diff --git a/index.js b/index.js
index b87850b9ea..50da18c91a 100644
--- a/index.js
+++ b/index.js
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 
 var net = require("net"),
     URL = require("url"),
-    util = require("./lib/util"),
+    util = require("util"),
     Queue = require("./lib/queue"),
     to_array = require("./lib/to_array"),
     events = require("events"),
@@ -199,6 +199,9 @@ RedisClient.prototype.on_error = function (msg) {
     this.connection_gone("error");
 };
 
+var noPasswordIsSet = /no password is set/;
+var loading = /LOADING/;
+
 RedisClient.prototype.do_auth = function () {
     var self = this;
 
@@ -207,14 +210,14 @@ RedisClient.prototype.do_auth = function () {
     self.send_anyway = true;
     self.send_command("auth", [this.auth_pass], function (err, res) {
         if (err) {
-            if (err.toString().match("LOADING")) {
+            if (loading.test(err.message)) {
                 // if redis is still loading the db, it will not authenticate and everything else will fail
                 console.log("Redis still loading, trying to authenticate later");
                 setTimeout(function () {
                     self.do_auth();
                 }, 2000); // TODO - magic number alert
                 return;
-            } else if (err.toString().match("no password is set")) {
+            } else if (noPasswordIsSet.test(err.message)) {
                 console.log("Warning: Redis server does not require a password, but a password was supplied.");
                 err = null;
                 res = "OK";
@@ -302,11 +305,7 @@ RedisClient.prototype.init_parser = function () {
 
     // "reply error" is an error sent back by Redis
     this.reply_parser.on("reply error", function (reply) {
-        if (reply instanceof Error) {
-            self.return_error(reply);
-        } else {
-            self.return_error(new Error(reply));
-        }
+        self.return_error(reply);
     });
     this.reply_parser.on("reply", function (reply) {
         self.return_reply(reply);
@@ -654,7 +653,9 @@ RedisClient.prototype.return_reply = function (reply) {
             }
 
             try_callback(command_obj.callback, reply);
-        } else debug("no callback for reply: " + (reply && reply.toString && reply.toString()));
+        } else {
+            debug("no callback for reply: " + (reply && reply.toString && reply.toString()));
+        }
     } else if (this.pub_sub_mode || (command_obj && command_obj.sub_command)) {
         if (Array.isArray(reply)) {
             type = reply[0].toString();
diff --git a/lib/parser/hiredis.js b/lib/parser/hiredis.js
index f588bcc185..d1fd0b7a9a 100644
--- a/lib/parser/hiredis.js
+++ b/lib/parser/hiredis.js
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 'use strict';
 
 var events = require("events"),
-    util = require("../util"),
+    util = require("util"),
     hiredis = require("hiredis");
 
 exports.name = "hiredis";
diff --git a/lib/parser/javascript.js b/lib/parser/javascript.js
index 15f8390900..be5248d115 100644
--- a/lib/parser/javascript.js
+++ b/lib/parser/javascript.js
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 'use strict';
 
 var events = require("events"),
-    util   = require("../util");
+    util   = require("util");
 
 function Packet(type, size) {
     this.type = type;
@@ -177,8 +177,7 @@ ReplyParser.prototype.execute = function (buffer) {
                 if (ret === null) {
                     break;
                 }
-
-                this.send_error(ret);
+                this.send_error(new Error(ret));
             } else if (type === 58) { // :
                 ret = this._parseResult(type);
 
diff --git a/lib/util.js b/lib/util.js
deleted file mode 100644
index 359cd7e948..0000000000
--- a/lib/util.js
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,13 +0,0 @@
-'use strict';
-
-// Support for very old versions of node where the module was called "sys".  At some point, we should abandon this.
-
-var util;
-
-try {
-    util = require("util");
-} catch (err) {
-    util = require("sys");
-}
-
-module.exports = util;