Had my first Hik bullet die - water got inside it...

[Razer]

So I have have my first confirmed death of a Hik due to water. I have disassembled it to try and see where the weak point was at and the best I can figure it came in around the reset switch on the back. The neat part is that is is still wet in there, and the camera has been sitting waiting for me to take it apart for almost a month! Once it got in it was not getting back out!

I was planning to take this one apart and use the cable for another one that has damaged pins out of the box but the cable is not going anywhere as it is sealed to the casing with some type of sealant that was poured around the cable sealing it very well. My vendor said it was installation damage, but it was not. Not much I can do to argue though. The camera did power back up after being off for a month, but it was stuck in night mode, and some spots on the sensor appear to be bad. Could be water in there though too as it was truly fogged in there.

Anyway, I have now had three total Hikvision issues. Water damage to one. One got a stuck IR filter inside of a week of being installed. One with pin damage to the cable fresh out of the box. Not bad at all really with the amount I use, I've lost count but it has to be 200 at this point. I just ordered 42 more yesterday actually (from a new vendor too)


I may have a couple coming back dead due to a lightning strike but I've not got them back to test yet. Still, when my ACTi cameras took a hit they ALL died and so far the Hiks are much more robust.

 

[Mike]

Yikes, sorry to hear that!

 

[Razer]

Oh I'm not upset, I actually think the failure rate is pretty good. That's only what, a 1.5% failure rate so far? That is better than I expected when I first started out with these cameras and is much better than my ACTi failure rate.

If I get very many with water though I'll have to do something about the reset switch to permanently seal it even if it renders the button useless. I'd rather not have a working button as I virtually never use them.

 

[fenderman]

I think the button will still work if you use regular outdoor silicon sealant...you can probably just peel the silicon off if you ever need to...

 

[LittleBrother]

Given how good the network connector sealing looks I had--obviously wrongly--just assumed that the reset button was waterproof. It should be; it's easy enough to build a button like that that is waterproof. The silicone idea should work, though.

 

[Razer]

The button is just rubber and in a little metal formed spot on the inside of the camera that it fits into. Looks like it would be pretty water resistant to me but this one leaked for some reason. No one used the button, and none of my other cameras have failed like this. I got over three inches of rain overnight and not a single camera cared so it's not all of them or even very mane of them.

As mentioned though a little silicone over that spot would be a better bet if the camera is likely to fail. The replacement I'm putting up I told the installer to give the button a dab just to be sure as it has happened once in this cameras location.

I'm attaching s few photos, you can see the white chalky residue near the button, that showed up as it dried out, it was just wet when I opened it up. The silver piece looks liike water got by one edge of the seal. There are supposed to be two screws in the silver piece that holds down the rubber button on the inside but I did not put in them back in for these quick photos for you guys.


View attachment IMG_20141014_164043.jpg

 

[nayr]

yeah it may be a locational issue, if the camera is subject to some pretty extreme winds it can push water past seals if air pressure becomes high enough.. or the seal was defective, its BS they say its an install issue... you didnt install it underwater, I'd bet more likely that the seal was defective.

 

[fenderman]

Just goes to show you that vendors come up with excuses when it comes to warranty repairs....For a guy like Razer who buys lots of them, they should eat the cost and do the repair.

 

[nayr]

This was more the result of Hik's design than anything else. My dahua cameras dont have external reset buttons, there behind a gasket panel with a security torx keeping tension, seems like a smarter design.

at least its not a common issue, might wiggle the reset button and see if its sloppy or got play before installing, then add silicon if needed or suspicious.. or just silicon them all and never have this issue again, I imagine his installer replacing the camera and having to bite the cost will be a motivation to ensure it dont happen again.

still a pretty damn good failure rate overall for cheap Chinese hardware that gets installed outdoors, Hik is doing alot of things right.. back in the day I'd get an analogue Chinese camera with a 3yr no hastle warranty added on that cost the price of the camera, and then the next several years I would exercise the warranty a half dozen or more times.

 

[Razer]

I did not even try to return the water damaged one.

The two I did send in they fixed the IR filter one, the one with the bent pins in the tail they would not fix. They said it looked like the wires were not fully cut from a pass through end and it bent a couple of the pins down. I said fine, I understand how that could happen, but we do not even use those style connectors, don't have that type of ends or crimp tools even. They never responded and just sent it back, and that was after at least 150 cameras from that vendor. I felt that I was not expecting too much there but whatever, I'm not upset but I was surprised. I'd buy again from them, but I have found a slightly better deal now anyway so I'm trying another vendor for now.

I'm very pleased with the failure rate though, cameras will always go bad but at least now when they do is a camera at roughly $150 and not $400 for a 1mp camera like not all that long ago. Now I need hemispheric cameras to get at least half as costly and I'd be really happy!