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My $80 router vs a $30 one: guess which one crashes twice a day | Tech Gripes Unplugged - Free To Speak

My $80 router vs a $30 one: guess which one crashes twice a day

I bought a fancy Netgear router three months ago for $80 because I thought expensive equals good. It kept dropping my connection every time I tried to stream a movie. Last week I dug out my old $30 TP-Link from the closet just to test something. That cheap thing has run for 7 days straight without a single hiccup. Meanwhile the expensive one is sitting in its box waiting for a return label. Has anyone else found that price means nothing for router reliability?

3 comments

3 Comments

lily572mo ago

My $200 Asus gave up the ghost after 2 months.

leo_black762mo ago

My neighbor just told me the same thing about his $50 coffee grinder versus his old $15 one. I'm starting to think expensive stuff is just built to look good on a shelf while the cheap stuff actually has to work. Maybe it's the whole planned obsolescence thing where companies figure if you paid a lot you'll just buy another one. Or maybe simple designs just don't break as easy because there's less to go wrong. Either way it's wild how often the budget option ends up being the reliable one.

christopherw342mo ago

Funny you mention that, my wife's got this expensive blender she swore was going to change our lives. Thing sits on the counter looking pretty while our old $20 one from the discount store is the one we actually use. I've dropped that cheap one twice, left it unwashed for days, and it still runs like a champ. Meanwhile the fancy one has a timer and Bluetooth and I'm scared to touch it. Sometimes I think companies just overengineer stuff to make you feel like you got your money's worth, but really it's just more parts waiting to break. Simple beats fancy every time for stuff that actually gets used daily.