Drip Loop
A drip loop is the downward slack given to a cable before it enters an enclosure or device. Water travelling along the cable surface collects at the lowest point of the loop and drips off, never reaching the entry hole. It is standard practice for antenna, camera and outdoor field enclosure installations.
Water moves along the outer sheath of the cable through gravity and surface tension. If the cable drops straight down into the entry from above, this water reaches the sealing face of the gland directly and over time seeps in through the smallest flaw. When a loop is formed, the path the water follows ends at the lowest point and it drips off there.
- Direction: the lowest point of the loop must be clearly below the enclosure entry.
- Radius: do not go below the smallest bending radius the cable allows; a sharp loop fatigues the conductor.
- Fixing: the loop must be held with a clamp, otherwise vibration flattens it.
This simple step is as effective as a cable gland and a blanking plug, and it costs nothing in material. On receiver enclosures mounted outdoors, sensor connections and machine-mounted driver housings, position the entries facing downwards and leave a drip loop on every cable.
The context in which this term is used: Installation, redundancy and field continuity