Camera Water Issue

Hello, I purchased several IPC-T5442T from Andy. They have been mounted under a over hang so they had not gotten wet. This past week we had a rain storm and they got wet. When I looked through the camera I could see through the photo that there was water in the lens see photo. Has this happened to anyone and if so is there a way to remove the front lens to get the water out. Thanks for the help.

There has been a seal failure. You need to take the camera apart, clean the internal surface of view port, bake dry the internals, replace silica pack, and close with addition of silicone grease on seals.

Dismount the camera. You will see the two halves of camera sphere are bolted together.
Unbolt and take the two halves apart. Also remove the memory card access door. Be care not to damage the sealing gaskets.

Continue camera take apart to get access to view port interior surface from its interior. Clean that.

Reassemble components, but do not close up the sphere halves.

Bake dry all the camera components in dehydrator at 120 to 156F for several hours.

Place new silica get packet into camera.

Pull off the gaskets and coat them witht silicone grease before putting gaskets back into their grooves.

Finally bolt the sphere and memory access door back together.

+1^^^.
Do this on this lowest relative humidity day you can.....avoid kitchen, bath or basement (generally).
If you cannot get new desiccant packs (best) put yours in some uncooked instant rice for several hours while the cam is being dehydrated.
Allow the cam to cool to room temp after removing from dehydrator before re-assembly.

Can anyone answer a question since Andy who I bought these from has not answered any of my emails. Are these water proof or water resistant I am not sure what to think this camera was mounted underneath an over hang which generally gets minimal water. I used the email on my receipt from the purchase of the camera to contact Andy does anyone have any way of contacting him I find it very disappointing that he has not responded to my email. Thank you for the help

Andy is a member here so simply send him a DM at empiretecandy. Plus you first posted this on a weekend. Give him time to return to the office.

They are IP67 rated which means it is "dust resistant" and can be "immersed in 1 meter of freshwater for up to 30 minutes".

New they can survive a flood:



But keep in mind seals fail and desiccant packs fully absorb. These cameras are out in the elements and seals will dry out. Just like your car needs to go in for periodic maintenance.

Or maybe your seal didn't fail, but the desiccant pack has completely absorbed and the rapid temperature change from a warm/hot camera getting soaked with a rain event pulled the moisture from the desiccant pack and it is internal condensation that you see and not rain entry.

If you opened the back to put in an SD card or do a factory reset, you may not have sealed it all the way or the seal rolled or you let in moisture thru humidity and it just happened to rear its ugly head during a high humidity rain event.

It happens to Hikvision and other cameras as well, so don't think it is isolated to Andy's cameras. This isn't the first thread where this has happened with a Dahua OEM or any other camera.

These desiccant packs don't last forever, and like a vehicle with periodic maintenance, we should be swapping these out periodically, but most of us don't LOL and simply deal with the problem camera when it happens. Fortunately most do not have an issue, but unfortunately some do and we have hundreds of threads of all different manufactures where this has happened to.

Follow the advice given above, that is the same advice given when someone posts a thread like this, and they get many more years of satisfactory performance from their camera.

Even if not in direct weather, thermal cycling (warming up, cooling down) also causes devices to drawn in damp air that condenses and collects but never exits so its important to also caulk the pigtail that enters the camera with non-gassing sealant, waterproof the Ethernet connection and use dielectric grease as mentioned here.

Thanks for the responses. To clarify I emailed Andy at an email address provided on my receipt several days ago so I did not come here looking for him. I came here looking for advice.

My Cameras were purchased 18 months ago so I hope age is not the issue.

I bought the system because I thought these were quality cameras based on reviews here.

But in real usage so far not impressed. Not sure why none of this was in the manual or Andy give some tips like these when purchasing if these are things I need to do to prevent water not condensation from getting in the camera.

No need to respond to this reply Hopefully someday Andy will return my email. As for a homeowner wanting a plug and play set up I would think twice.

I feel your frustration, but these cameras are not plug-n-play solutions.

I assumed in my response that you emailed him and posted here around the same time period, which would have been the weekend in Hong Kong where Andy is located.

And as I said, these desiccant packs don't last forever and could last 3 months to years depending on the install location. These are not covered under warranty, just like driving a new car off the lot and getting a nail in the tire isn't covered either.

