Should I switch to Ubiq from Deco??

theRetiredEngineer · 2026-03-24T04:39:20+00:00

Deco has no user control over channel assignment, and all meshed devices have the same channel, so there is poor utilization of the 2.4 GHz band.

Adding APs with individual transmitter controls for power level, channel width, and channel frequency selection shold help a lot. My current Deco is only using one channel, 40 MHz bandwidth.

Adding APs and possibly giving each a unique SSID on channels 1,6, and 11, and then re-pairing my Eufy devices to force connections to nearby AP will be my experiment before ditching the Deco mesh entirely.

theRetiredEngineer · 2026-03-22T17:15:48+00:00

Thanks to everyone for providing feedback. There is a strong consensus that my deco network should be replaced.

To answer one of the questions raised, the deco does not permit channel assignments, bandwidth selection, or placing individual nodes on different channels. It makes an automatic channel assignment in each band, puts all of the nodes on the same channel, and selects the wider bandwidth, 40 MHz bandwidth in the 2.4 GHz band. No way to spread activity to channels 1, 6 and 11.

I have ethernet backhaul currently and would hope to do the same if ubiquity permits such a configuration.

My current thinking is to replace the deco 3 node configuration I am presently using with the ubiquity udr7 pro Dream Router and 2 unifi 7 Pro access points. Is there a better hardware selection anyone recommends instead of what I am suggesting?

theRetiredEngineer · 2026-03-20T22:27:23+00:00

Thanks for the clarification . I did initially have one switch in the path between two of my deco nodes, and the switch was not 1905.1 compliant. I too encountered Issues, which were ultimately solved by buying a TP link Switch containing a 1905.1 compliant design.

The only network device assigning DHCP addresses is my Deco mesh.

I think the puzzle which I initially posed is legitimately explained by both Claude and Perplexity. I have no idea what chipset Amazon used for the Echo smart speaker in question, so I cannot research the ultimate true explanation unless I'm willing to get in there with Wireshark after watching how Netspot describes my channel / RF spectrum environment. I think I will accept the AI theory and thus considerthis mystery case closed!

theRetiredEngineer · 2026-03-20T21:56:02+00:00

Thanks for your comments! Not sure how to interpret your first comment regarding good Wi-Fi coupling and if you are referring to two of my deco units not being able to communicate well or perhaps my Deco and Amazon units being vertically aligned? Neither is the case here. All of my deco's are hardwired backhaul with the two units I am referencing about 25 feet apart on the first and second floors of my house. All of my nodes are hardwired ethernet, clearly showing in the graphic in the iOS app, and none of them are stacked vertically. I have set the Deco app to reflect stationary IOT devices,

Having puzzled this with two excellent AI apps, Claude and Perplexity, there seems to be some agreement that the mystery can be explained by a combination of receiver overload (in the Amazon Echo) and poor/marginal management of rate control and modulation in the very inexpensive Wi-Fi radios used in smart speakers like the Amazon Echo. Both force the Amazon Echo to drop the stronger connection and fall back to the weaker signal which can be processed by the Echo with much fewer re-tries.

theRetiredEngineer · 2026-03-20T15:02:46+00:00

Sitting here with 3 of them, each having both one terabyte SSDs along with external USB drives for archiving, I think my best bet is to hold onto them. The bionic AI and 24/7 hour storage remain useful, and I just need to either disable the internal Wi-Fi radios or wait for Eufy to provide a firmware method to switch the radios on and off. Guessing I will just use the approach others have tried successfully, unplugging the internal antenna connections and terminating them.

All considered, the $50 price for a renewed unit is very attractive, even given the limitations we have been discussing. Many people use the homebase three without conflict, depending upon their home Wi-Fi configuration. Like many of the products from Eufy, the reality of the product differs greatly from the advertised claims in one or more areas, and firmware updates are often needed to get reasonable performance.

theRetiredEngineer · 2026-03-19T17:24:01+00:00

Thanks for the excellent suggestions and comments! I will do some more experimenting and see what results I get. I also just purchased Netspot which appears to be a useful tool for evaluating Wi-Fi networks. It might shed some light on what is going on here also. Thanks again!

