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IP67 records that a sample enclosure was lowered into still fresh water, held there for thirty minutes with its lowest point one metre down, and then found to have admitted no harmful quantity of water. That is a single short event on a new sample in clean water at a controlled temperature, and nothing in it describes an instrument working while submerged for a shift. Continuous immersion belongs to the next level up, which carries no default conditions at all and means nothing until the manufacturer states a depth and a duration beside it. On most borescopes the figure covers the probe tube only.
What the six and the seven in IP67 each certify
An IP code under IEC 60529 is two independent digits bolted together, and reading it as a single quality score is where most of the trouble starts. The first digit grades protection against solid foreign objects, running from a bare enclosure up to level six, which is dust tight. Level six is demonstrated in a dust chamber with a depression maintained inside the enclosure, so the test actively draws talc toward any gap rather than waiting for it to drift in. An instrument that passes has a genuinely closed case as far as particles are concerned.
The second digit grades protection against water, and it is not a single ladder. Levels one and two cover dripping water, three covers spraying, four covers splashing from any direction, five covers a jet from a nozzle and six covers a powerful jet. Level seven changes the question entirely: instead of water being thrown at the case, the case is put under water. Because the mechanism is different, passing seven does not imply passing five or six. A seam that holds back a static head of water can still leak when a jet drives water into it at an angle, which is why dual marks exist for products that have been proven against both.
So IP67 says dust tight, and survived one defined immersion. It does not say sealed, it does not say submersible in service, and it does not say jet proof.
Temporary immersion is a test condition, not a duty cycle
The immersion test has a shape that is easy to lose sight of once the two digits are printed on a box. One sample. Thirty minutes. Still water, not flowing and not agitated. Fresh water, with the water temperature held close to the temperature of the sample so that the air trapped inside does not contract sharply. No mechanical load, no vibration, no repeated cycling in and out, and in the usual case no power applied. Afterwards the sample is opened and judged against a criterion of no harmful quantity of water, which is a judgement about whether the ingress would impair safety or function, not a promise that the inside stayed bone dry.
Compare that with the job people actually have in mind. A probe left in a sump for an eight hour shift is sixteen times the test duration, repeated daily. A probe pushed into a wet duct is in moving water with grit in it. A probe that has been in a hot engine bay and goes straight into cold water is in exactly the thermal situation the test avoids, because the warm air inside contracts as it cools and the resulting internal depression pulls water past every seal instead of leaving it outside. None of those conditions were demonstrated, and none of them are implied by the mark.
On a borescope the rating often stops at the probe
Inspection cameras make this unusually visible because they are two enclosures in one product. The tube is a sealed cylinder with a bonded window and no openings, which is comparatively easy to seal. The handset carries a screen, a battery, a charging port, a memory card slot and a joystick, and each of those is an opening that would have to be sealed separately. The Ralcam articulating borescope handles this honestly: the same bullet that gives a 6.2 mm slim probe with six LEDs at three brightness levels also carries the note that only the probe is waterproof to that level, and the 4.3 inch screen that sits on the other end of the ten foot semi rigid cable is plainly outside it.
Other listings in the same shape of product leave the question open. The Mrcartool N180 publishes 360 degree rotation and 210 degree flexion, three selectable resolution modes of 1280 x 720, 1920 x 1080 and 2592 x 1944, and a four foot semi rigid cable, and gives no ingress figure anywhere: Not stated in the listing bullets. The second Ralcam inspection camera describes six high visibility LEDs that give a clear view in wet or dark areas and a built in 32 GB memory card recording to JPG and AVI, and that phrase about wet areas is about illumination, not about sealing. Reading it as a waterproofing claim is a mistake the sentence invites and does not make.
When you are choosing between tubes of similar diameter, the sealing statement deserves as much attention as the articulation. The comparison of slim probe borescopes and the discussion of the smallest probe cameras available both turn on what the tube can be pushed into, and a tube that may be dunked briefly is a different tool from one that may be left in standing water.
Clean still water is the only water in the test
The liquid in the test is fresh water. That single word rules out a surprising amount of real work. Chlorinated pool water, brackish or salt water, machine coolant, condensate carrying dissolved combustion acids, detergent solutions and cleaning solvents are all outside the test conditions, and they fail in two different ways. Surfactants lower the surface tension of the liquid so that it wicks into gaps that plain water would bridge and sit on top of. Solvents and some coolants attack the elastomer the gasket is made from, so the seal that held on day one is softened or swollen by the time it matters.
