Weather rating
IP67 marine-grade: what the rating on your exterior lights actually promises
IP67 is an ingress protection rating. The 6 means dust-tight. The 7 means the housing survives temporary immersion in water. Marine-grade silicone means the seal is built for salt, spray and sun. On a roofline in Western PA, that is the difference between a system and a seasonal product.
Reading the rating
IP stands for ingress protection, a standard that rates how well an enclosure keeps out solids and liquids. The first digit is solids on a scale to 6. The second is liquids on a scale to 8 in the common tables. IP67 is the top solid rating, fully dust-tight, and a liquid rating that covers temporary immersion in water.
In plain terms, an IP67 pixel does not care about rain, sleet, snowmelt sitting in the track, a pressure washer on the siding, or a gutter that overflows onto it in a March thunderstorm. It is sealed. Water that would kill a consumer string light in one season does not get in.
IP67 is a rating for the enclosure, not a promise about the electronics inside. Which is why the material of the enclosure matters as much as the number.
What marine-grade silicone adds
The pixels in our system at thraxel.com/permanent/ are encased in marine-grade silicone that has been salt-tested. Marine-grade is a category built for boats: constant moisture, salt spray, UV, and temperature swings. Silicone stays flexible from summer heat to a January cold snap, while cheaper plastics go brittle and crack at the seams.
Salt is the part people in Western PA skip over, and should not. Every plow truck and salt spreader from November to March throws brine onto fence lines, low rooflines, columns by the driveway and anything near a road. Dock lighting on the Allegheny or Lake Arthur gets it from the water side. Salt-tested housing means the seal was proven against exactly that.
Why the wire gauge is part of the weather story
A sealed pixel on a flimsy wire still fails, just at the wire instead of the diode. The runs in our track are 16-gauge, heavier than the wire in typical consumer lights. Heavier copper resists the fatigue of expanding and contracting across hundreds of freeze-thaw cycles and carries power to the end of a long roofline without dimming.
The silicone housing, the 16-gauge wire and the aluminum track work as a set. The track shields the housing from ice sliding off shingles and from direct sun. The housing keeps water off the connections. The wire keeps the electricity moving. Remove any one and the others matter less.
- IP67 housing: dust-tight and immersion-rated
- Marine-grade silicone: flexible in heat and cold, UV-resistant
- Salt-tested: proven against road brine and river spray
- 16-gauge wire: long-run power and freeze-thaw endurance
- Aluminum track: mechanical shield over all of it
What IP67 does not cover
Honesty. IP67 protects against water and dust ingress. It does not make a system immune to a tree limb coming down on the track, a squirrel that decides the wire is a snack, or a lightning surge on the line. Those are physical and electrical events, not weather sealing.
For those, the answer is the warranty and the service model. Parts are covered for 3 years and labor for 1 year, and because every pixel is individually addressable, damage is located precisely and repaired, typically the same day. See thraxel.com/blog/what-the-3-year-parts-warranty-covers/ for the details.
Where the rating earns its keep in our footprint
Lake-effect snow off Erie. Ice storms in the Laurel Highlands. Humid Allegheny River valley summers where everything outdoors sweats. Roads salted from Kittanning to Morgantown. A dock on a Western PA lake that gets splashed all summer and frozen all winter. This is the climate the rating is for.
It is also why we do not install lighter-duty products even when a customer asks. A cheaper strip that fails in February is not cheaper. It is a second install in April.
Check the rating on any quote
Ask two questions of any permanent lighting installer: what is the IP rating on the pixel housing, and what is the housing made of. If the answer is a lower rating or a material other than silicone, you are looking at a product built for a milder place than this one. Ours is IP67, marine-grade silicone, salt-tested, and the components are UL, ETL and CUL certified.
The consult is free and the render of your house comes within 48 hours. Set it up at thraxel.com/quote/, or reach Tyson by call or text at 724-859-4390.
