Choosing A Waterproof Junction Box For Outdoor Wiring
Outdoor connections fail at the box before they fail at the cable. What to look at when you are selecting an enclosure range to stock.
Why The Box Is Where Outdoor Wiring Fails
A joint made outdoors is only as protected as the enclosure around it. Water finds the lid seal, the cable entry or the mounting hole, and once it is inside, corrosion does the rest slowly enough that nobody connects the eventual fault to the box. That is why the waterproof junction box is a category in its own right rather than a variant of the indoor box, and why substituting a standard enclosure to save money reliably costs more later.
A Series Range Exists So Sizes Match The Job
This range carries the AG, BG, DG, KG, MG, RA and RT series of waterproof junction boxes. A series structure matters to a distributor because the customer rarely wants a different design, they want the same design in the size that fits the joint in front of them. Holding two or three sizes from one series keeps the shelf coherent and the customer's installations consistent.
The Box Is Only Half The System
An enclosure that holds water out is undone by an unsealed cable entry. The waterproof connector lines in this range exist for that reason, and a waterproof isolator covers the case where the outdoor point needs to be switched rather than just joined. Selling the box without the connector is how an installer ends up drilling an unsealed hole in a sealed enclosure.
Ask For Ratings In Writing Rather Than Assuming Them
Ingress protection ratings are the most casually repeated numbers in this trade. A box described as waterproof may or may not carry a tested rating, and the honest answer for much of this range is that the rating is confirmed on enquiry rather than published on a web page. If your market requires a stated rating for compliance, ask for it in writing before you order rather than inferring it from the product name.
Match The Enclosure To The Environment Not The Catalogue Photo
Sun, salt and temperature swings attack an enclosure differently from rain alone. Coastal and high-UV markets are harder on plastics than the catalogue photograph suggests. When you are selecting for a specific climate, describe the environment to your supplier and ask what the material will do in it, rather than assuming that one outdoor box suits every outdoor location.
Related Pages
Electrical Contracting And Installation
Contractors judge a tool by whether it costs them a second trip. The wiring accessories and hand tools in this range are the ones that decide whether a first fix goes in cleanly.
Specification And Selection Support
Half the questions we get before an order are not commercial, they are technical: which tape, which way count, which busbar pitch. Getting that right before the order is cheaper than getting it right after.
Questions On This Topic
Which series should we stock first?
Start from the joint sizes your customers actually make and pick one series that covers them, rather than sampling one box from every series. Consistency across a series is worth more on a shelf than breadth.
Do you publish IP ratings for these boxes?
Not on every item. Where a rating is documented we state it, and where it is not, we confirm it on enquiry rather than publishing a figure we cannot stand behind.
Can waterproof boxes be branded?
Own-brand printing is possible across much of the range, but what a specific enclosure can carry depends on its material and finish. Send the item list and artwork and we will confirm.
Want This Applied To Your Own Range
Tell us what you sell and where, and we will say which of these choices actually matters for you.