I recently replaced my Nighthawk-turned-access point with a WA1201 in order to fix some packet loss issues. Sadly, the WA1201 brought issues of its own (it is in Access Point Mode). I'm noticing ping spikes with it (if I connect to it wirelessly I get 1ms on average but I get random spikes to 11-18ms even when I'm near it. These spikes can "stack" the more hops go on, up to 50ms (4ms average) when pinging my router and 100+ when pinging Google DNS (20ms average)), along with other strange issues, like some video sites taking longer to buffer (wcofun, etc) and images taking longer than normal to load on Steam Workshop. Connection speed is great and there's very little packet loss, so I have no idea what's going on. There's no other wireless networks reaching the house, and I can't find any interference otherwise. I don't notice any funny business when web browsing, watching Youtube, or watching Twitch Streams or anything like that.  What could be causing these random spikes?

The way I have it placed, I needed to plug it into an extension cord so that it could be plugged into the surge protector. Is it somehow not getting enough power or something?

Here's some PingPlotter Data that exemplifies the problem. I know this is wireless, but it really shouldn't be doing this.