How Not To Buy Cat6 Bare Copper Cable? Cat6 Plenum vs Riser Pure Copper

If you are in the wired LAN networking business or if you are buying ethernet LAN cables for the first time, you might have come across many guides that teach you to buy ethernet cables. We are not offering that skill today. Instead, we are offering to teach you to avoid the mistakes that could ruin your efforts and money while buying the Cat6 bare copper cable.

Buying ethernet cables can be tricky if you do not know stuff about them. And it is even more tricky if you know incorrect stuff about the ethernet LAN cables. So, let’s begin unlearning the skill and knowledge that you might have accumulated to buy the Cat6 Bare Copper Ethernet Cable.

Cat6 Bare Copper

Buying the Cat6 bare copper cable can be a laborious task without knowing the details about it. This is particularly true because it features a multitude of different features. It has a shielded variant, unshielded variant, and solid/structured core, and it comes in different types of jackets.

Given the rather long list of specifications, finding the right Cat6 cable is indeed challenging. However, the internal structure of the cable is the same across all its variants. It is the IEEE 803.2 standard according to which all Cat6 ethernet cables should have 4 twisted pairs made out of 23 AWG conductor metal.

This is the uniform across all Cat6 bare copper variants but the peculiarities such as the cable jacket, shielding, etc vary.

What determines which variant you need and how to avoid getting the wrong one is discussed in the next parts.

Buy the Bare Copper Cable

As mentioned, one of the many distinct features a Cat6 cable can have is the conductor. It is made from two different metals. First is the copper-clad aluminum which has a pure copper layer coated on an aluminum base. The other conductor, the bare copper, is made out of 100% pure copper. This is far more efficient and reliable as compared to its clad-aluminum counterpart.

If not all, a significant number of people, when buying the Cat6 cable would go for the one with the CCA conductor. Do not do that! While Cat6 CCA cables may be cheaper than the bare copper ones, they will cost you more in the long run. They are inefficient, brittle, can overheat and break, and are a safety hazard if used for PoE applications.

Hence, always buy the Cat6 Bare Copper Cable.

Get the Shielded Cable if…

Another way Not to buy the Cat6 bare copper cable is to analyze your needs. Do you really need the shielded variant? If so, why? You need to rethink your cabling needs because it often happens that people buy the top-of-the-line product out of fear of missing out.

Don’t buy the shielded Cat6 cable just because you think you might need it. Buy it only if you need it. The rule of thumb to analyze whether you need it or not is to decide how many cables will run in parallel to it. If the number is more than three, you should get the shielded cable. If not, you can perfectly make do with the unshielded Cat6 cable.

Plenum vs Riser: Which one?

Now generally, what we have seen is that people confuse cable jackets with categories. That is not coherent. Cable jackets are mere specifications of the cable. They are designed to be used in specific spaces and can be substituted with equally competent or better jackets.

For example, the Cat6 plenum is the cable with the top-notch jacket. Now it is certainly correct that it is designed for use in plenum spaces, however, it must also be noted that the plenum Cat6 cable can also be used in riser spaces.

Similarly, the Cat6 riser pure copper cable can also be used outdoors. The point is to only use the most efficient cable - both performance and cost-wise.

Conclusion

In short, buying the Cat6 bare copper cable without considering what you truly need and what alternatives you can use to be more efficient is key to establishing an impeccable LAN network.