Review on 🔌 Platinum Tools 100010C EZ-RJ45 Cat 6+ Connectors, Clamshell, 50-Pack by Russell Wong

Let's start with the positives of these connectors. They're probably fine for people with no experience making Cat 6 cable. The advert that "a technician can easily verify correct wiring order" is true enough, but any decent Cat 6 connector with a load bar makes it easier the verification. visually. The real magic is that a full crimp is assured as the wires pass through the end of the connector. Plus, you won't fall victim to my favorite mistake of flipping the plug and messing up the wires. I made a total of 22 cables using these connectors. All worked except 2 of the 4 I made with the Platinum Tools crimper. And that's all I can say on the positive front. The Platinum Tools crimping tool was of the same quality as the discount store as one or two pins were bent during the crimping process. Two of the four cables I made with the Platinum Crimper failed due to bent connectors. I gave up and used the Klein Tools Crimper and Lindstrom 8141 Flush Cutter instead. This combination worked with most RJ-45 connectors. Some, particularly on consumer motherboards that used third-party NICs, were very picky about making a secure connection until I made sure the cables were attached absolutely flush to the connector. I ended up with 18 working wires with three connectors killed with a platinum crimp. . Assembling cables without a traverse takes an incredibly long time. Typical Cat 6 connectors require the individual wires to be inserted into a load bar and then the load bar inserted into the connector body for crimping. These steps are quick because after all wires are straightened and routed in an orderly manner, they can be fed into the load beam either simultaneously or at least in pairs, depending on the load beam design. With platinum connectors, each wire must be inserted one at a time, which becomes a painfully slow process as the holes are not chamfered, and inserting one wire into the correct slot and not the next often requires multiple attempts followed by a great deal of abuse. This process is easily 10x slower than assembling a regular Category 6 connector. I suspect the size of the holes is not appropriate for Category 6+ cables. Instead, the use of Cat 5e wire allowed all of the individual wires to be inserted at the same time. I deducted one star for the build process and was generous in deducting just one more for performance. All of the cables I've made, from under 2 feet to over 90 feet, have performed great at 1Gbe speeds. Most of the shorter cables with platinum connectors ran at 2Gbe, but only the shortest reached 5Gbe. Removing the Platinum ports and replacing them with QuikTrex Cat 6 ports increased throughput to the full 10Gbe we use in the office.