Direct burial cable recommendation

[105437]

It’s been almost 8 years since we built our house. At that time, I ran several Cat5e runs to outdoor cameras using direct burial cable.

Just recently I’ve had issues with one camera that’s ~270 feet from the PoE switch in the garage. Cable tester shows there’s a short somewhere.

Rather than trying to find where the shirt is and patch it, I’m going to replace the run. Looking for some good quality direct burial cable and would appreciate some recommendations. Thanks

 

[micropone]

any DD cable is fine monoprice or unifi.. We're using commscope. cat6 on the pricey side.

 

[iwanttosee]

23 awg is SOLID copper is what I'd look for. NO CCA.

 

[105437]

any DD cable is fine monoprice or unifi.. We're using commscope. cat6 on the pricey side

Thanks for the reply, what is DD cable? How about something like this?

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=15398

 

[105437]

Or this...

Amazon.com

 

[105437]

Cat5e, Cat6 or Cat6a?

 

[tmxv4128]

TrueCable has some excellent direct burial cable that I have used. Search: 36 results found for "Cat6 Direct Burial｜Unshielded"

 

[tigerwillow1]

As an alternative , if the short is in the orange or green pair, you could swap the bad pair with brown or blue. Adding for due diligence, the camera has to be unplugged when using the cable tester.

 

[iwanttosee]

Cat5e, Cat6 or Cat6a?

Cat5e is easier to work with and some would supports 2.5 Gbit/s.

 

[105437]

Cat5e is easier to work with and some would supports 2.5 Gbit/s.

So all things considered for a buried run of this length, Cat5e is just fine? Thanks for the reply.

 

[iwanttosee]

So all things considered for a buried run of this length, Cat5e is just fine? Thanks for the reply.

Yes, Cat5e is what I use at my own house. 23awg and SOLID copper are more important.

 

[Techie007L]

@105437 The problem with direct-burying Ethernet cable is that critters (moles, mice, etc.) will find it and eventually chew into it. This is likely what has caused the short. It's much better to bury it in conduit. And I echo the sentiments of the others—Cat 5e is fine, use solid copper, and with the length of this run using PoE, be sure to use 23awg instead of 24 to minimize voltage drop. That said, gel filled will help keep water out, and the taste might discourage critters from chewing past the main sheath into the wires.

 

[105437]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I've ordered a better tester that will tell me which pairs are shorted. It can estimate where the short is. I'm sure that's probably not very accurate. If I can find the damage, I'll patch it temporarily while I run new conduit the length of the run.

 

[105437]

Searching for different options to use as conduit. Is gray PVC pipe conduit the most economical one to use?

 

[mat200]

Searching for different options to use as conduit. Is gray PVC pipe conduit the most economical one to use?

That's what I've used .. worked well enough so far for me