diff --git a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/dispatch/BalancingDispatcher.scala b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/dispatch/BalancingDispatcher.scala
index a6042046ff..d8274d810a 100644
--- a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/dispatch/BalancingDispatcher.scala
+++ b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/dispatch/BalancingDispatcher.scala
@@ -9,7 +9,8 @@ import akka.actor.{ ActorCell, ActorRef }
 import java.util.concurrent.{ LinkedBlockingQueue, ConcurrentLinkedQueue, ConcurrentSkipListSet }
 import annotation.tailrec
 import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicBoolean
-import akka.util.Duration
+import akka.util.{ Duration, Helpers }
+import java.util.Comparator
 
 /**
  * An executor based event driven dispatcher which will try to redistribute work from busy actors to idle actors. It is assumed
@@ -35,10 +36,13 @@ class BalancingDispatcher(
   _shutdownTimeout: Duration)
   extends Dispatcher(_prerequisites, _id, throughput, throughputDeadlineTime, mailboxType, _executorServiceFactoryProvider, _shutdownTimeout) {
 
-  val buddies = new ConcurrentSkipListSet[ActorCell](akka.util.Helpers.IdentityHashComparator)
+  val buddies = new ConcurrentSkipListSet[ActorCell](
+    Helpers.identityHashComparator(new Comparator[ActorCell] {
+      def compare(l: ActorCell, r: ActorCell) = l.self.path compareTo r.self.path
+    }))
 
   val messageQueue: MessageQueue = mailboxType match {
-    case u: UnboundedMailbox ⇒ new QueueBasedMessageQueue with UnboundedMessageQueueSemantics {
+    case _: UnboundedMailbox ⇒ new QueueBasedMessageQueue with UnboundedMessageQueueSemantics {
       final val queue = new ConcurrentLinkedQueue[Envelope]
     }
     case BoundedMailbox(cap, timeout) ⇒ new QueueBasedMessageQueue with BoundedMessageQueueSemantics {
diff --git a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/util/Helpers.scala b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/util/Helpers.scala
index 60e6be8b65..25cb279f2e 100644
--- a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/util/Helpers.scala
+++ b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/util/Helpers.scala
@@ -21,8 +21,18 @@ object Helpers {
     if (diff > 0) 1 else if (diff < 0) -1 else 0
   }
 
-  val IdentityHashComparator = new Comparator[AnyRef] {
-    def compare(a: AnyRef, b: AnyRef): Int = compareIdentityHash(a, b)
+  /**
+   * Create a comparator which will efficiently use `System.identityHashCode`,
+   * unless that happens to be the same for two non-equals objects, in which
+   * case the supplied “real” comparator is used; the comparator must be
+   * consistent with equals, otherwise it would not be an enhancement over
+   * the identityHashCode.
+   */
+  def identityHashComparator[T <: AnyRef](comp: Comparator[T]): Comparator[T] = new Comparator[T] {
+    def compare(a: T, b: T): Int = compareIdentityHash(a, b) match {
+      case 0 if a != b ⇒ comp.compare(a, b)
+      case x           ⇒ x
+    }
   }
 
   final val base64chars = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789+~"