Fwiw,
I am way ahead of the game having been using ez connectors exclusively for approx 8 years.
I've had 1 failure, my fault. I also replace the blade every 6 months and replaced my crimper once when one of my helpers did something to it and didn't work 100% after that.

I also only buy the cat6 version which works for both cat5 and cat6 no issues.

For some reason this is a hot topic with everyone and equal amounts on both sides of the fence. Whatever. Do what you believe in, what works for you and what you've found to be reliable.
Those connectors at this point is one of the most reliable pieces of anything I install, along with sonos and parasound amps.
I tend to stick with things that have proven reliability.

I had a couple where the gold blade/pin fell out in the bag...aside from that no failures. I have been using them at least 8 years maybe 12. I go through 100-300 per project. I have only changed the blade once and replaced the tool once because i left the first one in NY.

If you will let me know what brands have proven to work, I will add those brands and p/n's to our manual as suggested sources.

As always you get what you pay for and integrators are going to do whatever they are comfortable with. With that many installs and no issues, I would be completely agreeable to changing our position.

That may be opening your support team up to problems with all the variables out there. There is no way for you to guarantee that the installer has changed the tool out if it's not reliable, has changed the blade regularly, is using the "proper" EZ style, is not pulling the conductors with too much force through the end prior to crimp, etc. Compound that with inexperience and sloppiness...

BTW, Big Ern...Control4 does not recommend (support connections with) them either; there's your three. I've also been told by Ethereal not to use them; that's four for good measure.

I agree, but I think the reason that some manuf. Don't recommend them is because of what you said, too many inexperienced guys not doing things the way they should be done.
Since I'm the one responsible if there's an issue, and I'm the one that has to troubleshoot I take the care and time to do things right.
Mac is another one that obviously does things right.
When you get I nexperience or guys taking shortcuts or are just too lazy to do it right then you get issues.

and you were worse off than if you had never had any documentation.

Gone for the day? Okay. How many days passed after that one until he came back to work? Probably just overnight. Did you ask the next day? You were going to use these for quite some time.

The invoice for the parts would have the brand and part number. I think you didn't think it was important enough to follow up so you could know ahead of time what problems you might be facing.


I've had the experience, which is a curse and a blessing, of working over the years for two companies that had thorough documentation of everything. The curse is the time it takes to set things up and keep records of each purchase. The blessing is you can always refer to the manufacturer's data and spec sheets. In your case with this connector you'd know what went wrong and why, and you would have learned how easy it usually is to get exact information and eliminate mistakes.

I don't remember call the time frame of us having issues to when I spoke with the parts guy in the matter. Could've been a day or two or even a week or more.

It wasn't like we totally ran out of the old batch. They were mixed in by an other shift. Once I figured out the problem, I just separated the ends.

When I did talk with the parts guy. We made the decision to toss the entire new order. All 200 some odd RJ45. And prayed that nothing else happened until an other order of the good RJ45 came in. As we had a hand full of the good ones.

KOT