Why outdoor cameras fail early on the Dorset coast — and what survives
If you live within a mile or two of the water in Poole, Sandbanks, Christchurch or Mudeford, your outdoor kit has a harder life than the same kit in Wimborne. Salt-laden air is relentless and it does not need a storm to do damage. This is the single most common reason I get called out to replace a camera that is only a year or two old.
What actually fails
The mounting screws. Standard zinc-plated steel rusts, stains the render, and eventually lets the bracket sag so the camera is pointing at the gutter.
The cable gland. This is the small nut where the cable enters the housing. If it faces upwards, or if it was never tightened properly, moisture wicks straight in.
The lens seal. Cheap housings use a gasket that hardens, and the first thing you notice is a permanent haze in the corner of the picture that no amount of wiping fixes.
The connector block. Often the real culprit: the camera is fine, but the plug behind it has corroded green.
The ratings that matter
IP65 is sold as weatherproof and it is fine under a soffit inland. On an exposed coastal wall I fit IP66 or better, because the difference is between resisting water jets and resisting heavy seas and driving rain. Where a camera is genuinely exposed — a seafront gable, a boat store — IP67 is worth the extra.
Rating alone is not the answer. An IP67 camera on a cheap bracket with mild-steel screws will still fail, just with a better label on it.
What I do differently near the water
1 Stainless fixings, every time. A316 marine-grade where the wall is really exposed, A2 elsewhere. It is a couple of pounds a camera.
2 The gland faces down. Always. Water runs off rather than pooling around the entry point, and the drip loop does the rest.
3 Connections live inside, not outside. Where possible the joint is made in the loft or a cupboard, not in a box on the wall.
4 Housings get a thin smear of silicone grease on the seal at install, and the seal gets checked at the first service rather than on the day it leaks.
Siting beats specification
The cheapest reliability upgrade is putting the camera somewhere sheltered that still sees what you need — under an eave rather than on an open gable, on the lee side of a chimney, tucked beside a porch. A slightly worse angle from a place that stays dry will outlast a perfect angle in the weather every time.
Glare is the other coastal problem
Harbour-side houses get low sun off water for hours, and a camera pointed into it will give you a white rectangle exactly when you want a face. That is a lens and mounting-angle decision made before anything is drilled, not something to fix in software afterwards.
If you already have cameras that are struggling
Send me a photo of the camera and the wall it is on. Often the fix is a bracket and four screws rather than a new camera, and it is worth knowing which before anyone sells you a replacement.