Ecobee3 Lite - WiFi dropping, troubleshooting, current fix
Own 3 Ecobee3 Lite's for roughly 2 years. First 1.5 years, no WiFi issues (Asus XT8 mesh network with 2 nodes). Then started having connectivity issues and losing WiFi. Since other devices also having issues, I switched the Asus to TP-Link Deco XE70 with 3 nodes.
With the Deco XE70, WiFi connectivity became significantly worse. Losing connection daily. Troubleshooting steps along with Ecobee support:
- static IP on each ecobee unit
- Deco specific tweaks:
- - - moving to Deco IoT isolated network with unique name
- - - turning off mesh in app for each ecobee by MAC address
- - - forcing all units to connect to same node
- - - DHCP reservation on Deco app for each ecobee unit
Nothing fixed the issues. And continued to drop daily. (Of note, no other issues with the new Deco XR70 system with multiple IoT devices, including Ring cameras and variety of other devices).
Ecobee support stated a firmware release roughly 6 months ago - which correlated with my worsening connectivity. They stated they couldn't roll back firmware.
Last ditch and what worked - new single access point (TP-Link TL-WA801N) doing 2.4 Ghz only. I connected this to my existing system via ethernet/hardwire, and created a separate network/SSID. No other changes to the default settings created on the 2.4 Ghz network. And on each ecobee, just connected from the list (no static IP setting). Result? Success.Headaches are gone. No drops in past 5 days. Prior to this switch, at least 1 ecobee would drop off every 24 hrs.