Eero has unveiled a new device that lets you take your mesh Wi-Fi network outside. And unlike with a DIY solution, the new eero Outdoor 7 is IP66 rated so you won’t have to worry about leaving it out in the rain, snow or even the scorching sun.
Besides killing Wi-Fi dead zones, one of the main reasons to upgrade to one of the best mesh Wi-Fi systems is so that you can extend your home network out into your garage or even into your backyard. However, to achieve something like this, you often have to get crafty with the placement of your mesh router nodes or satellites.
Over the years, eero’s customers have come up with all sorts of different ways from weatherproof boxes to outdoor closets to using a pole and rubber bands to bring their mesh networks outside. But with the eero Outdoor 7, they can easily and securely mount a weatherproof mesh device on stucco, vinyl, wood or fiber cement walls without all that hassle.
Since weather conditions can be quite extreme in different parts of the world, eero tested the eero Outdoor 7 in the heat of Arizona, inside a commercial refrigerator, on beaches and even in a tunnel with 100 MPH winds to simulate a Category 1 or even a Category 2 hurricane. The device itself can operate in temperatures ranging from -40F to 130F.
As with the eero Max 7 and the other devices on our list of the best Wi-Fi 7 routers, the eero Outdoor 7 supports the latest wireless standard. With Wi-Fi 7 on board, you can get multi-gig wireless speeds of up to 2.1 gigabits per second (Gbps). It also acts as a smart home hub so that you can connect Thread, Zigbee and Matter devices.
Even if you have an older eero device like the eero 6+ or the eero Pro 6E, you can still add the eero Outdoor 7 to your mesh network. This is because unlike with mesh routers from Netgear or Google, all eero devices are compatible with each other and can be used together on the same network.
Adding the eero Outdoor 7 to your mesh network
As is often the case with more advanced home networking gear, the eero Outdoor 7 doesn’t have an AC plug. Instead, it uses Power over Ethernet (PoE) for both connectivity and power. If your home is wired for Ethernet and you already have an eero PoE Gateway, you’re good to go and you just need to plug in the eero Outdoor 7 to an exterior Ethernet outlet.
What if your home isn’t wired for Ethernet though? Don’t worry as eero is also releasing a 30W Outdoor PoE+ power adapter. This lets you plug the Outdoor 7 into any outdoor AC outlet and have it wirelessly connect to your eero network.
With an Outdoor 7 installed and set up, you can extend the range of your eero mesh network by up to 15,000 square feet. While most mesh routers have a range of 2,000 to 3,000 square feet per satellite, this is because they’re meant to be used inside where they have to push a strong wireless signal through walls while dealing with interference from the rest of the electronic devices in your home and this is especially true with large appliances like your refrigerator. Since the Outdoor 7 is designed to be used outside though, it has a much wider coverage range.
A single Outdoor 7 is more than enough for most single family homes. However, if you have a larger property like a farm or even a business, you can use multiple Outdoor 7 devices to set up a point-to-point connection with even more range. For instance, eero’s testers used the Outdoor 7 to get Wi-Fi coverage all the way from a beach house to the shoreline.
The eero Outdoor 7 will cost $349 when it launches in the U.S. on November 13. However, there will also be a bundle that incluudes eero’s 30W Outdoor PoE+ adapter for $399. Eero is planning to launch the device in Canada too before making it available in the other 24 countries where it operates at a later date.
We still need to get our own eero Outdoor 7 unit in for testing and review but just the idea of a weatherproof mesh router with 15,000 square feet of outdoor coverage already has us excited.
