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spronkey

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#249467 12-May-2019 15:31
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Hi all,

 

Was investigating some wifi issues at my folks' place today and they mentioned having some signal issues with their TV. Noticed that all the RF jacks throughout the house have flooding compound (I assume) oozing into them, making all the connectors sticky.

 

They have some unterminated coax hanging down in their structured wiring distribution cabinet as well, which has managed to leak a reasonably decent amount of gel all over their ethernet switch, RF amplifier, and more concerningly the power outlets at the bottom of the box.

 

These outlets are mounted on the horizontal plane so the gel could leak right into the socket - not sure if it has as the are currently populated, but if it hasn't already, unplugging either cord would likely result in some dripping into the socket.

 

I'm admittedly not a sparky or TV installer, but I haven't seen flooded coax used for internal-only runs before and thought it was only used for external or underground cabling. Is this normal, or a case of using the wrong cable?

 

Other than being a sticky mess and a pain, how much of a problem is this gel?


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sparkz25
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  #2235544 12-May-2019 18:38
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its electrical grease, helps keep water out.




nickb800
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  #2235580 12-May-2019 20:17
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Flooded coax indoors is the norm with RG6 - I haven't come across non-flooded.

Never had it drip though, but can't imagine it would cause any problems

sbiddle
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  #2235582 12-May-2019 20:18
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I've never seen non flooded RG6. I've also never seen it leak out in the way you're describing.

 

 




ZollyMonsta
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  #2235604 12-May-2019 21:08
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I did see some gel seeping out of my coax in our old house. Didn’t worry about it and put it down to the heat in the attic space that the coax travelled through.




 

 

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spronkey

117 posts

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  #2235637 12-May-2019 21:41
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OK, good to know it's not the wrong product used or something. But yes, I've seen quite a bit of coax including the flooded stuff but never encountered anything more than a little stickiness, whereas this is literally dripping (slowly) from the cable, so I assumed it must be some other grade of cable I hadn't seen.

 

At least 5ml, probably more has seeped out into the cabling box (where 3 unterminated coax ends were dangling) and made quite a mess.

 

Any ideas on whether it's conductive at all?


nickb800
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  #2235712 13-May-2019 06:41
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Don't know for sure, but logically I'd say no way it can be conductive - as when you crimp a socket on RG6 cable there is usually a  bit of gel around and it would run the risk of shorting between the core and the outer body of the crimp (across the cut face of the white foam layer). Thus wouldn't worry about it in your power sockets.


sbiddle
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  #2235720 13-May-2019 07:16
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spronkey:

 

Any ideas on whether it's conductive at all?

 

 

No it's not. It's known as dielectric grease / silicon grease.

 

 


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