Make your Wi-Fi 3x faster by moving your router away from this object

” I walked into the kitchen where the router sat like a forgotten ornament, half hidden behind a toaster and a tired plant, three steps from the humming microwave. The kettle steamed, a Spotify playlist hiccupped, and the group chat filled with little spinning wheels of doom. In the next room, a teenager stared at a frozen Fortnite lobby as if it had personally betrayed him. The moment the microwave pinged off, bars returned like summer swallows. A pattern, hiding in plain sight. The villain lives in the kitchen.

The silent saboteur in your home

Microwaves leak radio noise right where your older Wi‑Fi lives: 2.45 GHz. That’s the same neighbourhood as 2.4 GHz Wi‑Fi, where lots of budget devices hang out. You don’t see it, you only feel it, like a draught under a door. Start reheating last night’s curry and your connection can sag from smooth to sticky in seconds.

In a small flat in Manchester, we moved a router two metres from a microwave and ran a quick speed test before and after. Download climbed from 26 Mbps to 78 Mbps the moment the oven stopped blasting the airwaves. Pings steadied, video calls lost their awkward delays, and the house went quiet in that “it just works” way every home craves. *It felt like magic.*

It isn’t magic. Microwaves pump out broad, noisy energy that swamps the 2.4 GHz band like a crowd spilling onto a narrow street. Routers try to push through, but every packet becomes a polite shoulder tap asking for space. Switch off the oven and the street clears; move your router away and the street widens. The jump can feel outrageous because the interference was constant, not occasional.

Make it faster in five minutes

Pick up your router and walk it away from the microwave, fridge, and big metal appliances. Two to three metres is a sweet spot in most kitchens, six if you can. Put it high, open, and central, not buried in a cabinet; then join 5 GHz or 6 GHz for devices that support it, because those bands skip the microwave storm entirely.

Check with your phone’s Wi‑Fi analyser while the oven is on, then off. Watch the signal dip and the noise floor spike, like fog rolling in. If you only have 2.4 GHz on an older router, try channels 1 or 11 to dodge busy neighbours and smart gadgets. We’ve all lived that moment when streaming stutters mid‑episode; small moves cut through that frustration without buying a new box.

Height is your friend, and clear lines win. Don’t hide the router in a TV cabinet, don’t press it against a mirror, and don’t nestle it beside a fish tank. Water and metal are Wi‑Fi’s twin nemeses, and they work 24/7.

“Move the router out of the kitchen, go high and central, then favour 5 GHz — that one tweak fixes more homes than any app will,” says a network engineer who audits London flats.

• Move it away from your microwave.
• Lift it off the floor by at least a shelf’s height.
• Keep it clear of fridges, radiators, and big TVs.
• Shift devices that can to 5 GHz or Wi‑Fi 6/6E.
• Test at dinner time, not just at 10 a.m. when the air’s quiet.

Beyond the kitchen: small tweaks, big wins

Once the microwave is out of the picture, look at the rest of your space. Mirrors bounce signals, thick brick walls drink them up, and bookcases full of hardbacks act like a polite blockade. Move the router closer to where you use the internet most, not where the internet “enters” your home. Let’s be honest: nobody resets their router or scans channels every day.

Use Ethernet where you can for the heavy lifters — consoles, desktop PCs, the smart TV that guzzles 4K. Mesh nodes help in long or split‑level homes if you place them mid‑way, not at the very edge of coverage. One good cable to a second node beats three bad wireless hops that only carry the same jam forward.

And yes, **water kills Wi‑Fi** more often than people realise. That chic aquarium or a radiator with damp laundry can flatten 2.4 GHz the way the microwave does, only quieter. If the signal drops each time you boil pasta or run the washing machine, that’s a clue. Talk to your broadband provider about moving the master socket if it’s stuck in the kitchen clatter; a tidy relocate now can save months of tiny irritations later.

All this isn’t about tech bravado, it’s about calm. Faster Wi‑Fi feels like a room exhaling — calls connect, photos back up, the podcast keeps talking as you move from sink to sofa. Shift the router out of the kitchen and up into the open, and the whole home sounds different. You’ll notice it at 7 p.m. when the oven’s on, the laptop’s working, and the group chat is buzzing.

FAQ :

• How far should my router be from a microwave?Two to three metres is a practical minimum in most homes; more distance is better if the kitchen is busy.
• Does 5 GHz fix the problem completely?It dodges microwave noise far better than 2.4 GHz, though walls and mirrors can still bite into range.
• Why do fish tanks and mirrors slow Wi‑Fi?Water absorbs 2.4 GHz energy and mirrors reflect it; both can flatten or scatter signal in awkward ways.
• Will a mesh system help if my router must stay in the kitchen?Yes, place a mesh node outside the kitchen, mid‑home and high; wire it back if you can for best throughput.
• Is “3x faster” realistic?In many flats we’ve seen speeds jump from the 20s to the 60s Mbps by moving the router away and switching bands.