Have you never had a window in your house condensate over in some weird weather event? Or a car window fog up? Basically the same phenomenon is probably what happened in this situation. Happens to my neighbors Ring camera all the time. One of my Swann cameras prior to finding these cameras completely filled up with water. Now that is a real problem.

Maybe you experienced a 1 every 10 years event that would cause condensation to appear.

The Dahua and Hikvisions of the world do not cater to the "consumer" market - their target audience are professional installers that know what to do with these cameras and service their clients (but you are also paying 5-6 times more than you paid for these), so we are considered "prosumer" and we are fortunate to get our hands on these types of cameras and NVRs instead of consumer grade junk and not having to go thru professional installers to get quality gear. Now the downside is we get them at a discount and without manuals and Dahua support and thus are on our own to figure it out. And we are just fine with that! That is what forums like this are for!!!

You really need to be asking yourself do you want quality cameras to capture quality video at night with motion OR do you want the "plug-n-play" simplicity scan a QR code and be tricked into thinking you have a good system (that is actually a security risk and crappy video with motion at night)?

The consumer grade Ring and Arlos and Reolink and Blink and whatever you can buy at a big box store sells just that - simplicity plug-n-play devices with very little ability to tweak settings. But that simplicity comes at the expense of usable video with motion, especially at night. But out of the box and hang up quickly and be impressed with their daytime video is there. And their app and ease of use is easier also.

It is unfortunate you experienced this, but it will happen with any camera under certain conditions.

Also, I think the Gmail address that receipts from Andy come from is not his primary email... try kingsecurity2014@163.com

Let's also clarify what likely happened during this rain even.

Your camera was likely not exposed to direct rain. The water you see in the camera lens/housing is likely condensation that accumulated while the humidity level during the rain storm was 100%. This is not the first time your camera has been exposed to 100% humidity, but it is likely that the weather seal has degraded over time and this was the first time your camera has been exposed to 100% humidity with a compromised weather seal. The seal should protect the camera in either case (direct water or condensation), but I think it is important to understand what likely happened so that you can explain it to Andy accurately.

cdmixer said:

Thanks for the responses. To clarify I emailed Andy at an email address provided on my receipt several days ago so I did not come here looking for him. I came here looking for advice.

My Cameras were purchased 18 months ago so I hope age is not the issue.

I bought the system because I thought these were quality cameras based on reviews here.

But in real usage so far not impressed. Not sure why none of this was in the manual or Andy give some tips like these when purchasing if these are things I need to do to prevent water not condensation from getting in the camera.

No need to respond to this reply Hopefully someday Andy will return my email. As for a homeowner wanting a plug and play set up I would think twice.

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No such thing as Plug and Play with ANY camera, if you expect to get the best performance it is capable of.
You must tune it to your situation for best results.
These are quality cameras, contrary to your belief.

You have been given advice on how to resolve the issue.

Just like any forum people with thousands of posts generally have a vested interest in the product. Some get nice discounts for their defending of products on the forum and never will say a bad word. So when a person like me explains my issues you just can't help your help always comes with opinions which are not needed or wanted. You all gang up and act like a leaky camera that is supposed to be waterproof should just be accepted. I have 5 of the same cameras and this is the only one this has happened too so it is obviously the camera has a bad seal or something. If someone gives you a receipt for the cameras I purchased with their email address on to contact with the seller. I had an issue and I expected a return reply at some point. The assumption that I emailed him and on the same day then went to this forum to make a post is asinine. Post 11 totally unhelpful post. As I said in my last post no need to reply your help has not been helpful

cdmixer said:

Just like any forum people with thousands of posts generally have a vested interest in the product. Some get nice discounts for their defending of products on the forum and never will say a bad word.

