How Do Weather Conditions Affect Our Power Distros?

Let’s be honest – here in Britain, our climate isn’t exactly the envy of the world over. That means that for many of our customers, weather protection is a constant concern. At Rubber Box, we make sure that all our power distros can handle the basic grim weather conditions. Their overall resistance is indicated by their individual IP ratings.

What’s An IP Rating?

A product’s IP rating is its “Ingress Protection” – basically, its resistance to anything that might affect its workings. IP ratings have two numbers. The first in the sequence measures its resistance to dust or sand and other irritants, and the second to water and other liquids. The basic IP ratings we’re about to discuss are:

IP44:   Protected from small objects bigger than 1mm

Can resist water spray (including rain)

IP65:   Protected completely from dust

Can resist direct exposure to low pressure water jets

IP67:   Protected completely from dust

Can resist water immersion of up to 1m in depth.

At Rubber Box, the enclosures (an empty box) for one of our power distros is rated at IP65. As you can see, this is pretty respectable level of protection by default. And in case you’re wondering, yes, this does mean they’re protected from rain, sleet and snow.

Understanding The Resistance

Now, we’re about to get into the numbers a little bit, but bear with us – it’s honestly not too complicated. We don’t manufacture all our parts from scratch; and the parts that we ship in from suppliers mean that from tend to be rated either IP44 or IP67.

This is the important bit to remember: a product is only rated as high as its lowest rating part. Leaving the numbers aside for a moment, if you’ve got a product that has a resistance to jets of water, and then it gets sockets added that can’t resist jets of water, then by definition we can’t truthfully say that the finished product can resist jets of water. It’s only logical. That’s why IP Ratings are always rounded down rather than up – vulnerabilities are applied across the whole product. So an IP65 box with IP44 sockets becomes IP44. An IP65 box with IP67 sockets is still only IP65.

The good news is, that’s the most complicated thing about it. If you know the IP Rating of your rubber box, it’s pretty clear about indicating the distro’s capabilities. If you want to cut through all the numbers and get down to brass tacks – our power distros can resist rain, but they can’t go underwater.

How Can I Protect My Power Distros From Water Damage?

Our engineers here at Rubber Box tend to advise what you’d probably do anyway – keep them covered, and out of the way of direct exposure if you can. A neat trick a lot of our clients in the events industry use is to put their power distros on upturned milk cartons or similarly slightly raised surfaces if it looks like there’s going to be even the slightest hint of rainfall. And let’s be honest – if you’re based in Britain like we are, it’s always best to be on the safe side! Regardless of their IP rating, keeping your distribution system as dry as you can will stop most problems before they develop into serious issues.

We take safety very seriously here at Rubber Box. You can click here to read about other devices that keep you safe, or if you have any other questions you can always call us on 01282 677 910

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter: @rubberbox