Solid or Stranded Ethernet Cable For Inside Walls

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fortunetempac

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Nov 8, 2017
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I'm planning on installing Cat6 Ethernet to my home and I'm not sure what to use.

Do I use Cat6 Solid or Cat6 Stranded Ethernet Cable For installing in the walls?
 
Solution
B
Stranded is a pain to work with so I would avoid it. From the specs you are only suppose to use stranded cable for patch cables between the end equipment and the wall jacks. The standard says you have to use solid in the walls. Now I strongly suspect stranded would actually work in the walls even though it is not a certified installation. Still there is little reason to do it, solid wire is much cheaper and it has more than enough flexibility to easily get it installed in walls.

Be very careful to buy 100% copper cable, there is lots of crappy CCA cable being sold by many vendors lately. That cable is not certified and is very difficult to get terminated correctly, over time the aluminum expands and contracts different enough...
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clarkjd

clarkjd

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Dec 7, 2005
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Use the stranded when you need flexibility. Solid when you don't. I wouldn't think you would need that much flexibility inside walls. From the wall jack to the device, yes.

 
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BFG-9000

BFG-9000

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Sep 17, 2016
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Solid is easier to work with, cheaper, has a thinner overall diameter, is less likely to fail from corrosion due to capillary action, and is technically less susceptible to induced electromagnetic interference as there is less surface area and thus less skin effect.

While both are rated to the full 100 meters, it's important to note that EIA/TIA wiring standards specifically call for up to 90 meters of solid-core permanent wiring, plus one 5 meter stranded patch cable at each end to make up that 100 meters.
 
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bill001g

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Aug 9, 2012
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Stranded is a pain to work with so I would avoid it. From the specs you are only suppose to use stranded cable for patch cables between the end equipment and the wall jacks. The standard says you have to use solid in the walls. Now I strongly suspect stranded would actually work in the walls even though it is not a certified installation. Still there is little reason to do it, solid wire is much cheaper and it has more than enough flexibility to easily get it installed in walls.

Be very careful to buy 100% copper cable, there is lots of crappy CCA cable being sold by many vendors lately. That cable is not certified and is very difficult to get terminated correctly, over time the aluminum expands and contracts different enough than the copper connections to get loose.

 
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boosted1g

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Jun 12, 2013
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Solid wire - better electrical conductivity, but is easier to break the wires - use this to go through walls/attics/crawl-spaces
Stranded wire - slightly less conductivity, but is much more durable - us this to go from wallplate to device.

As bill001g said, be carefull of cheap cable on amazon/ebay. Those are often copper clad aluminum. Best price on all-copper cable in the usa/canada is from monoprice.com

Also, there is little to no benefit of cat6 cable.
Both Cat5e and Cat6 are capable of 1gbps for the full 100 meters (300 ft) of max distance.
Cat6 is technically not certified for 10 gbps, in a lab they can get up to 55m but no garantee.
Cat6a on the other hand can support 10gbps for the full 100m.

So in short if i you want 1gbps then just get Cat5e, if you want to 10 gbps capable for the future (probably still 10 years until practical for home use) , then use Cat6a.
 
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