cat 5 cable on exterior of building

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I know that they make an exterior cat 5. It has a thicker black, uv rated sheathing. Im pretty sure the blue cat 5 is not uv rated.
 
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ultramegabob said:
I think what they normally stock in the supply house is cat 5e, Im just curious about exposure to weather and sunlight.
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regualr C5e is NOT weather and sunlight resistant. Even the tan C5e that is rated for outdoor is only rathed for short distances outside. You need the black C5e that is rated for direct durial to achieve the weather and sunlight resistance.

~Matt
 
The beige 5e cat 5 has a uv inhibitor and is rated for indoor or out door.
When pulling cat 5 out doors to an area for the phone company to hook to.
I always put it in a place where the phone company can come right in the back of their box.
But, most of the time they grab the whole bundle and let run 1-3 ft. or so before they go in to the box.
 
I see it ran on the exterior of buildings all the time, I always thought that it probably wasnt rated to be exposed to the elements. I dont normally run very much low voltage, but I have a customer that needs a line ran on the exterior of the building for quite a ways, alot of the existing wire is regular (interior) cat5 cable, If Im going to run a line for them, I want to use the appropriate cable...
 
They make CAT5 in pretty much every color of the rainbow, but I don't think the color is necessarily indicitive of the rating of the cable...
 
kornbln said:
They make CAT5 in pretty much every color of the rainbow, but I don't think the color is necessarily indicitive of the rating of the cable...
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I would imagine the black jacket on the cable is something like the black zip ties that are UV rated, I know all of the utilities cables that are exposed to sunlight are black.
 
THe underground stuff is not only black but usually flooded with 'sticky goo' - yes that is a technical term, as to keep water out in case the outer jacket gets nicked.

~Matt
 
TOOL_5150 said:
THe underground stuff is not only black but usually flooded with 'sticky goo' - yes that is a technical term, as to keep water out in case the outer jacket gets nicked.

~Matt
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does sticky goo= gel filled?:D
 
ultramegabob said:
I would imagine the black jacket on the cable is something like the black zip ties that are UV rated, I know all of the utilities cables that are exposed to sunlight are black.
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I'd venture to say that all UV/flooded CAT5 is black, but not all black CAT5 is UV/flooded...
 
TOOL_5150 said:
THe underground stuff is not only black but usually flooded with 'sticky goo' - yes that is a technical term, as to keep water out in case the outer jacket gets nicked.

~Matt
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Technically it is called a "filled" cable. (The fill is usually referred to as "icky-pic") Outdoor-rated Cat5 will have a thick black jacket as well. I've installed regular Cat5/6 outdoors but after awhile it will break down especially if there are temperature/humidity variances.

Attaching Cat5 outdoors presents challenges as well. Just stapling the stuff up with standard rounded staples is asking for broken jackets and waterlogged cables. The best way is to use the T-59 staples that have a plastic arch to protect the jacketing and prevent the staples from pinching the cables too tightly. In theory, staples shouldn't be used at all with Cat5, but in practice there aren't many options other than zipties w/ eyelets or screw-in ziptie anchors. Overall I try to avoid outside runs if at all possible...
 
MR2Di4 said:
Technically it is called a "filled" cable.
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Belden uses 'flooding [compound]' as a technical term... Im just using the terms they use. :cool:

flooding.jpg


~Matt
 
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