[PLUG-TALK] ... fire resistant ethernet cable? SOLVED!

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

Did you actually check that that ethernet cable was fire resistant by
putting a piece in a metal tray outside and hitting it with a propane torch?

Much of the "Plenum rated" ethernet cable WILL burn, it just won't release
toxic fumes when it does.  Whether or not it keeps burning after the heat
source is removed is of course another thing to test.  It's not supposed to.

We are very spoiled in the US with electric code, most people would not
believe what passes for acceptable with electricity in many other parts of
the world.  For example in Brazil they have these things called "electric
shower heads"  The water flows directly over the 230v resistance wire
conductors.  Then it flows over a ground ring before it comes out pouring
over the person.  As you may (or may not) know, pure water is an insulator.
Dirt and salts in the water is what conducts electricity.  Electrical work
is so crappy many times they don't even bother connecting the ground ring.
There's pictures floating around of these shower installs with wires stapled
to drywall ceilings -in- the shower down there.  The US Military tried these
in the Med East when they were fighting out there and electrocuted a few
people. (since the water there for showering is much lower quality)

In Germany for example there's no code requirement for enclosing wires that
are visible so it's common to see living spaces with electrical wires just
running along the wall, open to the world.  Sometimes they put them in a
pipe but that's more to save money nailing in so many staples, and of course
the pipes are open and nobody bothers with enclosing bends or bending
electrical pipe.

When you show "electricians" in most of the rest of the world what code
requires in the US they are always stunned then, rather than recognizing the
superiority in safety of the US method, they start carping about extra
costs. <eyeroll>

Handmaking CAT6A cables is impossible without the pass through plugs.  It
was possible to hand make just CAT-6 only (no A) with the bottom end plugs
but it took practice and it also sucked.  I'm very glad to have used up the
small bag of those plugs I bought years back.

Make sure also that the plugs you use are rated for SOLID CORE Cat6a.  They
used to sell both solid-core rated and stranded rated CAT-5 plugs rather
commonly with the solid core ones being bought by people too cheap to put in
patch panels in wiring closets, but after CAT6, I think a lot of
jurisdictions started outlawing that practice and requiring patch panels.
If you use stranded-rated only on solid core, it will work - for a while -
then become unreliable.

They actually do sell Plenum-rated premade patch cables by typically the
shortest are in the 25 foot range with 100 feet more common - these are run
by people too cheap to put in proper biscuits at each end, usually in
residential attics and so on.

The whole thing about Plenum vs non-Plenum is really misunderstood by a lot
of people.   For starters Plenum is generally only code required in riser
channels between floors in buildings (and often, not that) so that fire
won't travel along the cables, and in open drop ceilings (drop ceilings)
that lack plumbed HVAC returns.  But open ceilings are not that common
anymore because code only allows them if you waste massive amounts of empty
space, and they don't build buildings like that much anymore.  That's why
when you go into Home Depot and look up, you don't see a drop ceiling with
ceiling tiles, instead you see everything in conduit and none of it would be
Plenum or fire rated.  It gives them much more usable space to stack crap
and people are used to seeing the "ugly" ceiling pipes and so on nowadays.
And when they build office space they only allow a few feet from the top of
the drop ceiling tiles to the actual building ceiling, once more to save
money on construction.

I have around 1000 feet of CAT 5e solid core, most in short sections of 5-25
feet, it's old solid core building wiring from the ends of spools.  Some of
it is Plenum rated, who knows if any of that is fire resistant.  Most
professional wiring guys will throw away spools of building wiring once they
get down below 150 feet left on the spool, way too much chance of it running
out in the middle of a wire pull.  I've used some of this in my house for
pulling ethernet.

It appeals to my card-carrying spendthrift attitude to pull in a "scrap
wire" section and ooooo look I JUST barely made it with 3 extra feet left on
the scrap..lol

Ted

-----Original Message-----
From: PLUG-talk <plug-talk-bounces at lists.pdxlinux.org> On Behalf Of Keith
Lofstrom
Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2026 11:55 PM
To: plug-talk at lists.pdxlinux.org
Subject: Re: [PLUG-TALK] ... fire resistant ethernet cable? SOLVED!

On Tue, Jan 13, 2026 at 07:53:22PM -0800, Keith Lofstrom wrote:
> Does anyone know (for sure) of a source of fire-resistant short Cat5E 
> patch cables?  Alternately, does anyone have a one-foot-too-long spool 
> of fire-resistant Cat5E cable, so I can make my own short patch cable?
> 
> Keith L.

I did not find a premade patch cord ... I did find a cheap but HUGE spool of
"MONOPRICE CAT.6a ... CMR (UL)"  cable, and made my own patch cord.

Stiff cable, shielded and triple insulated.

As a card-carrying spendthrift wuss, I also used KLEIN TOOLS pass-thru data
plugs, and their VDC226-110 crimper ... and only goofed three times, rather
than my usual eight times.

Plenty more cable and data plugs.  I can imagine teaching folks to make fire
resistant CAT6A cables at PLUG Clinic ...
but I can't imagine hauling a huge 20 pound spool of black cable on Trimet.
I'd probably be arrested as a terrorist.

Perhaps I should arrange a picnic and cable-making party in my
east-of-Beaverton back yard this summer.  Trimet 54 and
58 bus lines.  Pseudo Personal Telco wifi.  Outside potty in decrepit
"greenhouse", house still a quarantine zone.

Keith L.

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com
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