Guide
Waterproof ratings for outdoor LED lights
An ingress rating is the most quoted and least read number in outdoor lighting. This guide explains how the code is built, and how to match a rating to the position a run will actually occupy.
GUIDE — THE CODE IS A STRUCTURE, NOT A SCORE
Ingress ratings, model by model
The IP code carries two digits after its letters. The first describes protection against solid objects — from fingers down to dust. The second describes protection against water — from dripping through splashing and jets to immersion. A rating is therefore a pair of answers to two different questions, and a high second digit says nothing about the first: a light can be well sealed against rain and still admit dust, or the reverse.
Each model's rating is printed on that model's own page, inside its published specification table — check it there before anything is ordered. Ingress protection belongs to a specific product's seals and construction: a rating earned by one model says nothing about another, however similar the two look side by side.
Reading an IP code before you order
| Where the run sits | Water question to ask | Solids question to ask |
|---|---|---|
| Indoor cove or sign box | Condensation only | Dust over years of service |
| Sheltered soffit or canopy | Drips and wind-blown mist | Insects and dust |
| Open facade or garden | Driven rain and spray | Dust plus wash-down |
| Ground-level or wet areas | Pooling and immersion risk | Grit, mud and pressure washing |
Then verify the match on the model page itself: the three pixel models and the strip model in this catalogue each publish their grade in their own tables, and the flood model's page does the same. Where a line is family-level — silicone neon, power supplies — the rating question goes into the inquiry, and the answer belongs in the quotation, in writing.
Seals fail before LEDs do
Field experience across the industry is consistent on one point: outdoor light runs are retired by their seals, connectors and cable entries far more often than by their LEDs. A correct rating on paper still fails at an open cut end or an unsealed join, which is why the installation guide treats sealing as a step of its own and why the waterproof strip page insists the ends decide the outcome.
Buy the rating the position needs, then install like the rating matters. Both halves are in the buyer's control; neither can be delegated to a code printed on a carton.
A final reading skill is knowing what a rating does not say. It describes the enclosure as tested, in the condition tested — not the installed run with its field cuts, not the connector the installer chose, and not the same product after five summers of ultraviolet have worked on its seals. The rating is the beginning of an outdoor specification, the part the model page states; the run's own integrity is the rest of it, and it belongs to the installation. Buyers who read the code that way stop asking which single number is best and start asking the better question: what, exactly, will the weather meet when it arrives at this run?
Before you order
Put your project details in the inquiry and get a matched recommendation — one form covers every line, and the reply quotes against your model, quantity and destination.