Keeping water out

[foodtech]

Our non-profit had a camera system installed by local company. I'm converting its cameras piecemeal to our new BlueIris system. Couldn't connect to two outside cameras. Checked the path to the cameras and found water in outside electrical enclosure and in both camera junction box and camera. Camera appears dead; has been inside several days but still no response when I plug it in to PoE switch.



This has me thinking on how to prevent re-occurrence. Do I have to worry about this for the Dahua HDW2231s and 5231s I bought and planned to mount outside? In the wet northwest, but we typically don't get hard, driving rain. The affected enclosure and camera were partly sheltered; some of my intended locations are fully exposed. Have read other threads and few seem to recommend sun/rain shields. I will follow Mat200's guidelines.

1) a little Di-electric gel in the RJ45 socket before connecting the cables.
2) seal the cat5e/6 connection with silicone stretch plumbing tape or coax seal ( electrical tape will not provide sufficient water resistance )
3) "n" shaped bead of silicone caulk around the top of the junction box ( I also put the same around the inlet hole ) where the box mates with the wall and the camera mates with the junction box.
4) make certain the junction box can drain water out.
5) place the connect at the top of the junction box

Anything else to consider? Have certainly got to find and block the water entry into the electrical enclosure.

 

[mat200]

Our non-profit had a camera system installed by local company. I'm converting its cameras piecemeal to our new BlueIris system. Couldn't connect to two outside cameras. Checked the path to the cameras and found water in outside electrical enclosure and in both camera junction box and camera. Camera appears dead; has been inside several days but still no response when I plug it in to PoE switch.

View attachment 52145View attachment 52146View attachment 52147View attachment 52148

This has me thinking on how to prevent re-occurrence. Do I have to worry about this for the Dahua HDW2231s and 5231s I bought and planned to mount outside? In the wet northwest, but we typically don't get hard, driving rain. The affected enclosure and camera were partly sheltered; some of my intended locations are fully exposed. Have read other threads and few seem to recommend sun/rain shields. I will follow Mat200's guidelines.



Anything else to consider? Have certainly got to find and block the water entry into the electrical enclosure.

Silicone caulk the conduit connections to the top of the junction boxes, ensure water can drain out of the electrical box and junction boxes.

 

[crw030]

Looks like an impressive amount of water got in that enclosure, you might want to consider an enclosure that's designed to be weatherproof as well as checking the ingress connections and sealing them with caulk like @mat200 just recommended. That almost looks to me like the water came down that top conduit feed, so look for ingress opportunity up that way as well.

 

[Jake1979]

Why would the switch be installed into that box? Why not just run the wire into the building via a conduit? I would reduce the amount of equipment from being outside & enclosures and just have a conduit from from the inside of the building to the camera and use caulking around all of the seals. It looks like whoever did this had no idea what they're doing.

 

[foodtech]

might want to consider an enclosure that's designed to be weatherproof

Based on the location and seal around the door, I had assumed the contractor had installed a waterproof enclosure. I agree that top conduit feed looks like likely ingress though one spot in back shows signs of possible leakage (see photo).

Given that there's an outlet in there, I really want it to be dry. Also replacing the outlet they installed with a GFI one just to add a bit more safety.

 

[foodtech]

Why would the switch be installed into that box?

I don't know why they put a switch there. They could have done without the enclosure entirely if they had just run two cables out to there instead of one. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like they left a drawstring for me to pull another cable.

Having the switch there does give me the ability to now relocate the cameras by only having to run cable from the enclosure to the new locations under the storage shelter. Can also add more cameras from there. So it could be a definite advantage (if I can keep it dry).

 

[mat200]

Based on the location and seal around the door, I had assumed the contractor had installed a waterproof enclosure. I agree that top conduit feed looks like likely ingress though one spot in back shows signs of possible leakage (see photo).

Given that there's an outlet in there, I really want it to be dry. Also replacing the outlet they installed with a GFI one just to add a bit more safety.

View attachment 52152

Indeed, looks like you found the spot where the water is coming in. A nice silicone caulk around the top and sides of the box would help..

 

[foodtech]

One question is where the water in the enclosure went. The 110v power feed comes in through the bottom. Probably should open that up and see if any water comes out. One thing leads to another...

 

[Jake1979]

It probably evaporated after awhile. This reminds me to check the caulking on my outside camera.