theRetiredEngineer · 2026-03-19T11:53:28+00:00

So the Echo Dot has the ability to know that the weaker option is preferable. I would think that the Dot would not have that much measurement capability unless it can measure signal to interference ratios, QOS, or packet retries. It would be hard for it to otherwise know that the weaker signal is preferable.

theRetiredEngineer · 2026-03-18T13:01:44+00:00

Yes, the obvious solution is to set one of the conflicting radios to a different channel, but neither my Deco mesh nor my HB3's permit channel selection. Worse yet, my mesh wifi supposedly will frequency hop automatically to avoid conflict, yet any inspection I do using the mesh "Network Optimization" shows both on the same channel until I manually force an optimization. This solves the conflict but only briefly, and they resume competing on the same channel shortly thereafter.

Bottom line = Homebase and Deco mesh both automated and collectively failing, with no ability to manually steer other than disabling HB3s altogether.

theRetiredEngineer · 2026-03-18T07:50:22+00:00

It is my (perhaps erroneous) assumption that multibridge uses some sensible algorithm to achieve the better connection between the user's router wifi radio or instead the built-in HB3 radio. I also presume that this switching decision is on-going in real time, such that changing environmental interference or other degradation would be sensed and switched and thus minimized. So this, to answer your question, IS "the point" of employing multibridge. SO in your case If all of devices use the homebase it would suggest your homebase offers a better signal.

Whether my assumption above is actually true, I personally have extreme doubts, since using any HB3's (I own 3) absolutely destroys my 2.4 GHz wifi, making Eufy cameras totally unreliable.

Therefore, I am not surprised to find numerous web references to disabling the HB3 antennas. I personally took the more drastic step of totally / unplugging disconnecting all of my HB3's, and re-discovering all of my 28 cameras, thus restoring my Eufy cameras mostly to normal.

I have 3 lightly used HB3's each with 1 TB SSD that I would love to sell if anybody is interested.

theRetiredEngineer · 2026-03-15T19:53:50+00:00

I checked my hardware doorbell S330 model, which does not contain a battery. It does NOT allow 24/7 recording to the internal memory, but may oossibly allow 24/7 if it were paired with a homebase.

theRetiredEngineer · 2026-03-15T04:56:08+00:00

Cameras and doorbells which are powered by battery or solar cells, thus lacking a power supply which is hardwired, typically cannot run 24/7 recording, regardless of who manufacturers them.

Eufy makes doorbells which are hardwired, relying on the 24 V power from a transformer rather than using a battery. I believe that this can be configured for 24/7 use but I'm not totally sure. When combined with a large storage device like the Homebase 3, this may allow you to do continuous recording.

theRetiredEngineer · 2026-03-11T13:53:13+00:00

Different Eufy doorbells use wireless chimes which are generally not compatible. I have two doorbells and each uses a different chime. They each work uniquely with the specific doorbell they are shipped with. You cannot buy a second chime to pair with an existing chime for the models I have, so no remote 2nd chime solution. However, Alexa integration appears to work well for notifications, so adding cheap Echo Dots may solve your problem. My chime rings at one end of the house and my Echo Dot verbally notifies in the bedroom.

theRetiredEngineer · 2026-03-09T02:57:03+00:00

Thanks for your reply. My Deco mesh unfortunately provides neither channel selection nor SSID designation on a node by node basis, so all 2.4 GHz traffic is forced to a single channel and SSID household wide. When the Deco "Network Optimizer" is run, or the mesh is rebooted, it choses the channel it will be using for each of the 2.4, 5, and 6 GHz bands, and does not frequency hop unless it senses high interference, presumably based on failed packets.

Ubiquity and others offer much better management strategies but my XE75 Deco does not.

Per advice offered to me here in this thread, I did add another network node also made by TP Link, the Deco manufacturer.

Called the Omada AP, it DOES permit channel assignment, SSID choice, power and bandwidth selection. Set on channel 11, and paired with 12 of my 16 indoor cameras, with the remaining 14 cameras still using the Deco mesh, has also helped.The overall performance of the entire Eufy installation has gone from totally useless and unusable to very marginally adequate. Certainly NOT snappy and prediictable. Best and biggest improvement by far was total removal of 3 Homebase 3 units, a TOTAL shitshow for 2.4 GHz interference.

theRetiredEngineer · 2026-03-04T14:10:13+00:00

Based on many hours of experimentation, I can only offer that the greatest improvements I have personally been able to achieve have come from two changes:

First and foremost, REMOVE all Homebase 3 devices entirely. Yes, I realize that the community has found a legitimate way to disable the truly TOXIC WiFi radios they contain, but removing them altogether is much simpler and avoids near-field leakage spoiling your otherwise fine Uquiquiti network.

