topic Re: Is there any demand for old routers or should I chuck them away ? in My Router

Is there any demand for old routers or should I chuck them away ?

shermans — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 17:10:09 GMT

Living in an old house of three former cottages in a row, divided by three foot thick chalk walls plus my office above the garage on the other side of the courtyard, WiFi connection was problematic ! Many years ago, I solved the problem of internet access throughout the house by piggy-backing eight BT routers, stationed suitably around the cottages and in the lofts.

The system worked well until anno domini set in, and I started having to replace them. Eventually, I looked around the market and found a much better alternative - a 'Deco 'system which just has four inter-linked wired stations which is fantastic - full flood wi-fi throughout. I should add four is overkill and I could have got away with three, possibly even two. But never mind, the wires were already in place and just needed connecting.

That now leaves me with half a dozen old routers. Question: Are these old routers likely to be of any use to anyone these days? I am loathe just to throw them away if there might be a use for them by someone else.

I would not want anything for them if I could find a home for them but I have no idea whether it would even be worth advertising them on something like eBay.

Any comments would be welcome.

Re: Is there any demand for old routers or should I chuck them away ?

jab1 — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 17:22:21 GMT

How old are these items, and are they Fibre FTTC/FTTP compatible? If not, I would suggest you dispose of them, following WEE disposal regulations.

Re: Is there any demand for old routers or should I chuck them away ?

paul_blitz — Fri, 22 May 2026 16:25:29 GMT

You could try and put them onto Freecycle (freesysle.org), you never know, someone out there might need an access point. I have a load currently listed on freecycle, only had one taken so far!

Re: Is there any demand for old routers or should I chuck them away ?

spile — Mon, 25 May 2026 06:53:50 GMT

They make useful network and wireless extenders. Many folk replace their router to improve WiFi performance when adding a repurposed router as a wireless point could be a better and certainly more cost effective option.

Re: Is there any demand for old routers or should I chuck them away ?

Baldrick1 — Mon, 25 May 2026 07:50:18 GMT

They may be useful as wireless access points if you can't afford a mesh set up, but as an Ethernet switch? If you compare the electricity consumed by a combined modem/router with that of an Ethernet switch, you will find that you will recover the purchase price of the switch in less than a year.

Re: Is there any demand for old routers or should I chuck them away ?

spile — Tue, 26 May 2026 06:17:54 GMT

I use my old router as a wireless point and make use of the network points. The Plusnet 2 router consumes around 5w more than a typical unmanned switch, costing around £8 to £10 a year to run.