So much for the supposed IP66 rating.
That's what I'm saying...Which is a big blow to me because the housing was actually the most impressive part of the cam to me, having the highest degree of upward tilt I've seen in a dome, incredible speed and seeming to handle excessive summer heat very well.
This is a concern for current owners- there must be others exposed to very poor weather, is this the first documented case
Wonder if the 59225 is sealed differently, this type of PTZ design must be inherently difficult to protect from the elements I should imagine. I would be less surprised if the water had got into the lower black section, the top seems to be pretty well sealed off with just the cable gland and main body seal. With that being said in operation they are excellent!
2 cases, both from the same storm that hit the southern U.S about 2 weeks ago....I was in the weakened remnants of the storm farther inland. I've got a backyard weather station and my highest wind gust was 31 mph..The other poster ( @MarcW ) was from Florida where the hurricane made a direct hit, so his winds were obviously much higher...His leaked in the bottom half of the housing (black face part) and mine leaked somewhere toward the middle or top of the housing (white part)..His unit was not damaged by the water, but he noticed fog and droplets forming on the lens...With mine being in the top part, I didn't have any fog/droplets on the lens, but it shorted out the POE part of the unit. I first thought mine was a random failure as it was a week after the rain when it failed and never suspected water as a possible cause until the other poster mentioned that his leaked. I had to take the dome apart before I could confirm water in mine. Looks to me like the 59225 uses the identical housing; Just a more advanced module. Since the housing is what provides the water sealing, I would imagine it should be the same.
That's the thing, I can't really tell for sure how it got in. There's 3 possible spots...1 being the very top wire entrance, 2 being where the top plate of the housing is screwed onto the center part of the housing and 3 where the center part of the housing is connected to the panning, black face bottom. Here's a drawing to make it easier to understand..
Personally, I'm leaning toward part 3...Part 2 is area that I unscrewed and it was on TIGHT. Had to really put some butt into it to loosen up those screws and it wasn't until the screws popped loose that I noticed brown water drops start rolling out of the unit. So if the water couldn't get out of that spot until unscrewing, then hard to see how water got into it that way.....Part 1 also looked to be sealed pretty good on the inside with some kind of plastic-like sealing and none of the water drops drained out of it while the wet top piece was sitting upside down on the work table, so it seems sealed well there....Only other option would be part 3; Water blowing upward into the crack between the black and white part. Obviously, the black part here spins, so it doesn't actually "touch" the white part; There's a small gap between the black and white that allows the black part to spin freely.
Unfortunately, there's no way to access the inside of the housing between part 2 and 3 where the pan/tilt motors are. It's like the housing is welded together in that area and only a small hole for wires to come up through and plug into the circuit board at the top. There was some water that poured out of that hole....So my best educated guess is that wind-driven rain blew up under the "part 3" opening into the center pan/tilt motor part (between part 2 and 3)...From there, I suspect it either occasionally splashed through the top wire hole and into the top space (between 2 and 1) or either the water evaporated due to the heat of the cam, moist air flowed upward through the wiring hole and re-condensing on the circuit board/cooler metal sides in the top of the housing....With a droplet eventually after a week's time striking the electrical (POE) portion of the board.
Mine was similar, except it was actually mounted on a post beside the house with a paneling over the top to prevent rain from falling on it. Even though it was supposed to be waterproof, I was still trying to avoid it getting wet because rain drops would cover the lens and interfere with the picture....So the only time mine gets wet is when there's a blowing rain that comes in from the sides.
You would think, but I've complained since day one of numerous other listed specs that were not as listed (shutter speed range, tilt range, white balance options, etc.) so there's certainly a number of inaccurate specs...Though none of those being as serious as a waterproof rating that can damage the unit in the weather. I would have expected that to be the most unlikely thing to be incorrect...Perhaps you're right that a seal came loose or an assembly line error occurred on a certain batch of units. All I know is something went terribly wrong. If there was some way to actually access the part where I think the leak occurred, that would give me a better idea if a sealing was loose. But I see no way of accessing that section of the unit. It's like it's welded solid with no screws to open it.
I tried a gentle wire brush on the circuit board contacts which removed some of the black and cleaned with rubbing alcohol. Didn't do any good though...Also used the alcohol to clean the pins on the wiring harness that plugged into the circuit board. As mentioned before, an Ohm tester is giving a reading on all pins at both ends of the wire, so I'm assuming the wires are fine. Any advice on any other specific cleaning methods I could try that may work better?
