What Are IP Ratings and How to Use Them

You're shopping for an outdoor light and you see 'IP65' in the specs. You think, 'That sounds official,' and move on. Same energy as when a doctor says your cholesterol is 'borderline.' You nod. You don't fully process it. You go home and eat the cheese anyway.

But here's the thing—IP ratings are one of the more genuinely useful pieces of information on a lighting spec sheet. Once you understand what the numbers mean, they make it a lot easier to pick the right fixture for where it's actually going.

What IP Actually Stands For

IP stands for Ingress Protection—basically, how well a product's enclosure keeps the outside world out. Dust, water, your garden hose, the rain. The rating was developed by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the global body that standardizes electrical specs, and it's used worldwide, including in the US.

Every IP rating is written as 'IP' followed by two digits—like IP44, IP65, or IP67. The first digit (scale of 0-6) tells you how resistant the product is to solid objects and dust. The second digit (scale of 0-8) covers moisture. Higher number = more protection.

A quick cheat sheet:

·         First digit (solids): 0 = no protection. 1-4 = protected from increasingly small objects, down to 1mm. 5 = dust protected (limited ingress). 6 = completely dust tight.

·         Second digit (liquids): 0 = no protection. 1-3 = drips and light rain. 4 = splash proof from any direction. 5 = direct water jets. 6 = powerful jets. 7 = brief submersion (up to 1m for 30 min). 8 = continuous submersion.

With that in your back pocket, let's walk through the ratings you'll actually encounter.

IP44: Splash Proof

IP44 means protected from solid objects larger than 1mm (so no wires or small tools sneaking in) and splash proof from any direction. This is the minimum for fixtures that live outdoors in non-harsh environments—covered patios, garden paths, places where rain and sprinklers are routine but a direct hose-down isn't.

In bathroom wiring regulations, IP44 is also the minimum required for Zone 1 (directly above your tub or shower tray, up to about 7 feet from the floor) and Zone 2 (around the sink, extending out from the shower perimeter). If water can splash it but isn't being directed at it, IP44 has you covered.

If you're working with low-voltage landscape lighting that needs to hold up in a garden—sprinklers, morning dew, the occasional dramatic thunderstorm—IP44 is appropriate. Sunco's Brass Landscape Pathway Light, Smooth Hooded carries an IP44 rating. It's built for exactly this; elegant enough for a landscaped front yard, rated for the weather that comes with it.

IP65: Wet Rated

IP65 is probably the rating you'll see most often on outdoor LED lighting. The '6' means completely dust tight—nothing gets in. The '5' means it handles direct water jets from any angle. Rain, garden hoses, power washing the nearby surface. It's built for it.

What IP65 doesn't mean: submersion-proof. You can hose it down. You shouldn’t drop it in a bucket full of water. There’s a different number for that.

IP65 covers a wide range of real-world applications, from residential outdoor lighting to full industrial installs. A few Sunco products that carry it:

The Solar LED Path Lights, Round are IP65 rated—meaning your garden path setup will hold up through a full rainy season, not just look good in the catalog photo.

For commercial and industrial spaces, the UFO High Bay 150W Plug & Play is also IP65. Car wash bays, parking garages, warehouses with humidity. This one's built for the real thing.

And for the harshest environments—cold storage, tunnels, food processing—the 4ft T8 LED Ready Vapor Tight Fixture delivers IP65 in a sealed polycarbonate housing that's genuinely designed to be hosed down and keep running.

IP67: Temporarily Submerged   

IP67 means dust tight plus protection from being temporarily submerged—up to 1 meter of water for up to 30 minutes. This is where things get serious.

In bathroom wiring standards, Zone 0 is the inside of the tub or shower basin itself — the zone with the highest water exposure by definition. IP67 is the minimum rating for anything going into Zone 0, with IP68 recommended specifically for bathtubs, since they hold standing water longer than a shower floor.

IP67 also shows up in outdoor in-ground lighting, marine environments, and pool-adjacent fixtures. A few Sunco options in this category:

The LED In-Ground Well Light, Round is IP67 rated—built to sit flush in the ground and take whatever comes, including water pooling directly over it.

For path lighting with a bit more style, the Umbrella Path Light, Bronze and the Adjustable Single Head Path Light, 12-inch Stem, Bronze both carry IP67 ratings—so they look great lining a garden walkway and they're actually built to be there year-round.

IP68: Hazardous locations

IP68 has the highest water protection rating, covering continuous or prolonged submersion at depths and durations specified by the manufacturer. This is for fixtures that live in genuinely extreme environments. We're talking hazardous locations, not just 'it rains a lot.'

Sunco's IP68 products are both explosion-proof fixtures designed for industrial and hazardous settings: chemical plants, oil refineries, manufacturing facilities where flammable materials are present and a standard fixture is genuinely not safe to use.

The 4ft Explosion Proof LED Linear Strip Light, 60W and the Explosion Proof LED Flood Light, Yoke Mount, 100W are both IP68 rated. If your lighting situation requires explosion-proof certification, these are where you start. Theres also IP69, but that would be more for like, constantly being blasted with high powered jets. These are the kind of lights you'd see in a car wash or something like that.

So Which Rating Do You Actually Need?

Honest answer: it depends entirely on where the light is going and what it's going to face.

·         Dry indoor locations: IP rating often isn't required at all.

·         Damp locations, covered patios, outdoor under eaves: IP44 minimum.

·         Full outdoor exposure, industrial or wet environments: IP65.

·         In-shower or pool-adjacent installations: IP67 or higher.

·         Truly submerged or hazardous industrial settings: IP68.

The whole point of the rating system is to take the guesswork out of it. A fixture with the right IP rating for its environment isn't just more durable—it's safer, and it's actually going to last the full rated lifetime instead of dying after the first winter.

Next time you see those two little digits on a spec sheet, you'll know exactly what they're telling you.