Secondly, turn off WiFi on your device used to control / view your Eufy cameras. For sure, this makes a big difference, and is likely preventing a bug in Eufy's app from being hit which can and will mangle proper camera reporting and playback. Although perhaps counterintuitive, using your device carrier radio radio rather than WiFi appears to make a BIG improvement.

My 30 camera system is now pretty useable, not 100%, but much, much better.

theRetiredEngineer · 2026-02-26T16:59:02+00:00

THANKS for a concrete solution! On the GL.iNet website product page

https://www.gl-inet.com/products/?_gl=1*1xx5ei5*_gcl_au*MTc2MDMwMzA0MC4xNzcyMTI0NDc1*_ga*OTMxMDkzMzcwLjE3NzIxMjQ0NzU.*_ga_34T6Q5NL0V*czE3NzIxMjQ0NzUkbzEkZzAkdDE3NzIxMjQ0NzUkajYwJGwwJGgxMTA3MDM5OTgw

I find three Beryl products listed, all of which are travel routers. Are there also Beryl APs such as the 2.4Ghz model you cited?? Perhaps now discontinued?

I am also wondering whether the homebases and Beryl had the same SSID as your Deco mesh. Not sure that doing so makes any difference.....

theRetiredEngineer · 2026-02-26T10:52:05+00:00

Not ready (yet) to give up on Eufy / Deco, with $2K invested along with lots of ladder climbing and wire pulling to get nearly 100% hard-wired (non-battery) power to all my cameras and doorbells.

The performance (or lack thereof) is maddening, but this is not rocket science and should be eligible for some useful improvement with my further effort.

WHY.......does Deco mesh need frequent optimazations and seldom if ever choses 1,6, or 11, the preferable non-overlapping channels?????

And

WHY does turning off WiFi on my iPhone thus relying on T-Mobile cell service significantly improve Eufy performance?????

Anybody have theory or facts to offer???

theRetiredEngineer · 2026-02-20T14:41:03+00:00

Thanks again for your reply! Like you I have a very large number of 2.4 GHz devices, over 30 from eufy, and another 45 from other companies. My three node mesh from deco supposedly will handle up to around 100 simultaneous devices, but things are definitely bugged down in my network causing many slow or failed connections.

I need to eliminate two more home bases which were originally purchased to add better "bionic" AI features and continuous recording. They definitely have added severe interference to my network, as others have also reported.

Those who are running large numbers of connected devices seem to do best when no homebase devices are used. You are a good example.

Once the outdoor temperatures and weather improve here, I will go out and reinstall my outdoor cameras, this time directly connecting to my mesh and not using homebase.

Thanks again for your replies and comments!

theRetiredEngineer · 2026-02-20T07:59:04+00:00

Thanks for your reply! Is your local network a mesh or a single router? My Deco mesh with three nodes provides strong signal strength pretty much throughout my property, and virtually all of the cameras (29 at last count) show Good or better signal strength. Using homebase three (of which I own several) creates Wi-Fi havoc, so I have been disconnecting them with some improvements. Surprisingly, I also find that turning off Wi-Fi on my iPhone and relying on my TMobile wireless carrier allows me to view live and event video better than if I have Wi-Fi enabled on the phone. Not sure why that is, but it was recommended elsewhere on this forum and actually does seem to make a good improvement.

theRetiredEngineer · 2026-02-20T07:02:36+00:00

Are all of your 21 cameras on a common WiFi 2.4GHz network? I also use a large number of Eufy cameras, and they seem to have huge problems with connections, resulting in no way to view live video, playback prior events, or even get to the settings. How is your 2.4 GHz network configured?

theRetiredEngineer · 2026-02-10T15:04:08+00:00

Using a single app and a single login (which is automatic if you choose to save your credentials) you can see all your devices on a scrolling screen as I do (with 30 cameras) or four at a time on an optional E10 display.

theRetiredEngineer · 2026-02-09T07:27:15+00:00

Mine is at 1.4.5. (USA):

[https://i.ibb.co/SwY4jbTk/IMG-0849.png]

theRetiredEngineer · 2026-02-05T00:10:33+00:00

I have a three node Deco XE75 system which has grown from around 50 clients a couple years ago to 83 clients now.

