sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring quality of cable based on brand.

I pitched a roll of that off a bridge in anger once.

Superior Essex used to number the cable starting in feet starting at 1000' so you always knew how much cable was left, that was nice.

I pitched a roll of that off a bridge in anger once.

I'm pulling five or six runs and feel it starting to drag. I go back to the boxes and find at least one up to the ceiling.

Can't tell you how many I dropped kicked across the room.

-Hal

Hal, do you use reel stands? A piece of pipe mounted between the rails of a ladder? I always struggle with reels/spools...

No, Greenlee wire cart. Depending on the reel size you can get at least six 1000' reels on it.



-Hal

General cable seems to be fine if you buy it at Graybar. It's those idiot teenagers stocking the shelves and packing the trucks for Home Depot and Lowes that are messing up the coiling in the boxes. I suggest never buying your cable at a home improvemnet store.

Systimax, Belden, Ber-Tek, Mohawk, etc don't have this problem because their warehouses don't ship to the discount retailers.Their folks packing the truck take a little more care. Superior Essex and Amp are on a reel in the box so they don't have the issue either.

I prefer open reel cable also. Easy to pull lots of cable at a time. But I hated the old Belkin 2500' reels. To hard to get moving and too prone to keep moving when you stopped pulling.

You're spending too much if you are!

I've had the best luck with Commscope in regular boxes.

As for home improvement stores, people look at their price "per box" but fail to notice that their "box" is only 500 feet. They think that they are getting a bargain, but in fact they are paying 35% more per 1,000 feet.

I have mainly been using Krone/ADT (Air-ES)for the last few years, great out of the box (usually, i occasionally get some that has been beaten up in the warehouse or in transit). The Krone/ADT has always had really good test results (Cat5 certifying as Cat6 while playing with a wirescope one day, others have too) Mohawk has always been a favorite of mine, I think its just nice to work with, pairs are nicely colored and the twist is always nice to work with (big plus in my book) Belden has proved to be just fine over the years also good electrically (hate the datatwist fused pair wire though hard to work with!!!).
Commscope has always been fine in my book, I have not really used much of their station cable but their riser and OSP has been fine.