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I can't speak for anyone else but I made over $250,000 over the last couple of years stating my satisfaction and success with Dahua IP cameras, Blue Iris software, Shelly Wi-Fi switches, CRC Dielectric Grease, G&B Duct Seal and other products. Those companies troll the Internet looking for such support and send out cash rewards. </end sarcasm>

Its called condensation. It didnt "get wet"

Shit happens

cdmixer said:

Just like any forum people with thousands of posts generally have a vested interest in the product. Some get nice discounts for their defending of products on the forum and never will say a bad word. So when a person like me explains my issues you just can't help your help always comes with opinions which are not needed or wanted. You all gang up and act like a leaky camera that is supposed to be waterproof should just be accepted. I have 5 of the same cameras and this is the only one this has happened too so it is obviously the camera has a bad seal or something. If someone gives you a receipt for the cameras I purchased with their email address on to contact with the seller. I had an issue and I expected a return reply at some point. The assumption that I emailed him and on the same day then went to this forum to make a post is asinine. Post 11 totally unhelpful post. As I said in my last post no need to reply your help has not been helpful

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Dude - your first post was this:

"Hello, I purchased several IPC-T5442T from Andy. They have been mounted under a over hang so they had not gotten wet. This past week we had a rain storm and they got wet. When I looked through the camera I could see through the photo that there was water in the lens see photo. Has this happened to anyone and if so is there a way to remove the front lens to get the water out. Thanks for the help."

The next two posts answered your question.

Your next post was this:

"Can anyone answer a question since Andy who I bought these from has not answered any of my emails. Are these water proof or water resistant I am not sure what to think this camera was mounted underneath an over hang which generally gets minimal water. I used the email on my receipt from the purchase of the camera to contact Andy does anyone have any way of contacting him I find it very disappointing that he has not responded to my email. Thank you for the help"

The next post answered your question and mentioned why maybe Andy didn't answer, and provided links showing hundreds of posts where people have asked the same thing.

Keep in mind, you got these cameras cheaper because 1-800 support lines and after sale support is not provided, although Andy usually does a decent job of providing some limited support after the initial purchase. Contact a Dahua authorized installer and you will pay 5 times what you paid for your 5442 camera and even then they won't cover condensation.

As pointed out, this is a simple condensation issue that can happen under certain conditions. Folks that have had it happen have more cameras than you and it only happened to one that just happened to meet all the criteria to allow condensation to form. So many factors come into play as to why one on this side of the house experienced it and one on the other side didn't.

So you have never had a house window condensate up under a certain condition? I have one that will do so once every 3-5 years. The air vent is directly below it and sometimes the atmospheric conditions cause just that window to get a little bit of condensate.

You have never got into a car and then the window steams up due to your body warmth and breath?

Condensation happens. It can happen to any camera under the right conditions.

You have a camera on 24/7 with electronics heating the thing up - some have shown with a temperature gun that these things can exceed 100 degrees F. It is totally possible that the right atmospheric conditions can happen to condensate up the moisture within the air inside the camera. Especially with a fully absorbed desiccant pack.

It's basic thermodynamics.

Here is a Google search of condensation inside camera and you will see just about EVERY manufacturer talks about it and how it happens and how to get rid of it (it is basically what was mentioned above).

Here is a representative article from one of the links in that search from a company that provides after sale support and service contracts and even they are like "not covered" and here is how to fix it:

.

You got your answers from members here on how to open it up and fix it, which was your request in your first post, and the response would be the same if it came from Andy, but it now seems you would rather bash a seller for after sales support that you didn't pay for....

I do not nor have I EVER received ANY COMPENSATION from Andy!
Although @SJGUSMC21 once offered to buy me lunch if I drive 350
miles to his home and I'll offer YOU Mr. @cdmixer the same.
Now YOU have been offered said compensation too!

And it is still water spots.

Now I gotta study up on thermodynamics and condensates... geesh

bigredfish said:

Now I gotta study up on thermodynamics and condensates... geesh

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Since you live in a warm state you can't experiment by having a new camera in the nice warmth of a house for a week and then go install it on a sub 32 degree day and watch condensation happen LOL (don't ask me how I know )

But you could put a new camera in the freezer for a few days and then go immediately install it on a 90 degree day in the blazing sun and tell us how long it took for condensation to form LOL.

But the OP lives in the perfect paradise that is Massachusetts where they are taught to blame others and take no responsibility themselves.

Oh its time for the minions to attack someone looking for help. thousands of dollars spent on Andys Empire Camera's (1yr ago) and no response or return call on a leaking camera........ Looney GFY. Enjoy your free stuff, discounts with 15,000 posts your either getting something for free or your doing this out of the kindness of your heart which I doubt. Go ahead keyboard warriors sitting in your bedrooms have your fun. 15,000 posts SMHYFL.