Senses goes offline after turning on a specific appliance

I have heard about Sense unit going offline, usually because if a low WiFi signal. In my case I could reply the behavior every time I turned on a specific appliance (microwave). I already contacted support, but I was wondering if someone has experienced something similar.

Most microwave ovens will interfere with Wifi routers using the 2.4Ghz band and will cause wifi devices to drop out.

This is due, I believe, to an unfortunate overlap of WiFi frequencies and the frequencies used by microwave magnetrons.

Correct, we had another post about that a while back.

I found that casting music will also mess up the signal to the router…

Any options other than changing my microwave? :confused:

Sure - moving your router to somewhere closer to Sense :slight_smile:

Our microwave is in the center of the house, our router and Sense about 40’ away, but 20’ away from each other on one side of the house.

Bad luck for me, microwave sits exactly between Sense and router. Without a chance to move microwave because is a microwave/oven combo.

Could you put an access point closer to Sense so it doesn’t have to fight the microwave?

That’s what I had to do. I put an extender in my shed to connect with Sense and other Wi-Fi devices I have on my property. If you had an extra wireless router laying around you may be able turn it into a bridge and connect it right next to Sense.

How is this affected by the new mesh technology? I am considering replacing my two paired WiFi based stations (Apple) with mesh devices because I need the network range to extend farther (into the garage and basement) than it was originally designed to work.

You don’t mention if you installed the external wifi antenna, but that, and changing its orientation could help. Sometimes you want it vertical, other times horizontal depending on the other equipment. Also, maybe a larger whip or moving it to the other side of the panel. Also, make sure it’s well connected. A loose antenna on the Sense would make it more sensitive.

You’ve gotten a lot of good replies so far. From an electrical engineer: Yes, Microwaves can interfere with the 2.4GHz spectrum. Plenty of info online if you want to read more about this. Though, I might consider trying a new microwave just to see if it has better shielding. If it doesn’t, return it to the store you bought it from.

I had problems with my Sense randomly dropping off my network because it is about 60 feet from my router and there are about 3 walls between them. I tried a higher gain omni-directional antenna to replace the factory one, but that didn’t work. It was a crappy antenna. It got no connection at all even though it was supposed to be higher gain. Then I tried a TP Link directional antenna from here: http://amzn.to/2F6xPK2 and I am getting a stronger connection to the Sense as reported by my router. (My Netgear has an app that shows the connection quality of each WiFi device in terms of 1-3 bars. I went from 1 bar roughly 15 megabit to 2 bars at 70 megabit. The Sense isn’t a high bandwidth device, but it is definitely getting a better connection. Time will tell if I get any more wifi network drops. I was getting them about once a month. I tried asking Sense about other antennas a few months back and they didn’t recommend anything. In another support conversation they mentioned a TP Link Omni directional antenna, but that prompted me to find the TP Link Directional one which means you have to aim it towards your router to get a connection. This means it can avoid interference from other directions and it should get a stronger connection. I hope this helps someone.

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