diff --git a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/routing/ConsistentHash.scala b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/routing/ConsistentHash.scala
index fca0837662..79c31cda33 100644
--- a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/routing/ConsistentHash.scala
+++ b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/routing/ConsistentHash.scala
@@ -4,7 +4,8 @@
 
 package akka.routing
 
-import scala.collection.immutable.TreeMap
+import scala.collection.immutable.SortedMap
+import scala.reflect.ClassTag
 import java.util.Arrays
 
 /**
@@ -17,16 +18,18 @@ import java.util.Arrays
  * hash, i.e. make sure it is different for different nodes.
  *
  */
-class ConsistentHash[T] private (nodes: Map[Int, T], virtualNodesFactor: Int) {
+class ConsistentHash[T: ClassTag] private (nodes: SortedMap[Int, T], virtualNodesFactor: Int) {
 
   import ConsistentHash._
 
   if (virtualNodesFactor < 1) throw new IllegalArgumentException("virtualNodesFactor must be >= 1")
 
-  // sorted hash values of the nodes
-  private val (nodeHashRing: Array[Int], nodeRing: Vector[T]) = {
-    val (nhr: IndexedSeq[Int], nr: IndexedSeq[AnyRef]) = nodes.toArray.sortBy(_._1).unzip
-    (nhr.toArray, Vector[T]() ++ nr)
+  // arrays for fast binary search and access
+  // nodeHashRing is the sorted hash values of the nodes
+  // nodeRing is the nodes sorted in the same order as nodeHashRing, i.e. same index
+  private val (nodeHashRing: Array[Int], nodeRing: Array[T]) = {
+    val (nhr: Seq[Int], nr: Seq[T]) = nodes.toSeq.unzip
+    (nhr.toArray, nr.toArray)
   }
 
   /**
@@ -102,8 +105,8 @@ class ConsistentHash[T] private (nodes: Map[Int, T], virtualNodesFactor: Int) {
 }
 
 object ConsistentHash {
-  def apply[T](nodes: Iterable[T], virtualNodesFactor: Int) = {
-    new ConsistentHash(TreeMap.empty[Int, T] ++
+  def apply[T: ClassTag](nodes: Iterable[T], virtualNodesFactor: Int): ConsistentHash[T] = {
+    new ConsistentHash(SortedMap.empty[Int, T] ++
       (for (node ← nodes; vnode ← 1 to virtualNodesFactor) yield (nodeHashFor(node, vnode) -> node)),
       virtualNodesFactor)
   }
@@ -112,9 +115,9 @@ object ConsistentHash {
    * Factory method to create a ConsistentHash
    * JAVA API
    */
-  def create[T](nodes: java.lang.Iterable[T], virtualNodesFactor: Int) = {
+  def create[T](nodes: java.lang.Iterable[T], virtualNodesFactor: Int): ConsistentHash[T] = {
     import scala.collection.JavaConverters._
-    apply(nodes.asScala, virtualNodesFactor)
+    apply(nodes.asScala, virtualNodesFactor)(ClassTag(classOf[Any].asInstanceOf[Class[T]]))
   }
 
   private def nodeHashFor(node: Any, vnode: Int): Int =