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I want to protect a router against corrosion. Experience or blind unfettered opinions?


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I’ve got an extra WRT1900 that I want to use as a main AP. The layout of the house is dookie for wifi. Ultimately the preferred placement for us is outside, centrally placed under a well covered breezeway. I live in a very florida-esque environment and I’ve seen corrosion slowly seep into outdoor  electronics. I want to mitigate this if possible.

I’ve seen posts/videos of people using spray like Corrosion-X and Corrosion Block on the electronics of their drones. I love Corrosion-X but I’ve yet to open an old router and and doused the innards to see what happens.

Does any one have any knowledge or experiences with treating electronics for outdoor use they’d be willing to share?

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Would putting it in a plastic enclosure help and fitting a fan at the base of the enclosure blowing outwards for to help with heat dissipation or if have an old router laying around you willing to test the corrosion block stuff have it run out there for a while and see how it goes with that.

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I may have a large 3’ decorative cube cabinet thing I could out it in. but it’s not even close to airtight. I’ll do my best to minimize it’s over exposure but treating the circutboards and whatnot as an additional step.

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Man, that thing is huge!  The conformal coating shouldn't hurt anything inside.  I've not taken one of these guys apart, so if they have detachable antenna cables, mask off the connectors first.  Though honestly, as long as it doesn't get rain on it, it should be fine.  I have electronics in my unheated or conditioned barn that's been out there for 5 years now.  I wouldn't put it in a box, it will most likely overheat.  Since it's extra, I'd just mount it to the breezeway ceiling and let it go till it breaks.  It might die in a year, it might make it till you move.  I've been eyeing one of these to stick to the back of my house for barn wifi.  Right now I have an older AP-Pro up against the wall inside, which mostly works, but it's not AC, so I have it on a seperate ssid so the devices inside the house don't connect to it.

Edited by barry99705
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11 hours ago, barry99705 said:

Right now I have an older AP-Pro up against the wall inside, which mostly works, but it's not AC, so I have it on a seperate ssid so the devices inside the house don't connect to it.

I was also going to suggest UniFi for outdoor stuff, but if he only wants to do it because he has that AP lying around doing nothing then he wouldn't be willing to buy anything else, unless it was special coating.

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I still think as long as it doesn't get rained on, being outside under cover will be fine.  The conformal coatings he posted will definitely help, they shouldn't hurt the boards, it's kind of what they're made to do.  Just don't get any in the antenna ports, or power and network ports.

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thanks for all the replies. I’m going to douse a gl-inet travel router in some corrosion X and let it pump out lone ssids for a few weeks and see what happens. I’ll probably go with barry99705‘s suggestion and go all nude with it. the 1900’s case is easy to remove so I’ll keep an eye on corrosion buildup

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'd agree with @barry99705 recommendation.  If you go with a sealed enclosure heat will likely be an issue.  Keeping it physically dry is the big thing.  You could do an enclosure with vents if you want more physical protection.  Could even go as far as a cooling fan.  But probably overkill and not the cheapest solution.  When you use vented enclosures outdoors you need to remember to bug proof them as well.  They love to build webs and nests inside that nice dry enclosure.  

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