Outdoor cat6 help

sea surfer

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Hi looking for some advice, I need to run some decent shielded cat6 cable to an outbuilding, can you guys recommend a decent cable from Amazon or somewhere?




Cheers

Mark
 
The usual recommendations apply - check it’s solid copper, and if you want certainty then buy from a recognised retailer. Make sure it’s not copper-clad aluminium - CCA - although this should not be marked as CAT6 as it’s not CAT-anything in reality.

Is there a reason for wanting shielded cable and are you using shielded modules/connectors etc with shielding correctly terminated to earth at one position? Incorrect termination/grounding of the shield can create more problems that it solves so do check the requirements to make sure you know what’s needed and practical before you make your final decision.

I just did a google search and the first few listings were all “proper” CAT6 from the likes of TLC Electrical , Broadband Buyer, FS Cables, CPC, Cable Monkey, then came Amazon who listed “Mutec CAT6 CCA (copper clad aluminium), and show a picture of a box that is labelled Cat5e, so if it were me I’d be avoiding Amazon unless you want to be left wondering it it’s proper cable or not.
 
This is external graded and armoured... (~£2.50/m) Armoured External Cat6 UTP Solid Cable (Price Per Metre) | Cat6 Cable

Folks often misuse/misunderstand shielding. But as above, unless you’re terminating as shielded and have the supporting infra, it might be wasted on you?

are you shielding from interfering power, or protecting from weather/lawn mower/spade yadda yadda?

I personally just ran normal solid core lzoh, in conduit, just below the grarse. Run multiple for protection/backup/fallback 😉
 
How are you looking to run the cable? Direct bury? Clipped to a structure? Catenary supported? In a conduit? In a service duct?

It is important to know as this will dictate the correct type of external grade cable to use. Just FYI there are 3 principal types of 'External Grade' Cat X Cable

Normal External Grade - which has a thick HDPE jacket, which is water proof, UV Resistant and tough towards abrasion. This cable is normally clipped to the outside of structures

Duct Grade - Which has a very thick HDPE Jacket and is designed to be run in ducts. It does not bend easily but is much tougher than normal external grade and is designed to be cable of being permanently immersed in water.

Armoured Grade, which is similar to normal external Grade except that between the outer sheath and the inner sheath there is steel wire, helically wound, longitudinally along the cable to provide mechanical protection. This is designed to be buried directly into the ground.

So as you can see, it is important to buy the correct type of 'external' Cat6 for the application'

As above, why do you want to run STP over UTP as it is much harder to terminate? Even if you were running it next to an armoured mains cable, you still would not require shielded. I have clipped External Cat6 cables to SWAC mains that have already been clipped in place without a problem.
 
How are you looking to run the cable? Direct bury? Clipped to a structure? Catenary supported? In a conduit? In a service duct?

It is important to know as this will dictate the correct type of external grade cable to use. Just FYI there are 3 principal types of 'External Grade' Cat X Cable

Normal External Grade - which has a thick HDPE jacket, which is water proof, UV Resistant and tough towards abrasion. This cable is normally clipped to the outside of structures

Duct Grade - Which has a very thick HDPE Jacket and is designed to be run in ducts. It does not bend easily but is much tougher than normal external grade and is designed to be cable of being permanently immersed in water.

Armoured Grade, which is similar to normal external Grade except that between the outer sheath and the inner sheath there is steel wire, helically wound, longitudinally along the cable to provide mechanical protection. This is designed to be buried directly into the ground.

So as you can see, it is important to buy the correct type of 'external' Cat6 for the application'

As above, why do you want to run STP over UTP as it is much harder to terminate? Even if you were running it next to an armoured mains cable, you still would not require shielded. I have clipped External Cat6 cables to SWAC mains that have already been clipped in place without a problem.


Hi, the cable will be going out my main building 3 metres into another building, I have some conduit there that I can use, it won't be going underground.
 
The 3 metre run. Is the cable exposed to the environment? Where abouts is this? Clipped to a building? Please explain that 3m run. If it is exposed could it be protected by another means? Additional conduit? Flexi-conduit? Alkathene pipe?
 
The 3 metre run. Is the cable exposed to the environment? Where abouts is this? Clipped to a building? Please explain that 3m run. If it is exposed could it be protected by another means? Additional conduit? Flexi-conduit? Alkathene pipe?


It's going outdoors 3 metres, I have some 20mm flexible plastic conduit that I can use.
 
It's going outdoors 3 metres, I have some 20mm flexible plastic conduit that I can use.

Assuming this is for personal use, ie, your house to a summer house/external office/what not then, I'd personally (and did!) just bang a few runs of normal CAT6 in. If you run a couple/few, you've got fall back... if they all somehow break/fail, snip the ends off and pull more through?

Low/no cost.



I’ve got 6 runs in this along with 2 HDMI and 2 coax. It's roughly 12m.

BDACB0C6-D009-40D7-AF66-BFC31F425590.jpeg


5A874030-E19F-47A4-BFD1-34B157A45C07.jpeg


C8E19DE9-5A9A-43CC-95FE-19ECEF3A24BF.jpeg




Then in this, which runs under the patio/grass, I have a 30amp Shielded/armoured feed, with 2 CAT6. Ready for when the jungle gym goes and hot tub arrives :D

9B2C5771-A60E-46BD-9018-06B077745F77.jpeg
 
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Just Don’t!!! Internal Cat6 will become brittle under UV and will eventually crack. Once that happens water will get inside the outer sheathing and will eventually track the end of the cable where it will either short out the socket or the device it’s plugged into. I have now replaced 2 switches and a camera where the client has done exactly this. For the sake of a few extra pounds, do the job properly. There is a reason for external grade CatX cable. Do the job once and do it right.
 
If the external run is entirely protected by conduit then there is no particular need to use external grade cable although it will be more robust than “standard”.

If it were me I’d stick with unshielded (UTP) Cat6, and would probably use LSOH (low smoke zero halogen) internal cable, but run at least two cables so as to have some redundancy against future damage.

If you want some additional protection then use external grade cable by all means.

If you have any exposed cable then only use external grade, and if there is any risk of mechanical damage to the cable then think about steel armoured (with appropriate glands/terminations onto a suitable mounting box) at each end.
 
Just Don’t!!! Internal Cat6 will become brittle under UV and will eventually crack. Once that happens water will get inside the outer sheathing and will eventually track the end of the cable where it will either short out the socket or the device it’s plugged into. I have now replaced 2 switches and a camera where the client has done exactly this. For the sake of a few extra pounds, do the job properly. There is a reason for external grade CatX cable. Do the job once and do it right.

What cable do you recommend?
 
If it’s all in conduit I agree. If it’s exposed at all, that section at least should be external grade cable. If it is clipped, normal external grade. I run this stuff in a lot and it’s what I use. I ran in 40m of External Grade Cat6 to a summerhouse last month, I have run in 100m of armoured Cat6 for a garden room this summer and I am going to run in 50m of armoured for a garden centre greenhouse next week.

just use External Grade Cat6. It’s not that expensive.

External Cat6 UTP LDPE Solid Cable (Reel) | Cat6 Cable
 
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