IP20, IP65 or IP67: Choosing the Right Rating for LED Strip

IP ratings are one of the few lighting specifications with a precise, testable definition — and one of the most commonly misapplied.

What the two digits mean

An IP rating is always two digits. They are independent of each other.

First digit, solids:

Second digit, water:

So IP65 is dust tight and jet resistant. IP67 is dust tight and survives temporary immersion.

Note the thing that surprises people: IP67 is not automatically better than IP65 for every purpose. The water digits are not a straight ladder. A product rated for immersion has usually been sealed as a closed body, and some IP67 constructions perform less well under sustained high-pressure jetting than an IP65 product designed for it. For architectural lighting this rarely matters, but the numbers are not simply higher is safer.

Where each belongs

IP20 — dry, indoor, concealed. Coves, pelmets, under-cabinet, shelf lighting, inside joinery, behind panels. Anywhere the strip is protected by the building fabric and will never see moisture.

IP67 — exposed, wet, or uncertain. External signage, covered terraces, bathrooms, kitchens, pool surrounds, planters, anywhere subject to washdown, anywhere condensation is plausible.

Three places people get this wrong

Bathrooms above the splash zone. A cove detail at ceiling level looks dry. It is not — it sits in the path of rising steam, and steam condenses on the coolest surface it reaches. An IP20 strip in a bathroom cove will collect moisture on the board over months.

Covered outdoor areas. A soffit under a deep overhang stays dry in vertical rain. It does not stay dry in wind-driven rain, and it never stays dry in Hong Kong humidity. Anything outside the building envelope should be IP67 regardless of how sheltered it looks on the section drawing.

Commercial kitchens. Not a water problem, a cleaning problem. Kitchen surfaces get jetted and chemically cleaned. IP20 in a commercial kitchen is a warranty claim waiting to happen.

The mistake that actually causes most failures

Specifying IP67 and then breaking it on site.

An IP67 rating describes the product as manufactured — a sealed body. The moment you cut it, you have created an open end with the board exposed, and that end is IP20 no matter what the datasheet says.

An IP67 installation requires end caps properly fitted and sealed on every cut end, the cable entry sealed where the cable leaves the extrusion, connections outside the wet zone or in a rated enclosure, and the driver in a dry location or its own rated housing.

A run of IP67 neon flex with a bare cut end tucked behind a fascia will fail, and it will look like a product defect rather than an installation defect.

This is why we supply cut to length. A factory-terminated end is sealed properly. If you cut on site, budget for capping it properly — the cap and the sealant are the cheapest part of the job and the only part that determines whether the rating survives.

A note on drivers

The driver is almost always the weakest point in a wet-area installation. It has vents, it generates heat, and it is frequently mounted for maintenance access, which usually means a less protected location.

Specifying IP67 strip and then hanging an IP20 driver in the same ceiling void solves nothing. Whatever protection the run needs, the driver needs to match it or be relocated.

We do not supply drivers, so this decision sits with your electrical design. Worth checking early rather than at commissioning.