To current eero owners, how did you get here? What competing products did you test? Will you stay with eero?

Hi  adambean —

I realize you probably want to hear more from actual customers, so I'll keep my input here brief 🙂

With regards to a few of the issues/concerns you have —

eeros, like many other electronic devices, may feel warm-to-touch when running. We often compare it to a laptop. If you feel the eeros are warmer than they should be, give us a call. We'll be happy to take a look. With that said, the 2nd-generation eero actually has enhancements with regards to heat removal, and the new heat sink is what adds a lot of the weight to the new eero.

eero Plus is completely optional. With that said, it is an enterprise-grade solution and we've partnered with an industry leader in Zscaler to ensure the security that eero Plus provides is capable of defending all your products against the latest threats. We also plan to continue to add to eero Plus in the future, and you can join at any time.

Also, we actually weren't a Kickstarter company. While we took pre orders for our 1st-generation product, we are a funded company with $90 million in total funding. 

As for some of the other issues you are experiencing, again, I'd recommend reaching out. Given your background, I'm sure you'll enjoy interacting with our support team as they are all techies and huge fans of networking.

Feel free to give us a call at 1-877-659-2347 or email us at support@eero.com .

Thanks again! I look forward to hearing what others have to share about their experiences.

In regards to point #9, it’s basically up to your client device to decide when to roam. Some devices are better/smarter at this than others. Disabling/renabling Wi-Fi on your device usually joins it to a closer node.

I wonder if I've just been lucky but my Orbi has been rock solid. It's just so ugly and bulky compared to the much more stylish Eero. 

I came from Google Wifi and Velop.  

No bridge mode for mesh with GWifi and Velop was terrible due to latency, streaming issues and Sonos issues.  Double NAT finally caused too many problems and GWifi had to go after 8 months.  I have a Cisco RV340 on the way to be the main router and the eeros are all in bridge mode on the 3 floors in my house.

So far, so good, but only a day in.

The first signs are good, though. Alarm.com , Ring, Sonos and Nest all connected and working. Android, Windows and iOS also connected and working.

Also, fastest mobile speed test I've ever had at 325MBps on a Google Pixel XL.

I came from Apple Airport Extreme plus Apple Airport Express in an adjacent cottage wired via Ethernet. I replaced these with three 2nd Gen Eero's and they are working really well. I used the existing ethernet to connect one of the Eero's in the cottage; it was up and running in a few minutes. I used the same SSID name and my connected Wifi devices (Nest etc) connected without any intervention.   

I had an Apple TimeCapsule that I wasn't using, and the instructions in the support blog to use it in Bridge mode worked perfectly, including all the ethernet ports, the USB port to attach a Canon Pro 9000 color printer, and the internal 2TB disk.

I was initially concerned about the heat, so I used an infrared thermometer to check the temperature: 120 degrees Fahrenheit on the top, but the wood surface they were sitting on was only 107 degrees (measured directly under the Eero), just warm to the touch and not hot at all. I don't think heat will be a problem. I had very high expectations based on the reviews and three days in,  every expectation has been met. I am planning to stay with Eero and am ordering 2 additional Beacon's to extend the range and improve the signal for Ring Cameras. 

I haven't decided yet on Eero plus. Need to do more research to better understand exactly what threats it protects against.

I got here because I was tired of my kids complaining about slow speeds as they were connected to the 5Ghz band on my gateway.  I now have 4 eero's, I wanted 3 but one got lost/stolen in the mail, then a month later it shows up on my doorstep.  I love my eeros.  Full bars on the 5ghz band everywhere in my house.  I have a 2600sq foot home single story, so it's a long home.  With eero's placed strategically, I have happy wifi devices.  My wifi garage door opener and sprinkler system were almost unusable with the regular gateway setup.  No issues now with an eero in the garage.  It is going to be interesting how the eero in the garage does, I live in Houston and it stays around 90-95 in the garage all summer long.  I wouldn't be surprised if it is the first to go being in that high heat/humid environment.  I just ordered a mount I found to do 2 on the wall.  I'm anxious to see how that effects their performance/signal range.  So far, I am a happy customer.  Love my eeros!  

txgunlover - I think I remember you from the Orbi forums, welcome aboard. :)  Interested in how you find the Eero Pro compares to RBR50/RBS50 combo. 

To be honest, the speed is not measurably different.  Using my fingbox as the test node, sitting in my great room, the speed difference on my S8+ is roughly the same as the Orbi.  What IS different is the lack of disconnects on the Eero.   I'm using 3 pro's and 1 beacon versus my Orbi's 2 sats and 1 router.

Like others posting recently, I've come to Eero from Orbi.  In fact I left Eero to go to Orbi, had a wonderful experience for many months and then recent firmware updates completely ruined the experience for me so I'm now happily BACK to Eero.  I think the Gen 2 product is better for my scenario than Gen 1.  I have the Eero Pro package plus two beacons.  With Orbi I had the router and two satellites.  

I have found that my Orbi was a little faster and had further reach than my Eero setup but it's not a huge difference.  Furthermore my testing methods probably aren't bullet proof.  Eero is plenty fast enough for any reasonable home use as I'm easily getting 150+ speeds throughout 95% of my property (5,500 square foot house and into my back yard) with weaker spots still being in the 70-80 range.  Said differently, without constantly obsessing over measuring network speeds, I'm certain that I'm getting good enough speed to do everything I want to do wherever I want to do it.  I sometimes think we all (me included) spend FAR too much time testing speeds without any real world expectation of what speeds we actually need to do the things we want to do.

