With one of the best powerline extenders, you can use your home’s electrical wiring to eliminate Wi-Fi dead spots and get Internet in places that one of the best Wi-Fi routers may not be able to reach.
Unlike one of the best wifi extenders, just plug one of the small boxes into an AC outlet next to your router and another where you want the data to end to set up a power line extender. This makes for a simple setup process, especially since there are no passwords, software, or settings you need to worry about. We’ve tested and reviewed the best power line extenders with an emphasis on data performance, signal range, and value (including price, design, and device electricity consumption) to help you find the right one for your home. .
These are the best power line extenders you can get today, but if you find that they don’t work or don’t work with your home wiring, you may want to consider upgrading to one of the The best mesh Wi-Fi systems. instead.
The quick list
The Best Power Line Extenders You Can Buy Today
Best overall power line extender
It’s close, but the Netgear PLP2000’s superior performance surpassed the extended range of TP-Link’s TL-PA9020P, making it our pick for the best Powerline adapter. With the ability to move more data, the PLP2000 surpassed the crowd and filled a previously unconnected garage with more than enough data to watch videos, play games, and live online.
It may be one of the largest PL extenders available and doesn’t include a monitoring utility, but the PLP2000 provides an AC output to compensate for what it uses, and its two Gigabit Ethernet ports provide data for a TV and a computer. While at $110 it’s among the most expensive PL extenders, it comes with a one-year warranty and only 90 days of support, while its peers include one to two years of warranty and support.
Netgear’s PLP2000 can send data to unconnected parts of a home with maximum performance and is the one to go for.
Read our full Netgear PLP2000 Powerline Extender Review.
Best power line extender on a budget
Despite its short range and mediocre performance, the D-Link DHP-601AV’s two-prong plug can help bring data to older homes that lack ungrounded three-prong outlets. Small and easy to hide, the DHP-601AV has three LEDs to display network status, but falls short by lacking an AC pass-through output to compensate for the one it uses. With a single Ethernet port, a power network consisting of DHP-601AV units will require a network switch to connect to more than one device.
Although several competitors offer a monitoring and configuration utility for adjusting power grid parameters, the DHP-601AV has none. On the other hand, it consumes electricity while others consume it and could cost only $2.40 a year to operate. That, along with its $60 price tag, means the DHP-601AV is cheap to keep for an older home.
Read our full D-Link DHP-601AV Powerline Extender Review.
Best Power Line Extender Value
The Trendnet TPL-423E2K is for those who care more about value and a three-year warranty than getting maximum performance, extra range, or the ability to service two networked devices. Overall, the TPL-423E2K offers the enviable combination of low starting price and low running costs, making it the ideal product for penny pinchers.
What the Trendnet TPL-423E2K lacks in speed and range it more than makes up for with a convenient AC power outlet, useful utility, and a class-leading three-year warranty. At $70 for the set, the TPL-423E2K is a must-have for those who prefer low costs and reliability over all-out performance in power line devices. The Trendnet TPL-423E2K offers affordability and the assurance that it will work for years, even if that feature doesn’t have the range and bandwidth of more expensive competitors.
Read our full Trendnet TPL-423E2K Powerline Extender Review.
Best power line extender for reach.
TP-Link’s TL-PA9020P can help fill a large house with powerline data thanks to its class-leading range. It may be outside the breakneck pace set by the PLP2000, but the TL-PA9020 has the power to send data over more than 1,000 feet of electrical wiring and deliver top speed to a previously unplugged garage. Its pair of Ethernet ports and AC pass-through output mean that not only will it not hog your home’s outlets, but it can also supply data to two devices, such as a smart TV and a computer.
While its monitoring and configuration utility lets you customize your power grid by renaming devices and adjusting the TL-PA9020P’s Quality of Service parameters, its thirst for electricity makes it expensive to use and its side-mounted LEDs can be difficult to see. Still, the $90 TL-PA9020P can fill a large house with data.
Read our full TP-Link TL-PA9020P Powerline Extender Review.
Best power line extender for simplicity
The Zyxel PLA5456 is large and combines a pair of Ethernet ports with a useful monitoring utility and a handy AC pass-through output. It will help send data throughout your home, but it’s large and offers adequate (though nothing exceptional) performance and range. It’s not a bargain for both devices, but the PLA5456 is for buyers looking for a powerline extender that does its job quietly behind the scenes.
As long as you don’t need the top performance required for uses like video streaming or gaming, the Zyxel could be a good choice for homes with less intensive data needs. The shorter range and limited bandwidth are enough to support basic online activities like web browsing and social networking, but they’re not impressive compared to our top models. However, the design offers some convenience with its additional AC outlet and the asking prices could still make the Zyxel a smart buy.
Read our full Zyxel PLA5456 Powerline Extender Review.
Test data
How to Choose the Best Power Line Extender for You
Powerline extenders offer a discreet way to replace long lines of Ethernet cable with the electrical wiring already in your walls. This makes them a great choice for anyone looking to expand their network connectivity to new rooms and eliminate Wi-Fi dead spots in their home. But is a power line extender right for you?
There are two other options worth considering when you want to get better connectivity in the far corners of your home. The first is a signal booster, like the ones in our guide on the best wifi extenders, which can capture and retransmit a wireless signal to help increase the range of your Wi-Fi router. That’s a perfectly good option when you have continuous Wi-Fi between the router and the extender. If a distant room shares electrical wiring with your router but your router’s Wi-Fi signal doesn’t reach far enough for a wireless extender, then a powerline extender is the best option.
Learn more in our article Wi-Fi Extenders vs. Powerline Adapters: Everything You Need to Know.
The other alternative is to upgrade to a mesh Wi-Fi system that uses multiple units to provide a single seamless Wi-Fi network that can easily cover even the largest homes with a strong wireless signal. However, switching from a standard router to a mesh router can be expensive, so we’ve also rounded up the best cheap mesh Wi-Fi systems under $100. If you want to expand your network without paying a few hundred dollars , it’s worth trying a power line extender first.
How We Test Power Line Extenders
To evaluate each of the power line extenders we reviewed, we tested them in a variety of ways. In addition to the price and physical design, we also took a closer look and tested its performance, distance range and bandwidth, as well as temperature and power consumption.
Performance: To measure the range of each set of power lines, we plug the sending unit into a house’s circuit breakers and the broadband modem and receiver into an AC outlet 10 feet away.
Wired range: After measuring performance, we added a series of 100-foot grounded extension cables and measured the available bandwidth. With the system disconnected, we removed the last cable and added 50, 25, 12, and even two 6-foot cables. The range is the total length of the extension cords that delivered the lowest performance without disconnecting.
Broadband: We also installed the receiver in a garage that is about 100 feet from the sending unit and measured the bandwidth. We finished this round of testing by watching HD videos, playing online games, and visiting various websites.
Temperature and power consumption: While watching videos, we measured the maximum temperature of each device with a Fluke 62 mini IR thermometer. We also measured power consumption (both in use and idle) using a Kill A Watt Edge power meter. Assuming the computer is active for half the day and idle for the rest of the day, we multiply each power usage figure by 4380 (365 days times 12 hours a day) and add the results. Next, we double the total of the two devices needed and pide it by 1,000 to get the annual energy use in kilowatt-hours. Finally, we multiply this by $0.13 (the average price of a kilowatt-hour) to get our estimate of the annual operating cost.
Behind the scenes, we used a Linksys WRT32X router, a 200 Mbps Internet connection, a Lenovo ThinkPad T470 laptop, and the Speedtest app to measure performance. For all tests, five data points were averaged.
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