USB hubs: are some better than others?

May 30, 2021 10:14 AM

I've had trouble with two different USB hubs over the past year. Both were new, supporting USB 3, and were no-name products I found on Amazon. Problems I've had included external disks becoming corrupted, not mounting at all, and my keyboard not being recognized. Currently my computer is not recognizing the hub at all, nor anything plugged into it. My computer had a freakout last night and when I rebooted it, I couldn't use the built-in keyboard or trackpad at all until I unplugged the hub.

Setup is a 2014 Macbook Pro running Big Sur, all up to date. My keyboard runs through a KVM switch to the hub, then to my computer. Also connected to the hub are two external hard drives, an Ethernet adapter, and a scanner.

I'd assumed that hubs are pretty much commodity items, but maybe not. If there's one brand that has a more reliable chipset, I'd be interested in knowing about it.

posted by adamrice to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

"Commodity items" is looking at it the wrong way. The PC market is ruled by a race to the bottom of the barrel, in an effort to squeeze tiny amounts of profit out of a market where there is always someone else selling the same thing, but cheaper, and mass market consumers who consistently pick the cheapest item when offered options.

No-name products tend to be the worst of the bunch, because there is no incentive to avoid damage to the brand. It may be tempting to buy a $5 USB 3.0 hub, but there is also some risk that a device can damage the USB port on your computer or laptop.

Brand name products tend to be somewhat better, especially ones where there is some resident expertise in the general type of product, rather than just a brand name being pasted onto a generic device being sourced in a Shenzhen back alley.

I'm not a gamer, but in many cases, there are significant parallels between the desires and demands of gamers for solid products, and my requirements that stuff work reliably and last a long time. You can often find devices that are well thought of by the gaming community which are solid, reliable products by reputable companies. That's a good resource to look into if you don't have prior experience with a brand.

Brands can matter, at least if they're reputable ones. For example, this Anker USB 3 hub has been sitting on my desk for around four years, taking a bit of a beating, never had a bit of trouble with it. But the thing was $31 when I bought it and is now up to $50. This is not a product recommendation, but I've found Anker to be pretty good at USB basics. Many of the USB cables around here are Mophie, Anker, or Cable Matters, because those are the ones that have lasted. But ALL of them are many times more expensive than their no-name counterparts.
posted by jgreco at 11:08 AM on May 30, 2021 [2 favorites]

I actually have a very similar Anker hub to the one jgreco recommends, so let me cosign that recommendation.

One other thing is that I've definitely had trouble with having too many devices in the chain, as it were; I've never been able to get a certain wireless mouse to work with a KVM, for example. It also sounds like maybe the power supply to the hub isn't very reliable - that would account for the disk corruption and freakouts, at least.
posted by sagc at 11:16 AM on May 30, 2021

There are definitely bad USB hubs, I went through several like you did a few years ago before doing research. From what I could find a few years ago, the Plugable line of USB products are a bit more expensive than no-name products, but are all well reviewed and the 7 port powered hub I bought from them has held up well to heavy use.
posted by JZig at 2:50 PM on May 30, 2021

USB is notoriously difficult to implement correctly, particularly USB 3, high power (for charging), and anything with USB C plugs. USB hubs are surprisingly complicated. Thirding the recommendation for Anker as a reliable brand for a USB hub. I'd also be willing to take a gamble on Amazon Basics or Cable Matters brands. Buy a powered hub while you're at it, unless you really need something portable.

FWIW Wirecutter recommends two Anker options and then a brand called Vava I've never heard of before. The main reason for Vava is it supports high bandwidth HDMI, which seems like a fairly exotic feature you may or may not need. Also a bit weirded out by the Anker ethernet option; if you don't need the ethernet I'd skip it.
posted by Nelson at 3:52 PM on May 30, 2021 [1 favorite]

I suggest avoiding the Amazon Basics stuff, which is stuff that Amazon sources at bottom dollar from the lowest quality vendor that they can reasonably get away with.

I haven't tried Plugable USB hubs, but a lot of their other USB accessories are well-designed and work as-expected, so they might very well be good at it.

The other thing that someone touched on was that USB devices often need power, and good USB power is a touchy thing. Previous highly positive experience with Anker USB power supplies was one of the things that led me to the Anker hubs. It seems likely that a company that can engineer a decent USB power supply would have a better chance of adding USB hub electronics to it, rather than some random company with generic hub electronics trying to glom a USB power supply of unknown provenance onto it.

All of it is still leading in the direction of "you get what you pay for" though.
posted by jgreco at 4:00 PM on May 30, 2021

a brand called Vava I've never heard of before

VAVA is a brand of this Chinese electronics manufacturer—same company as RAVPower and TaoTronics. I'd characterize them as similar to Anker, in that they are a Chinese manufacturer but have built up a decent brand reputation internationally and should be regarded as a step up from no-name bargain-basement crap. I have a VAVA baby monitor, and it's a fantastic product, honestly one of the best purchasing decisions I've made within the last year.
posted by Syllepsis at 7:55 PM on May 30, 2021 [1 favorite]

Adding on to the Anker recommendations - mine's 6 years old and still seems very reliable. I bought it based on the Wirecutter recommendation.
posted by kristi at 11:54 AM on May 31, 2021

Another plug for Anker. If you are in an area that Anker is not available or expensive then definitely RAVPower and TaoTronics. All have been solid for me.
posted by jadepearl at 12:38 PM on May 31, 2021

Anker is always good. I'm still kind of waiting for them to go the Way Of Crap that all popular brands seem to go, but they don't seem to have done it yet.

My two USB hubs are from Plugable and Sabrent and they have both served me very well. Cable Matters has good products too.

(Cheap electronics from Amazon are almost never worth it anymore. My praxis lately has been to order my electronics from B&H instead -- they don't carry the bottom-of-the-barrel stuff but their prices are otherwise competitive, so if they don't have it, I probably don't want it anyways!)
posted by neckro23 at 7:25 PM on May 31, 2021

I have a powered Vava hub with wired ethernet and HDMI and have never had an issue with it.
posted by aspersioncast at 11:36 AM on June 2, 2021