Anyway... the stability of Eero is where it's at.  It's a set and forget experience which is exactly as it should be.  And my family is happy to have consistent WiFi again.  I highly doubt that I'll be going back to Orbi again.

I tried a bunch of the mesh systems and a large number of the standard wifi units (all of the top of the line top rated ones).  I really liked the feature set of the Orbi and at first I thought that I would avoid some of the issues others were reporting, and I did for awhile then I ran into a number of issues the peskiest being the disconnects.

Google WiFi I didn't have very high expectations but it was actually MUCH better then I expected.  For the price, it was really hard to walk away from it and I may still go back to it.  There were some disconnects but the updates that Google pushes out are a bit inconsistent.

The biggest surprise was the Plume pods.  They were not the fastest by far but they were the most consistent.  No matter where I went I got the 40-50Mbps.  Their mesh mojo is if not the best then at the top.  The latency was insanely low and most of my testing the network did not behave or feel (to the users) like a 40-50Mbps network.  It was just rock solid connections and it can handle an amazing number of clients.  The App while minimal had a great layout and tons of useful info.  Unfortunately for me, my house had some inconvenient power outlet placement and (b/c of the building materials in one inner wall a wifi black hole) that made it a difficult place for any units that were direct plugs.  And yes in the locations that I had outlets the wife factor made extension cords a no-no. I also run all my devices on at least quality surge protection and most with UPS, pods had issues when not directly connected.

Eero is the one that I really liked from the get-go (based on online research).  It has, for the most part, lived up to the hype.  I did run into a problem just after my units upgraded to .38 which would not let is use certain subnets.  The replacement units don't experience this issue but I'm a bit concerned if a firmware upgrade can cause issues.  The lack of Router features is the biggest ding for the Eero (boy they make me miss the Orbi's features).  If you have a complicated network (check) or want to use the Eero as your gateway router with other network devices then it's not going to work out.

Eero will not route between subnets.  So you're stuck with a /24 (+1  Eero gateway device can be on a different subnet than the DHCP pool and it will connect to that IP but ONLY that IP on the subnet).  That right there is a potential deal killer.  Eero also leaves too many ports in stealth mode instead of reporting as not available.

So after spending almost a week working with Eero support the only way that I can get Eero to "work" the way I need it to is to connect my firewall after the Eero gateway (which leaves wireless clients without the 2nd layer of protection) or to bridge it to my firewall (where I get the firewall protection).  but then I lose most of the extra features (ex: Family Profiles).  So now I need another app/device for parental controls.  At this point I do LOVE the eero but I'm not sure the cost of the Pro kits are worth it to run then in bridge mode.

I've had so many systems over the years.  Linksys, Apple Airports, ISP Routers.  Last one was a NetGear Nighthawk.

eero has been fantastic.  I have a v1 eero system (2 units, ethernet backhaul as the interconnect).

I was tempted by Google Wifi, Orbi, and Velop.  

Google touts stronger signal, Orbi and Velop more advanced features and speed.  But I know too many people that have buggy Orbi systems.  And most people screw up the advanced settings and would be better off with eero.

What I love about eero:

• Doesn't overpromise.  Setup on your phone, the configuration just works.  
• Can still use some advanced customization (Custom DNS so I can leverage OpenDNS filtering, IP Reservations).
• Easy Guest Network
• Because the units are small and attractive, I can put one on a bookshelf and get good wireless coverage.

What could still be better:

• More advanced security.  Stealth mode for all ports (so port scanners can't detect as much)
• More features in eeroPlus.  Honestly, OpenDNS with custom categories blocks most of what I don't want to run into on my home network.
• True IoT profiles.  Define thermostats, cameras, lights to have very limited access so we don't have to worry about them being compromised
• Fix the silly speed test in the App.  Don't trust it at all with AT&T Fiber.  Yes, I've told support, but this is a silly feature that is unreliable.
• Enhance the units so they ultimately can win the speed tests versus Orbi and Velop.  That seems to be the biggest reason eero loses some reviews.
• Optimize for 5ghz.  I live in a large condo complex.  A ton of access points.  Fortunately, eero creates strong 5ghz signal in our small 1700 foot 2-story condo.  I just don't know why 2.4ghz has to be active?  That only extends into my neighbors and creates interference.

I'm a happy eero customer.  Wifi is just so darn reliable now.

Good post!  You bring up a point that I think many have discussed before (and I agree with).  I'd be happy forcing all my clients to work off of 5G.  Although I'm not certain if some of my devices are capable of 5G because they always connect to 2.4G regardless of 5G strength (like my printer and my Ecobee thermostats).

Old question but after frustration with Eero, skyfranks pointed out a sale on the Velop - looks like its time to move on.  Sad, Eero used to be the best of the bunch....

Journey with routers includes :

Orbi + 2 satellite :  newest software upgrade (Dec 2017) is a mess. Rebooted router randomly. Known problem.  

Google wifi: probably the most stable of the bunch. Would like two 5 ghz bands to increase capacity when I have 50+ things connected  

Velop: ok but no better performance than Google Wifi. 

Netgear R7000:  very good but. Range could not reach across house. 

Eero: just got them yesterday. Easiest setup. Wired connections don’t show throughout. So far, very stable.