EE Smart Hub Plus (SH32B) faulty unit after 2/5/26 update & faulty replacement

[Tricky81]

Hi, new to this forum but as a BT EE member what I've read so far is very interesting and informative.

We previously had a BT hub 2 for 3 years and the discs..EE convinced us to migrate over to the EE SH plus mainly for the WiFi 6. We've got the 1gb FF as it's a new build. On the 2nd May the hub must've received a faulty update or suffered a bad hardware failure as the outdoor coverage dropped significantly and drops again after around 12 hours of a reboot. 

I rang to see if there was any likelihood of getting a more reliable and stronger router as we've only had the current one for around 9-10 months and a busy household with a lot of WiFi devices etc.

I was told it would be an additional £15 per month for a WiFi 7 pro. This seemed excessive when paying £80 a month already. I declined this offer and hoped it would get better.. It didn't. I then rang the tech team on Monday this week at EE who tried to help and guided me through a full reset, but they then found our current SH plus had a severe hardware issue flagging on their systems. The very helpful agent then sent a replacement which arrived today, it arrived looking like it had been thrown in the box and it also didn't work. I wasted a whole afternoon, ended up taking time off work and have needed to resort to plugging our existing router back in just to get internet access.

A replacement is due to arrive Friday. I was told by an agent today that all the the replacements after the first order are previous returns. I could tell this by the replacement I received today. The power supply was in knots and the unit was obviously faulty. 

Just wondering how I go about getting something more reliable considering the price we pay each month. Can anyone recommend a 3rd party solution which is better quality. EE have refused to upgrade us to the WiFi Pro unless we pay the extra which is extortionate for £95 a month just for 1gb FF broadband. 

I really like EE and want to continue with them but I'm struggling at the moment with issues like this, when I could get better kit and similar service elsewhere for a lot less.

Thank you in advance. 

[XRaySpeX]

Any router that has Ethernet WAN can replace the EE router as long you don't want DV.

[JimM11]

@Tricky81 Are you also using any EE Smart wireless extenders with your SH32B version as you mention when you were using with the old BT Hub, or is it just a straight one hub connection trying to cover the whole home?

Your focus on the outdoor coverage drop off, what is it like indoors wifi wise?

[Tricky81]

We've had the same set-up which was perfect the SH and 2 matching extenders. All was fine until something happened with the router around 2nd May and EE are now seeing a hardware fault which they say is causing the issues. Hopefully the replacement arriving tomorrow will work and solve the issues. Thanks

[JimM11]

@Tricky81 Ok with you now, lets see what your 2nd replacement is like from the returns pool of hubs, not aware of any FW updates so far as no one has posted recently.

[Tricky81]

The replacement arrived today and actually looked brand new, everything tidy in the box and the power lead wasn't in knots, nothing like the previous replacement. It also worked straight away. 

The new router is showing that we have 98 devices connected.

Originally we had 2 extenders turned on and aqua but with the new router the extender in the house would only go orange and slowed the WiFi upstairs in our house. I've turned that off and things seem ok so far. 

Our set up needs to cover our driveway for the cameras, car and EV charger which is around 20-30m from the router connected via a BT home plug. This extender shows aqua and is still producing a decent speed over WiFi.

Any advice on how and when to turn the extenders on and in what sequence would be very helpful to get both units aqua like the set-up we've had for the last 10 months, before the recent issues. I used to like using the extender upstairs in our house to back haul the ethernet to my desktop computer.

Would there be a benefit in trying to get the Pro WiFi 7 unit considering we've only one WiFi 7 device. We've got the top package we can get with 1gb FF.

Thanks again.

[XRaySpeX]

Follow the advice in Top Tips for pairing your WiFi Extenders to the Smart Hub 7 Pro

[JimM11]

@Tricky81 There are four EE packages in the range apart from the speed that you have, so linked below and your billing will say what one you are on. One off the issues with going 7 Pro is the wifi 7 6Ghz speed and power, it does not do good in some homes and is needed for the Extender Backhaul just like you have just now upstairs but that is using the Hidden SSID 5Ghz band to do that.... Try moving your extender on Orange a little closer first but if it does not connect then do the link that is supplied.

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