Visited a condo complex in Phoenix last week and saw fiber terminals just dangling off the side of the building

The previous installer used those little gel tape wraps instead of proper weatherproof enclosures and now half the units are complaining about intermittent signal drops during monsoon season - has anyone else run into this kind of hack job out in the field?

2 comments

2 Comments

wesleypatel1mo ago

Yeah those gel wraps are garbage for anything that sees weather, they just turn into a gooey mess and let moisture creep in. You're gonna have to cut all that out and install proper weatherproof gel-filled closures, the ones with the gel packets inside that actually seal. Also check if they used outdoor rated cable or if they just ran indoor stuff outside, that's another common problem where the jacket degrades after a season or two. Monsoon season down there really exposes the shortcuts people take, I've seen it kill splices that lasted years in dry climates.

ninab951mo ago

My buddy Mike in Tempe had this exact same problem last year on a complex he was fixing up. He found the gel wraps had basically melted into a sticky mess after one monsoon season, and the water had corroded the connectors underneath. He spent two weekends cutting all that junk out and replacing it with proper gel-filled closures, the ones with the little packets inside. He also had to replace about 30 feet of cable that had turned brittle and cracked from the sun. It was a pain but he said the signal drops stopped right after he got it all sealed up right.