Which cable... need some tougher CAT6

[sythai]

Hi All

After some advice please..... we've been using just basic off the shelf CAT6 from our electrical wholesaler for a while now.

We're finding it twists easily, haven't had any problems yet.... but you never know! And we seem to be installing more and more of it on every job now.

Can any recommend any higher grade cable that is more durable please?

When subbing on bigger industrial/ commercial sites back the day (working for the likes of Mitie, NG Bailey, EIC etc) there used to be some purple cable that was always really decent.

Thanks Sy

 

[bill01803]

The purple is LSF or you could try the outdoor version that has a much thicker black jacket

 

[Andy78]

I've used the outdoor grade stuff before for pulling through duct and it is a lot tougher.
You can even get cat6 swa if you need it.

 

[sythai]

Thanks Guys.... that's it remember now the purple stuff was LSF ;-)

 

[Simon47]

Isn't there some issue with using outdoor stuff indoors ? Polyethylene jacket ? I know BT have rules that limit the length of outdoor cable they can take indoors before they have to have a junction to internal grade cable.
As for it twisting etc - learn how to handle cable properly That's not being disparaging, it's a serious issue. I've installed a lot of network cable over the years - seriously lost count of the number of miles.
Sometimes the main sparks have pulled cable and I've terminated it. One thing I've noticed is that many commercial sparks are very rough with cable - and I recall on one job watching some really bad handling practices (including doing the job when everything was well below freezing), and the apprentice given the job of pulling the network cables would simply "pull harder" when it snagged in the box
Put simply, if you use good handling techniques then you should not have such problems.

 

[MJPD29]

Outdoor grade cat6 is considerably stronger

 

[adventures88]

Hello, yes for something stronger you want a type of cable like outdoor cable it's got an PE jacket and its strong enough to go in to the ground. The're many different versions of this too. Some with and without tape. etc.

 

[Atelcom]

As a data tester - The amount of "failed" circuits I expose due to hard twists is stupid.

With so much POE being used on the cabling nowadays without a sign off, you can find yourself in a lot of trouble if it causes a fire...

The External grade cabling is not to be used indoors because of it's flammability.
The smoke that comes off it is very poisonous.

(Just realised - this a very old thread...)

 

[sythai]

As a data tester - The amount of "failed" circuits I expose due to hard twists is stupid.

With so much POE being used on the cabling nowadays without a sign off, you can find yourself in a lot of trouble if it causes a fire...

The External grade cabling is not to be used indoors because of it's flammability.
The smoke that comes off it is very poisonous.

(Just realised - this a very old thread...)

Thanks Atelcom.... any recommendations please of what to use ?

 

[bill01803]

You maybe should think about using fibre as the length you have time you have patch leads etc will be boardline

 

[Simon47]

Ah yes, I recall a couple of decades ago there was this idea that we'd go all fibre eventually. That was never going to happen.
Although fibre has dropped significantly in price, especially the transceivers, it's still not on par with copper. Plus the fundamental thing that makes fibre so good for some applications makes it useless for the general case - lets see you supply power down a pure fibre !