Out-gassing Smell from FIOS Equipment

[uncertain235]

I'd like to know if anyone out there has had an experience similar to ours. Notable points are these.

- Verizon installed FIOS equipment in our recently purchased condo on 12/6/13 (Phone and Internet).

- We moved in 1 week later and noticed a smell in the bedroom where the requirpment was located.  The problem was serious because my wife has bad asthma and allergies and is very sensitive to air contaminnants.

- We didn't realize until months later that the smell was coming from outgassing of the FIOS equipment.

- We did tests to confirm the hypothesis. First, we removed the router and did without internet for a week. The odor decreased. Next we removed everything (wireless router, fiber connection box, battery back up box) and went without internet and phone for a week. The smell went away almost completely, except for a lower level lingering odor from fabric in the room that had gotten permeated.

- The equipment showed no sign of technical malfunction. The Internet and Phone worked fine.

- I contacted Verizon 3 times in search of a solution (once by chat, twice by phone). I was particularluy wondering if they could replace our current requipment with someting 1 to 2 years older which might ahve stopped outgassing. None of the consultants could provide a solution.

- In the end, we decided we'd have to terminate the FIOS service and replace it with Comcast XFinity for the sake of my wife's health.

- By now, the FIOS equipment has been out of the unit for several weeks. We've been airing out fairly diligently and the smell is almost completely gone. My wife is breathing better.

- I had concluded that this out-gassing must be characteristic of all instances of the current generation of FIOS equipment. But then I visited a neighbor's unit where he has what appears to be the same generation of equipment as we had in his living room. There was no detectable smell.

I don't know the techincal explanation for what we experienced. But the lack of a solution from Verizon meant that we had to abandon our use of FIOS. In my contacts with Verizon I was told several times that they had never heard of this outgassing and odor problem. But I can't believe we're the only people who've experienced it. I'd ben interested to hear from anyone who has.

[thetick1234]

Really?  I find that very hard to believe.  Enjoy your Comcat and their dracronian bandwidth cap.

[tns2]

Unusal condition unless there was a problem with the equipment. 

[MZELDA]

Can you describe the smell?  Does it actually smell like gasoline? Or, is it that rotten egg smell like stove gas?

[josephkovi]

Why not put the equipment in a different room. Or put in a plastic bag?

[Telcoguru]

The only smell I have ever noticed is if you block the air vents on the equipment then you will get a smell from over heating. Otherwise I have never noticed any odors.

[Hubrisnxs]

Never hoid of it

[smith6612]

Not sure I can say what the deal is with this one. Perhaps the "New Equipment getting warm" smell accumulating from the addition of several boxes?

[uncertain235]

So no one on this board has every had this experience. Strange. The nose doesn't lie. Must have been some unusual condition of the equipment.

[FLUSBY]

Hi - we had a similar problem with our new Verizon FIOS router. The room had a chemical smell, almost like a pesticide or something. We did everything to deodorize the room and then figured out that the smell was coming from the router. The technician I spoke with tonight thought it was probably a burnt capacitor and immediately sent a replacement router. We'll give it a try.