Potentiometers used are high quality components with full metal bodies and shafts, bolted to the enclosure, and are rated for 100,000 rotational cycles, which equals a lifespan 10 to 20 times longer than those used in most pedals. They have removable seals, which keep dust and moisture out, but allow for cleaning should that ever be necessary years down the line.

Switches are chosen for a high number of switch cycles and a positive tactile feel, while remaining low-profile.

Components that have the potential to receive stress from the outside world are mounted directly to the enclosure with metal hardware. Foot switches and DC power jacks are not PCB-mounted and are hand-wired to the board. 1/4" jacks have their own mini-PCB, so that mechanical stresses from inserting/removing jacks are never transferred to the main PCB.

All jacks are mounted on the top of the pedal, which means that Iron Ether pedals can be mounted to a pedalboard directly next to each other. This allows for fuller-featured devices which fit in the same pedalboard space as simpler designs which are built in smaller enclosures but have side-mounted jacks.

All IE pedals feature relay-based true bypass. When the pedal is bypassed, the signal is connected directly from the input jack to the output jack via a mechanical switch, and does not pass through any buffers, electronic (FET) switching, or other circuitry that could have an effect on sound fidelity. It's different from the more common true bypass in that instead of sending your signal through a 3PDT stomp switch, this uses a mechanical relay designed specifically for low-voltage signals like audio. This makes for quieter switching, greater reliability, and the bonus of automatically going into bypass if power to the pedal is lost.

Low-noise, low-distortion active components (opamps) are selected for excellent audio fidelity.