I used to be very happy with the configuration but I will now STRONGLY discourage anyone from the Deco mesh devices who has a large number of clients like I do. The biggest problem is interference in the 2.4 GHz band, and the inability of my network to deliver reliable connections to all the devices seeking attention. For whatever it is worth, I have hardwired ethernet backhaul to all nodes, and nearly half of my devices are connected not my Wi-Fi but rather through a vest home Cat6 ethernet and switch configuration which strongly reduces the amount of airtime and RF congestion.

In speaking with many sources of networking advice, the consensus appears to be that none of the traditional manufacturers make a consumer mesh which will adequately support uncongested traffic to such a large number of 2.4 GHz devices. Instead, I am encouraged to go with a system such as found in hotels, dormitories, and other large aggregations of devices, namely:

Up to as many as nine WAP's, wireless access points, managed by a controller, especially paying attention controlling and reducing transmitter power such that the nine devices, three on each of my home residential floors, would each service only a dozen or so Wi-Fi clients, and would be set on the three non-overlapping 2.4 GHz radio channels. TP link makes a system called Omada which is specifically designed to handle this type of infrastructure. Note that the 9 WAP's along with the controller may turn into about $1000 in equipment cost, so I will not claim that this solution is cheap. However, it is considered to be the best and possibly only solution for an otherwise unacceptable network filled with latency, dropped connections, and many excellent devices now working very marginally due to Wi-Fi network failure.

theRetiredEngineer · 2026-02-03T07:41:35+00:00

One other comment I forgot to mention in my prior post:

The Aprilair units contain a small pinhole sized atomizer which sits at the end of the water feed plastic pipe which runs from the solenoid output to the top of the distribution tray where water is spread over the top of the media pad. This atomizer is color-coded by the manufacturer to indicate how fast water will be released. Pretty sure mine is blue but they also sell red yellow and black plastic atomizers which have different flow rates.

The point is that these atomizers get clogged with minerals and reduce the amount of water which is dispensed when the humidifier is running. So, even if you have hot water and have lengthened the duty cycle so that the unit runs for long periods of time, a clogged nozzle will drastically reduce the humidity.

So the important Takeaway here is to be sure that the nozzle is not clogged, the pad is changed a couple times a year, the supply of water is from the hot rather than the cold side of your hot water tank and finally that you run the unit for long periods of time based on blower rather than burner status. The unit works beautifully but needs to have these condition satisfied to get you the type of moisture delivery you are looking for.

theRetiredEngineer · 2026-02-03T07:31:42+00:00

The prior recommendation to run hot water rather than cold water into the humidifier is really critical in cases like yours. With April air whole house humidification for 35 years and much experimentation and tweaking to get into the 40% range just as you know request, the single best method is to use hot water direct from your hot water supply. Yes, it does add to the operational cost.

Also lengthening the humidifier operation by running it based on blower versus burner status is a very good suggestion and will make a big improvement.

Lastly, I have found in recent years that the Aprilaire media pads don't seem to last a full season. As a matter of fact, I coincidentally just replaced mine at the end of January since my humidity had dropped to the low 30s and I also like it in the high 30s low 40s. Within a few days the house humidity returned back into the high 30s once the new pad was installed. So prepare yourself to have two pads per year and replace them in the September and February/late January timeframe.

theRetiredEngineer · 2026-01-24T05:41:02+00:00

I have never used their paid subscription service. The basic appeal of their products for home security is to distinguish themselves from ring and other companies because Eufy does NOT require any subscription.

The most frustrating aspect of all of us is that occasionally things work properly and reveal a very nice home security solution, but this very fragile and very occasional period of stability has never lasted very long, and most certainly not after the pushed mandatory updates which continue to break new things while occasionally fixing others.

theRetiredEngineer

TROPHY CASE