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IP Rating codes for LED strips

IP Rating codes for LED strips
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Having been tinkering with LED strips for quite some years now, I do occasionally get the question: “What do the IP ratings mean?”.

There is a short answer for that question: It indicates its protection level against water and dust.

Obviously this doesn’t say much, and things are a little more advanced that that.
So in this article I’ll go briefly into the details on what kind of IP ratings you can run into and what they mean.
This way you can consider in what kind of environment you’d like to use your LED strip and find a matching IP code.




IP Rating or the LED strip Protection Rating

IP is the abbreviation for “Ingress Protection”, or in other words the protection rating for influences from outside of the LED strip.
Protection here refers to the impact of dust, contact with objects, liquids, etc.

 The IP Rating has nothing to do with the used LED technology, it only tells us something about the “housing” of your LED strip (or lack there of).

The code is the text “IP” followed by a combination of up to 5 characters.
It is however quite common that the last 3 characters are being omitted (eg. IP20, IP65).

In short the code is build up like so:

IP Code
IP Solids Liquids Mechanical Personnel Equipment
IP 0-6, X 0-8, X, 6K, 9K  0-9 Letter Letter
Required Required Required Deprecated Optional Optional

Every IP Rating always starts with “IP“, followed by at least two characters (a number or “X”), indicating the LED strip protection against solids and liquids.
The use of IP followed by two characters is what we see most commonly.

IP Rating Codes explained

Let’s go through each segment of the available ratings, and see how we should read them.

As you can see in the table below, some make perfect sense, others can be a little weird to interpret.

 

IP Ratings details
Field Values Meaning
Identifier “IP” Standard IP rating identified
Solids
(objects touching
and/or dust)
0-6, X 0
1
2
3
4
5
6
X
No protection agains solid objects
Objects > 50 mm (2″) diameter
Objects > 12 mm (0.49″) diameter
Objects > 2.5 mm (0.098″) diameter
Objects > 1,0 mm (0.039″) diameter
Limited Dust protection
Full dust protection
No data available (unknown)
Liquids 0-8, 6K, 9K, X 0
1
2
3
4
5
6
6K
7
8
9K
X
No protection against liquids
Dripping water (vertical drops)
Dripping water (vertical and tilted up to 15° angle)
Splashing water (splashing up to 60° angle)
Splashing and Spraying water
Water jets (all directions, low power)
Water jets (all directions, high power)
Water jets (all directions, high power, increasing pressure)
Immersion/Submersion up to 1 meter (3 feet)
Immersion/Submersion 1 meter (3 feet) or more
High temperature water jets (wash down)
No data available (unknown)
Mechanical
(no longer used) 
0-9 0
1
2
3
5
7
9
No protecting against mechanical impacts 
Impact protection up to 0.225 Joule
Impact protection up to 0.375 Joule
Impact protection up to 0.60 Joule
Impact protection up to 2.0 Joule
Impact protection up to 6.0 Joule
Impact protection up to 20.0 Joule
Personnel
protection
(often omitted)
Letter A
B
C
D
Back of a hand
Finger
Tool
Wire
Equipment
protection
(often omitted)
Letter H
M
S
W
High voltage
Motion
Stationary
Weather conditions

Common Rating examples

Based on previous table, and common IP ratings seen for LED strip, here some examples:

IP20 Rating

An IP rating IP20 is suitable fo indoor use. It has limited protection against being hit by solid objects (2) and has no protection against liquids (0) that may short the strip.

LED Strip Rating: IP20

LED Strip Rating: IP20

IP20 could be used, say as decorative light behind your furniture or TV, or for placing the strip inside an object.

The individual LED’s are easy to access, and cutting a strip and/or attaching 2 strips is quite easy.
The downside is that you’ll have to pay attention to areas that are moist or dusty, and be careful what you use for mounting materials.

IP65 Rating

The IP rating IP65 is fully dust (6) and splash water (5) tight, you’ll find these typically covered in silicon.

LED Strip Rating: IP65

LED Strip Rating: IP65

This makes IP65 suitable for indoor and outdoor use, or even very suitable for bathrooms for example.
These are not intended for immersion/submersion though, even though you may get the impression they might be.

The typical silicon housing makes it nice to handle, and you do not easily need to worry about shorting things, which makes attaching these strips to something easier as well.
However, cutting and attaching 2 strips can be a little bit of a headache when having to remove the silicone without damaging the PCB or LEDs.

Note: Quite often a manufacturer makes IP64 and IP65 strips the same way.

Note: Some are covered in silicone (better), some are in a silicone tube.

 

IP68 Rating

Our last example, IP Rating IP68 is fully dust protected (6) and fully water protected (8).

LED Strip Rating: IP68

LED Strip Rating: IP68

This makes IP68 suitable for indoor, outdoor and even suitable for under water. Fore example in a Pool, Pond, Fish tank, or for use on boats.
All the pro’s and con’s are comparable to the ones of IP65.
The extra advantage is that you can submerge/immerse these in water.

Overview table IP Ratings

For convenience, I created this table, which may help in finding the proper IP rating for your application.
This table only looks at the first 2 digits (solids/liquids), which is quite common when looking at LED strips.
Ratings printed in bold are common IP ratings we’ll see with LED strips.

The price difference between the different ratings, for LED strips, is often negligible.
Therefor my selection is usually the highest rating, keeping mind that I have to work with the strip (possible cut/attach, etc), mounting options, connectors used, and that matches the cosmetics of my the project.

IP Ratings Lookup Table
Limited contact
protection
Medium contact
protection
Better contact
protection
Limited dust
protection
Full Dust
protection
No water protection IP20 IP30 IP40 IP50 IP60
Dripping IP21 IP31 IP41 IP51 IP61
Dripping (up to 15° angle) IP22 IP32 IP42 IP52 IP62
Dripping (up to 60° angle) IP23 IP33 IP43 IP53 IP63
Splashing and Spraying IP24 IP34 IP44 IP54 IP64
Water jet (low) IP25 IP35 IP45 IP55 IP65
Water jet (high) IP26 IP36 IP46 IP56 IP66
Submersion (up 1 meter/3 feet) IP27 IP37 IP47 IP57 IP67
Submersion (> 1 meter/3 feet) IP28 IP38 IP48 IP58 IP68

 

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Comments


There are 4 comments. You can read them below.
You can post your own comments by using the form below, or reply to existing comments by using the "Reply" button.

  • Mar 8, 2021 - 5:54 AM - Angelo12 Comment Link

    Perfect timing dude, just what I was looking for. Thanks for putting this all together in a nice overview.

    Reply

    Angelo12

    • Mar 8, 2021 - 6:03 AM - Hans - Author: Comment Link

      Thanks Angelo12 for taking the time to post a thank-you – it is much appreciated! 

      Reply

      Hans

  • Jun 5, 2022 - 1:16 PM - AnGeLo Comment Link

    Interesting read. I knew the codes were protection related, but it’s nice to read  the details behind the codes.

    Thanks dude!

    Reply

    AnGeLo

    • Jun 6, 2022 - 2:57 AM - Hans - Author: Comment Link

      Thank you Angelo for taking the time to post a Thank-You note! It’s very much appreciated! 

      Reply

      Hans



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