IP Ratings Explained – DIY in 5 Ep 201

Опубликовано 2 июля 2023, 13:00

Does your phone have the IP rating to handle falling into a puddle? If you need IP ratings explained or how to tell what your device’s rating is, you’re in the right place. IP ratings, short for ingress protection ratings, refer to the level of protection offered by an electrical enclosure against solids and liquids. You’ve most likely seen phones advertised with ratings of IP67 or IP68. Possibly you’ve also seen USB drives rated as IPX8. Let’s break down the meaning of these numbers so we can read them.

Ratings explained
According to the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission), the first numeral of an IP rating describes its protection against solid objects such as dust. The scale goes from 0 (no protection) to 6 (no ingress of dust). The second numeral of the rating measures the enclosure’s protection against liquids such as water, and its scale goes from 0 (no protection) to 9 (high-pressure/hot temperature water jets from different angles).
Premium phones like the Pixel 7 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S23+, or the latest iPhones will commonly be rated as IP68. The ‘6’ shows that this phone is rated as dust tight, i.e. dust cannot pass. The second numeral shows the phone is resistant to continuous water immersion up to a specific depth (details provided by the manufacturer). Check these details independently, but it should be more than capable of withstanding up to 3ft of water for up to 30 minutes. A word of caution: salt water is generally not used in IP testing, so proceed with care around seawater.

IP rated products
It isn’t only smartphones that receive IP ratings. The same standards apply to devices such as USB drives or external SSDs. Any device you carry with you could encounter dust or liquids at some point. Having a device built to protect against those hazards can save your hide in a scary situation. It’s reasonable to expect an IP rated drive will be more expensive than a non-rated drive from the same company. The durability, testing, and certification of rated devices costs more to produce. Kingston offers multiple IP rated options, from the latest IronKey line of encrypted USB flash drives to the XS2000 External SSD. Rugged types fear not! Your data will be A-okay!

Conclusion
Now we know how to interpret these ratings, let’s talk about warranties. If your product fails because of dust and/or water, it’s generally not covered under warranty. While it’s true that you could take a brand new Kingston IronKey flash drive and submerge it under water without issue, it’s also true that a drive will undergo normal wear and tear, and a flash drive that has been dropped a lot will have minute cracks, invisible to the naked eye. Similarly, phones that have been repaired after drops lose their IP ratings, because they can’t be restored to their original state. However, sometimes a phone will come through even after a bad drop. Phones have emerged from sudden dives into storm drains still firing on all cylinders. Just goes to show the value of a high IP rating.
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Timecodes:
0:00 Intro
1:07 Ratings Explained
2:23 IP Rated Products
3:10 Warranties
3:59 Outro