Burying ethernet cable outdoors

I am considering buying the below cable to connect our backyard camera to the POE switch in the basement.


My question is: would it be advantageous to pass the cable through a PVC pipe and then bury it in the ground or directly burying the cable in the ground is better? Thanks

What you linked to can be directly buried fine. Better inside PVC or some other form of conduit if you can do it. In addition to better protecting it, may let you run another or replace cable easier later.

+1^^.
The PVC conduit may help prevent damage from gophers, squirrels and other rodents that LOVE thermoplastic but also maybe prevent damage from tree roots or accidental gardening mishaps.

Put it in schedule 40 or 80 pvc. This gives you the option to change or add without digging up the back yard. If you are going to run power (120VAC) a separate conduit for that. I always use 3/4" but that's just me. For a couple of wires 1/2 inch will be just fine. Code is 2 feet deep or something, I never go that deep. whose to know besides me. Electrician told me you can, by code, lay schedule 80 across the top of the ground, not that I would.

If you put it in conduit you don't want to use the direct burial cable. It is stiff and you will have a hard time getting it through the 90 degree turns. If you glue your pvc the cable will stay dry and you can use just cat 5e or 6 .

jrczz said:

If you put it in conduit you don't want to use the direct burial cable.

Click to expand...

Unless that's the only cable you can obtain that has a jacket rated to withstand flooded burial....I say this because it has been my experience, that ALL underground conduit will eventually have water in it.

Use the correct sweeps and a pull string with cable lubricant and there should be no problems getting the cable with the direct burial/flooded burial jacket through "the turns."

Mine is dry, but have seen a lot of it with water in it. Mine isn't sealed at both ends, but you can. I have thhn running through a 1 inch that carries power to my outbuilding and power back to my house from my outbuilding/ generator. That said, I have seen a lot of problems caused by water in conduit. I don't disagree Tony.

Burying the cable in a conduit of some sort is always the best choice. I have use PVC pipe, underground sprinkler line and even garden hose. Unless you have some local codes requiring a certain method for low voltage cabling, it's your choice.

jrczz said:

If you put it in conduit you don't want to use the direct burial cable. It is stiff and you will have a hard time getting it through the 90 degree turns. If you glue your pvc the cable will stay dry and you can use just cat 5e or 6 .

Click to expand...

or you can just use two 45 degrees. If you‘re making Up the run, it’s easy and negligible cost.

SIR VEYOR said:

or you can just use two 45 degrees. If you‘re making Up the run, it’s easy and negligible cost.

Click to expand...

You are so right, I've done that before when there was plenty of room, a standard 90° was too tight and a long sweep was not available in the size of conduit I was running,

TonyR said:

You are so right, I've done that before when there was plenty of room, a standard 90° was too tight and a long sweep was not available in the size of conduit I was running,

Click to expand...

putting a short run between the 45’s is nice, but without that it’s still with 1/2-1 pipe diameter extra IIRC for offset. Same as go up as many pipe sizes as you’re comfortable with.

instead of ”traditional PVC“, look at the black water/irrigation lines Typically cheap as hell. Up to about 2” diameter (Interchangeagle terms from my area, irrigation uncommon).

I’ve got wells with 70? Year old lines. They are flexible (sorta) and a little heat can let you set a harder angle then it might initially like/accept. Then smooth for the whole run. No joints, glue or moulding bumps, etc.

Irrigation pipe and domestic water pipe are not the same. Irrigation poly pipe “black rolls” are much thinner walled pipe.

If there are trees where the proposed conduit will be you would be much better served running PVC. The black poly irrigation pipe does not do well with tree roots. It will collapse.

Also a trick I just recently learned - use a shop vac to get a string line in your conduit. Shop vac on 1 end, light pull string with a small piece of a plastic bag tied on the other end. The vac will pull the plastic bag and string through the conduit over great distances. Just use the right string, tree work throw line works great.

I do NOT care what type of direct burial you get or buy, The critters will chew it to shreds, here is a cable I pulled out after a year and a half, BTW the system quit working.
If you like doing things twice, like me then go for it.

That 1st pic looks like shovel damage...

Heavyopp said:

That 1st pic looks like shovel damage...

Click to expand...

Could have been in part from the yanking and pulling out of the ground but the chewing was all over the place.

TonyR said:

Unless that's the only cable you can obtain that has a jacket rated to withstand flooded burial....I say this because it has been my experience, that ALL underground conduit will eventually have water in it.

Use the correct sweeps and a pull string with cable lubricant and there should be no problems getting the cable with the direct burial/flooded burial jacket through "the turns."

Click to expand...

Agree 100%. If underground (or damp/wet enviro), flooded jacket is the way to go, else you'll watch the cable slowly deteriorate along with signal quality as moisture gets in the cable (and it will). Sometimes I've buried direct bury cable, and it was fine for years - but suddenly it quits due to rodents, shovel accidents (I've dug up my own cables!), or other damage. TonyR has another great point - use electrician pull twine with conduit lube to make pulling cable(s) easier, which reduced likelihood of damaging the cable/jacket. If installing conduit, it's easy to pull the cable through the 10 ft conduit sections at a time, glue, and drop in the ditch.. but sometimes conduit has to go together first, cables pulled later.
When I pull cable, I also like to tie a 2nd run of pull twine to the cable, & pull it along with the cable(s). That way you have a string in the conduit for future use, should you need to pull another cable later on - because it will be nearly impossible once the conduit is glued up and buried. I've had to pull additional cables after existing ones were damaged by lightning. Having a pre-pulled string/twine was a lifesaver. Otherwise, have to pull all the cables out and start over. Try to anticipate if future needs may require more cables pulled, and size conduit accordingly. It's a lot easier to use a little larger conduit in the beginning, than to have to dig another ditch, lay 2nd conduit because cannot fit more cables in a small conduit pipe. Ask me how I know... Any job worth doing, is worth doing twice

Chamfer the inside of the small end but still try to plan for pulling away from the bell if possible