Depth is the other quiet assumption. Static pressure rises by roughly 9.8 kPa for every metre of fresh water, so the test applies about 9.8 kPa at the bottom of the sample and less at the top. A pressure washer applies orders of magnitude more than that in a concentrated spot, and so does a deep tank. If the water chemistry is the thing you are investigating in the first place, a sealed instrument designed for the liquid is the right tool, which is why water quality testers are built around immersible probes rather than around dunked electronics.
| Element of the test | What the standard fixes | What it says nothing about |
|---|---|---|
| Depth | Lowest point one metre down, highest point at least 150 mm down | Deeper tanks, jets, pressure washing, wave action |
| Duration | Thirty minutes, once | A working shift, daily repetition, seals that weep slowly |
| Liquid | Fresh water | Pool water, salt water, coolant, solvents, detergent |
| Temperature | Water held close to the sample temperature | A warm instrument plunged into cold water |
| Sample | New units representing the design | Your unit, after shipping, assembly variation and age |
| Outcome | No harmful quantity of water admitted | A guarantee that nothing at all got in |
Seals that passed once, and what undoes them later
Ingress protection is a property of an assembly, and assemblies age. Elastomer gaskets take a compression set, meaning they stop springing back after long periods squeezed in a groove, and a gasket that has lost its recovery seals well under pressure and badly when the case flexes. Thermal cycling works screws loose and pumps air in and out of any unsealed vent. Grit on a sealing face holds the two halves apart along a line thinner than a hair, which is all a static head of water needs. Sunlight hardens exposed rubber. A cable gland that has been bent sharply at the entry point loses its grip on the jacket.
Then there is the user side. A port cover left open, a battery door refitted on one latch, a memory card slot plug lost in a van, a cover screwed down unevenly so the gasket is squeezed at one end and loose at the other, a scratched window that has lost its bond at the edge. A borescope cable that has been crushed or nicked lets water into the tube from the middle rather than the tip, where no amount of care at the camera end will help. None of this shows up on the mark, and all of it moves the real behaviour away from the laboratory result.
Deciding whether your probe may go in at all
Work through it in order. First, find out which part of the product the figure covers, because on an inspection camera the usual answer is the tube and not the handset. Second, check whether a depth and a duration are published, and treat a bare code with no conditions as a one off event rating rather than an operating permission. Third, match the liquid: if it is not clean fresh water, the test did not cover it. Fourth, assume the seals are older and dirtier than the ones that passed, and inspect the sealing faces before you commit the instrument. Fifth, dry and open the instrument afterwards rather than storing it wet, because the damage from a small amount of trapped water is slow and quiet.
The better answer is often not to put anything in the water. If the question is where water has got to inside a structure, the measurement can usually be made from the dry side through the temperature difference that wet material creates as it evaporates, which is the whole premise behind using thermal imaging to find water leaks and the reason a camera chosen for leak work is judged on sensitivity rather than on sealing. An instrument that never enters the water cannot be ruined by it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does IP67 mean the instrument is also protected against a hose?
Not automatically. The second digit is a ladder only as far as six. An enclosure that passed the temporary immersion test at level seven has not necessarily been subjected to the jet tests at levels five and six, because a design can hold a static head of water and still leak when a directed jet drives water at a seal edge. Manufacturers who want to claim both publish a dual mark, with the jet level and the immersion level shown together.
How deep is the immersion test, exactly?
For an enclosure small enough to fit the general case, the sample is lowered so that the lowest point sits one metre below the surface and the highest point sits at least 150 mm below it, and it stays there for thirty minutes. Taller enclosures are handled by a different arrangement in the same standard. One metre of fresh water is a gauge pressure of roughly 9.8 kPa, which is a gentle load compared with what a pressure washer or a deep tank applies.
Is the instrument tested while it is switched on?
Usually not, and the standard does not require it. The ingress test is about the enclosure, so the sample is normally unpowered and at a temperature close to the water. That matters because a working instrument is warm inside, and the trapped air contracts as it cools in the water, which lowers the internal pressure and pulls water toward every seal rather than pushing it away.
Why do borescope listings say only the probe is waterproof?
Because the probe and the handset are two different enclosures joined by a cable. The probe is a sealed metal tube with a bonded window and no openings, which is a straightforward thing to seal. The handset has a screen bezel, a charging port, a memory card slot and buttons, and sealing all of those to the same level costs more than the product is built for. The honest listings say so in the same bullet that gives the rating.
Does a rating apply to the unit I actually bought?
It applies to the design, demonstrated on samples. Ingress protection is a type test, not a per unit test, so the figure describes what the design achieved on a new sample under laboratory conditions. Variation in how a gasket seats, whether a cover was torqued evenly at assembly and whether grit reached a sealing face during shipping all sit outside what the mark can tell you.
What should I look for if I genuinely need continuous immersion?
Look for the eighth level of the second digit together with a stated depth and a stated duration, because that level has no default conditions and is meaningless without them. Also look for a statement about the liquid, since the test uses fresh water and says nothing about pool water, salt water, coolant or solvents. If none of that is published, treat the instrument as unsuitable for the job rather than guessing.