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.