning seems to have disappeared. That said it's still too hot for me to confidently leave it on over night.

[MisterW]

My BT modem is vertically mounted on the wall

That's quite often much better than mounting horizontal. Much of this sort of kit has a metal 'base' which acts as a heatsink, the problem is that when horizontal, heat just rises from the heatsink through the unit. If its vertical then you get airflow across the base which takes the heat away.

[Bill]

It keeps it (and the cables) out of my way too

Speaking of cables... was a little surprised to see that they supply cheapo flat twin cable to connect it to the NTE, not even twisted pair

I'm not going to disconnect it unnecessarily, but if it goes off in a power cut or something I'll swap it for a length of Cat5 I was using before.

[Simon_idnet]

Thanks for the replies, that confirms mine is getting hotter than it should. Since I've separated the two units it is a lot less hot and the smell of burning seems to have disappeared. That said it's still too hot for me to confidently leave it on over night.

Even with some ventilation space having units stacked will create what's termed Heat Transfer where they will cause each other to overheat. Now that you've separated them they should both cool down.
S

[zappaDPJ]

It's certainly a lot cooler that it was and a lot cooler since I've fixed it to sit vertically. Most of the heat is now coming from the base which I have to say is still very hot indeed.

Thanks for your reply Simon.

[zappaDPJ]

Just checking to see if anyone else lost their connection last night? My FTTC went down sometime around 1.00am and came back about an hour ago. My ADSL line was fine though

[Rik]

Sorry, Zap, can't help, but I'm sure one of the chosen ones will be along shortly.

[Bill]

No problems here.

[zappaDPJ]

Thanks, probably just me then. It keeps happening unfortunately.

[.Griff.]

Mine was fine overnight too.