@TP-Link I will set them back up as an access point when I have the chance and switch which one was main vs secondary. My wife will kill me if the internet starts dropping like that again anytime soon. And I mean unplugging them. I tried factory resetting a couple of times but it didn't help. Unplugging them and plugging them back up restored connection for a while. The longest they would stay connected would be maybe 2 hours and then all of a sudden my TV connected to the second one would start buffering heavy and then just lose internet. 

I tried everything and then some, after I contacted TP-Link and allowed their engineer to remote in to my  router and satellites he determined that the unit itself was flawed (he was VERY good at testing all different parameters) so maybe you are chasing your tail.  Even after TP Link telling me these (brand new) units were defective and promising to replace they never followed through on that promise delaying me weeks after I was no longer eligible to return to Amazon. If yours are still under 30 days since you return them! No point in using them as access point only as it defeats the whole purpose of mesh networking! @Jwstewart 

@rblues they're definitely past 30 days, and yes even as access they work as mesh in the sense that they blanket the area better than a single router can and when they work correctly they have a smoother transition than using a repeater. They're the only wifi I'm currently using but I've been considering just selling them and going back to using my wrt3200acm the wifi and get a second wifi router also running openwrt to set up mesh like that