Simply45 S45-1600 Cat6 UTP Pass Through RJ45

Purchased bulk Cat6A cable without realizing the fine print:"This bulk Cat6a cable will not be able to be crimped onto any connectors. The wires are simply too thick to fit. This cable should be punched down into a Cat6a keystone jack on one end and patch panel on the other end."I tried Truecable XL connectors that failed because the wires are 23AWG. After cutting off 8 bad connections...I researched my connectors more thoroughly. I wanted to go with Platinum Tool connectors, but they simply seemed out of spec for this wire...either too big or too small.Reviewing the dimensions of the Simply45 Cat6 connectors, they matched up the closest of all connectors on the market. I also liked the fact that the connectors are gold plated phosphor bronze. Apparently, this is more resistant to corrosion, which is ideal since my server rack is down in the basement. The contacts are also 3 prong offset to ensure trapping of the conductors, unlike the cheaper connectors made in China. These are made in Taiwan, unfortunately not USA, but they are HIGH QUALITY. Love the green tint of the connectors which makes identifying them in a pile of loose connectors easy.All my terminations have passed testing.My work require a little more technique because of the obnoxiously fat Cat6A cable I purchased. First, after all the conductors were passed through in correct order the outside cable jacket required forming into an oval by a pair of electricians pliers. Once oval-ized, I applied a small amount of saliva to the jacket just to lubricate it enough to get it moving into the plug. Once I pushed the jacket in and it was contained in the plug, I drove the cable all the way home by inserting the connector into my TrueCable tool and using the tool for leverage against the force I applied to seat the wire. After that, I just closed the tool's grip as usual and the ends trimmed flush as expected.

I tried those less expensive brands on Amazon.,those gave me fits due to high failure rates. I switched up to these. They work every time. You get what you pay for. Spend the extra money. It’s worth it.,

Paired with unifi cable or tough cable they are awesome. No complaints and certain never a issue with terminations

I tested these by making a cat6 patch cord. It was likely the best case scenario because I used these Simply 45 connectors with the Simply 45 crimp tool. That said, the assembly came out perfectly, the pass through wires were all cleanly cut off the first time (not always the case with other connectors).Not surprisingly, the cable tested fine on the first go. I notice Simply 45 makes a number of different connectors depending on factors such as Cat5 vs Cat6, solid vs stranded. etc. It's nice that they color code their connectors to help keep them straight. I just do this at home now (yes I know, I've got more home networking infrastructure than anyone really should), but I can see how this would be so valuable to a professional installer with a handful of connectors in a belt pocket.The price per of these is a bit more than some which have served me well enough. I think these are noticeably better but it will be an individual decision to spring for the extra quality or not. On quality alone I say these are 5 stars; when weighing against the price for overall value it's a 4. I think they are worth more than many of the others, I'm just not sure they are worth that much more.Still Highly Recommend.

Appearance and FitThe Simply45 Plugs come in a quantity of 100 in a screw top container. The plugs are made of clear plastic with a bit of a green tint to it. Fit in a standard keystone from 3 different brands has shown them to be a bit tighter than normal and a little harder to insert and remove.Installation and OperationI’m comparing these to the other brand of pass-through plugs I currently have, the Klein VDV826-729.Standard 23AWG Cat6 cable slides fairly easily into the Klein plugs, but it’s a bit of a struggle to get them into the Simply45. Fit on the individual wires is definitely a bit tighter, requiring more force to push them in place. This resulted in some less than pretty wiring inside the plug as shown in the photos. I left about 2 inches of exposed wire to push into the plug and then used pliers to pull the wire through and take up the slack. This was the only way to get the wires taut. I tested a piece of Cat5e in one of these plugs and it slid into place a fair bit easier. This leaves me to wonder if these are really Cat6 rated plugs or just relabeled Cat5e plugs, which is unfortunately a common practice, which can result in signal degradation in longer runs of cable.I used a Klein VDV226-110 to crimp both plugs. You can see in the photos that the Klein plug crimped perfectly and neatly clipped the wires flush with the plug tip. The Simply45 plugs did not want to cut cleanly at all. I had to adjust the blade on the crimper and bend the wires toward the blade to get them cut. Once cut, there was a fair bit of wire protruding from the end of the plug instead of the clean even cut found on the Klein tip. I’m not a fan of this as it leaves more potential for the exposed wires to touch and short out. I clipped them off manually with micro-wire cutters before testing.The cables tested fine with the Klein VDV501-851 Cable Test Meter. Functionally, the tips work fine despite being a bit of a hassle to install.ConclusionIf you are in the market for a cheaper option to better made plugs these may be worth consideration. However, at the time of writing this review, these plugs are selling at $51 for a quantity of 100. The Klein plugs mentioned are currently going for $25 per jar of 50. That makes the Klein brand both a better product and cheaper. I don’t see any reason to buy the Simply45 brand unless they turn up on sale for a steep discount.