diff --git a/ioxd_router/src/lib.rs b/ioxd_router/src/lib.rs
index 2fbe296848..b5bbadbd9e 100644
--- a/ioxd_router/src/lib.rs
+++ b/ioxd_router/src/lib.rs
@@ -18,9 +18,8 @@ use object_store::DynObjectStore;
 use observability_deps::tracing::info;
 use router::{
     dml_handlers::{
-        write_service_client, DmlHandler, DmlHandlerChainExt, FanOutAdaptor,
-        InstrumentationDecorator, Partitioner, RetentionValidator, RpcWrite, SchemaValidator,
-        ShardedWriteBuffer, WriteSummaryAdapter,
+        DmlHandler, DmlHandlerChainExt, FanOutAdaptor, InstrumentationDecorator, Partitioner,
+        RetentionValidator, RpcWrite, SchemaValidator, ShardedWriteBuffer, WriteSummaryAdapter,
     },
     namespace_cache::{
         metrics::InstrumentedCache, MemoryNamespaceCache, NamespaceCache, ShardedCache,
@@ -259,14 +258,13 @@ pub async fn create_router2_server_type(
     // Hack to handle multiple ingester addresses separated by commas in potentially many uses of
     // the CLI arg
     let ingester_addresses = router_config.ingester_addresses.join(",");
-    let ingester_addresses_list: Vec<_> = ingester_addresses.split(',').collect();
-    let mut ingester_clients = Vec::with_capacity(ingester_addresses_list.len());
-    for ingester_addr in ingester_addresses_list {
-        ingester_clients.push(write_service_client(ingester_addr).await);
-    }
+
+    let grpc_connections = router::dml_handlers::build_ingester_connection(
+        ingester_addresses.split(',').map(|s| format!("http://{s}")),
+    );
 
     // Initialise the DML handler that sends writes to the ingester using the RPC write path.
-    let rpc_writer = RpcWrite::new(RoundRobin::new(ingester_clients));
+    let rpc_writer = RpcWrite::new(RoundRobin::new([grpc_connections]));
     let rpc_writer = InstrumentationDecorator::new("rpc_writer", &metrics, rpc_writer);
     // 1. END
 
diff --git a/router/src/dml_handlers/rpc_write.rs b/router/src/dml_handlers/rpc_write.rs
index 9deb55c5e0..2e5f4d0088 100644
--- a/router/src/dml_handlers/rpc_write.rs
+++ b/router/src/dml_handlers/rpc_write.rs
@@ -12,19 +12,22 @@ use mutable_batch::MutableBatch;
 use mutable_batch_pb::encode::encode_write;
 use observability_deps::tracing::*;
 use sharder::RoundRobin;
-use std::{fmt::Debug, time::Duration};
+use std::{fmt::Debug, str::FromStr, time::Duration};
 use thiserror::Error;
+use tonic::transport::{Channel, Endpoint};
 use trace::ctx::SpanContext;
 
-/// Create a client to the ingester's write service.
-pub async fn write_service_client(
-    ingester_addr: &str,
-) -> WriteServiceClient<client_util::connection::GrpcConnection> {
-    let connection = client_util::connection::Builder::default()
-        .build(format!("http://{}", ingester_addr))
-        .await
-        .unwrap_or_else(|e| panic!("failed to connect to server {ingester_addr}: {e}"));
-    WriteServiceClient::new(connection.into_grpc_connection())
+/// Create a connection to one or more ingesters, load-balancing requests across
+/// all of them.
+///
+/// Connections are lazily established.
+pub fn build_ingester_connection<T>(addrs: impl Iterator<Item = T>) -> WriteServiceClient<Channel>
+where
+    T: AsRef<str>,
+{
+    WriteServiceClient::new(Channel::balance_list(
+        addrs.map(|s| Endpoint::from_str(s.as_ref()).expect("invalid ingester address")),
+    ))
 }
 
 /// The bound on RPC request duration.
@@ -127,6 +130,7 @@ where
                     Ok(()) => break,
                     Err(e) => warn!(error=%e, "failed ingester rpc write"),
                 };
+                tokio::time::sleep(Duration::from_millis(50)).await;
             }
         })
         .await?;
diff --git a/router/src/dml_handlers/rpc_write/client.rs b/router/src/dml_handlers/rpc_write/client.rs
index b3187551bb..da04469220 100644
--- a/router/src/dml_handlers/rpc_write/client.rs
+++ b/router/src/dml_handlers/rpc_write/client.rs
@@ -12,7 +12,8 @@ pub(super) trait WriteClient: Send + Sync + std::fmt::Debug {
     async fn write(&self, op: WriteRequest) -> Result<(), RpcWriteError>;
 }
 
-/// An implementation of [`WriteClient`] for the tonic gRPC client.
+/// An implementation of [`WriteClient`] for the bespoke IOx wrapper over the
+/// tonic gRPC client.
 #[async_trait]
 impl WriteClient for WriteServiceClient<client_util::connection::GrpcConnection> {
     async fn write(&self, op: WriteRequest) -> Result<(), RpcWriteError> {
@@ -21,6 +22,15 @@ impl WriteClient for WriteServiceClient<client_util::connection::GrpcConnection>
     }
 }
 
+/// An implementation of [`WriteClient`] for the tonic gRPC client.
+#[async_trait]
+impl WriteClient for WriteServiceClient<tonic::transport::Channel> {
+    async fn write(&self, op: WriteRequest) -> Result<(), RpcWriteError> {
+        WriteServiceClient::write(&mut self.clone(), op).await?;
+        Ok(())
+    }
+}
+
 #[cfg(test)]
 pub(crate) mod mock {
     use std::{collections::VecDeque, sync::Arc};