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URGENT! LOR Waterproof pigtails AREN'T WATERPROOF!


George Simmons

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If you purchased and installed LOR's "waterproof" cat5 pigtails for CCP/CCB controllers, and if you've had rain since then, you need to check them RIGHT NOW!  Seriously - right now!

 

I've got about a dozen sets of those and every one of them - every single one - has filled with water.  They are most definitely NOT waterproof and if you're using them you've got connections in the process of failing all over your display and cat5 cables in the process of rusting right this minute!

 

 

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I am in the process of replying to your ticket as well.

 

This is the first report we have had about them leaking, and you seem to have a lot of them.  We are going to want some of them back to check what is going on, ensure the installation, etc.

 

if anyone else is having this issue, please let us know.

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It's not just a lot of them - it's ALL of them that I bought except for the one still in it's bag.

 

And I've also seen a post on this elsewhere.

 

Hook up a pair to a controller and hang the controller outside - you'll see the issue as soon as it rains.

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I appreciate your report.  

 

If anyone else is having this issue, please be sure to open a trouble ticket.  We will want to research this further and track the issue.  Thanks.

 

Edit:  I forgot to mention that I have replied back to your ticket.  The ticket is already assigned to Dan (the owner) to ensure that you are taken care of at the highest level.

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You made me look!   Opened up two and they were dry but they are not used on a CCP controller, are yours?  

So far I've had four nights of rain with lots of GFCI trips.  I lost a CCP controller to water which was SUCKED in.  It could not have dripped in.

I think those green boxes have a wick like action going on.  They suck in the cold damp air after expelling some pressurized heated air.  Crazy me is wondering if this sucking action could actually be drawing the water into the coupling through the cable.  

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All of mine are used on CCP/CCB controllers.  When I bought them I thought that's what they were intended to be used for - to prevent having to remove and replace 8 screws each time you needed to connect or disconnect a cat5 cable to one of those controllers.  If that WASN'T their intended use, I think that should have been pointed out somewhere.

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And I'm sorry Mike if I sound angry or hostile.  I typically spend this day doing my Christmas shopping and then baking cookies.  Nowhere in there have I included time for spending half the day repairing and replacing cat5 cables and removing and replacing 8 screws on over a dozen controllers.  Having to decide between a half dark display and not having presents for the grandkids really sucks.

 

Where's the manual on how to remove those rubber plugs from the controllers when it's this cold?

Edited by George Simmons
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I installed the pigtails on the CCB and CCP controllers and lay the pigtails horizontally on a wooden frame. I then put a piece of tape over the top portion of the pigtail so that the rain rolls off and never touches it.

 

My CCB controllers are enclosed in a box and not exposed to rain because I had one fail the first season I used it because water got through the ribbon cable feed-throughs.

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UPDATE:  Even people who should be used to seeing me drag strange things around the yard couldn't help themselves from making snide remarks seeing me using a hair dryer out there.

 

I opened all 26 cat5 dongle connectors that are currently deployed outside.  (I'm trusting that the four being used inside are okay.)

 

Every one that hung vertically beneath the controllers, 16 total, had water in them.  Not a single one was dry.  Three were seemingly full of water - the others had varying amounts.  Of the full ones, two were quite rusted.  All the others, at this point anyway, were simply wet.  All (except the rusted ones) have been mostly dried and are functioning.

 

The rest of the cat5 dongles are laying on the ground.  None in standing water.  Oddly none of those had any water ingress at all. 

 

The ones that had the most water were deployed since Early Oct.  The ones with the least were deployed in mid-November, but have been exposed to wet/melting conditions for only about two weeks max.

Edited by George Simmons
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I don't have time to check this evening - won't be near display till the show is running, but I will check tomorrow morning.  I have six in service.  Five are on CCP controllers.  The controllers on on wooden stakes about a foot off the ground  with the pigtail ty-wrapped to the stake.  There is a trash bag covering the whole thing.  The Sixth one hangs out of a short piece of PVC conduit below a conduit box.  This one stays out year round, and I recall that when I opened it up in November to hook up my arches, there was water in it.  When there is not the cable to the arches plugged into it, there is a same size plastic rod occupying the space in the plug where the cable would be.  I dried it out in November, and forgot about it until reading this...

 

More tomorrow morning...

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OK, took a look at the one hanging out of the conduit box. It was full of water. Drained the water out, but that's all the time I had. We'll see if the arches are working when I get home tonight - I hope so...

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I mounted all my CCP controllers on a board that has a piece of 1/2" pvc pipe about 6" long screwed to the back of the board. I drive a piece of rebar in the ground and slide the pvc over the rebar. This keeps the controller off the ground about 12". I then place a gallon zip lock bag over everything. I spray painted the bags with black paint. It doesn't stick to the bag very well but it does help with the looks. I do use a nylon string wrapped around the bag to help hold it in place. The connectors are also covered by the bag. I have had no problems so far. Removing the 8 screws are a real pain.

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George, Not exactly sure what the heck happened here. We have not had no significant issues with the dangles (only a couple that I can remember out of the many many 1000s sold)... There have been a number of different batches and manufactures during the years. I cannot find your order for the dangles so I am not sure when you purchased them. We are double checking those in house now. 

 

You have a ticket open in the help desk now... so please,  in the ticket let us know the number of bad dangles and when you got them so we know if we still have the same batch on the shelf. Also an inventory of damaged Cat5 cables. We will replace the cables and either replace or refund you the cost of the dangles. 

 

Dan

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If this works, here is a photo of the dangle of mine that was full of water.  The dongle is plugged into an RJ-45 jack inside the conduit box.  The short piece of conduit that the dangle is running in, is filled with expanding foam (that's the orange splatters near the bottom of the conduit).  The bottom of the dangle is about 3 inches above the ground level.  This location should get little or no exposure to the sprinklers.  When I unscrewed the dangle, a large amount of water came out, so it would appear that it was very close to full.  Although I cant tell you exactly when I bought my dangles, but it was early 2014.  The other 5 dangles are under cover and were dry.

 

Dongle.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...

Was there any followup on this?  In my case, it's only 4 screws to remove the conduit box cover to plug in the Cat-5 if I eliminate the dangle (not the 8 on each of the three CCP controllers - which are under bags and don't get wet), but having the dangle as shown in the post above did make it nice.  However, I suspect that I will remove the dangle and not use it for 2015.

 

BTW, what you can't see in the photo is that I have to carefully lean in between two rose bushes hook, this up.  The less I have to do in there, the better!

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Not sure that it ever was posted in here, but my understanding is that these are designed to be water resistant when mounted as a pass through in a case.  The pigtail is not waterproof to the body.  The heat shrink happily allows moisture between the cat5 and itself, allowing the body to fill.  But if that heat shrink is inside the case that the body of the unit is passing through, all is well.

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