The switching in TXE2s was carried out by reed relays and a typical TXE2 contained about 100,000 reeds. The reeds were fast in operation, with a life expectancy of more than 10 million operations. The glass capsules were about an inch (25 mm) in length and about an eighth of an inch (3 mm) in diameter. Four reeds were generally present inside each relay coil, two for the speech-path, one for holding the path and one for metering. Switching with these reeds held out the prospect of much greater reliability compared with the Strowger system, where switching was carried out by base metal wipers moving through banks of metal contacts. The Strowger switches required routines to be carried out on them to clean the banks: they also required oiling and occasional adjustment. Reed relays required none of this. However, in practice, and particularly in the early years of the system's service, the performance of the reeds proved to be worse than had been expected.