sky cable leaking water

patrickc

yesterday my sky went so i checked all the connections etc to discover that there was water and a fair bit of it coming down through my sky cable onto my dvd recorder underneath, so I got on the phone to sky and was prepared to cancel this was shoddy work as far as I'm concerned, would you agree?
anyhow a charming cork girl got on the phone and said an engineer would come out and replace the cables free of charge early in the week i agreed.
thankfully my other equipment in the area of the water is all good, but if it had of been damaged would it be skys fault?
has anyone else ever had a similar problem?

bigpaddy2004

Yes I have often seen this happen. It can happen by a connection to the lnb not sealed properly or by a cut in the cable on the way down.

No $ky would not pay out. Who is to say its not the manufactures fault whom made the cable if there was a cut in in?

patrickc

bigpaddy2004 wrote: »

Yes I have often seen this happen. It can happen by a connection to the lnb not sealed properly or by a cut in the cable on the way down.

No $ky would not pay out. Who is to say its not the manufactures fault whom made the cable if there was a cut in in?

true never thought of it like that, i was pissed off have to say and glad i copped on when i did

mukki

i remember when setting up my cb aerial (in the 80's) i read that when installing co-ax you have to...

1. make a loop in the co-ax that is higher then the outdoor connector
2. make the co-ax lower at some point then the indoor connector

1 is to stop any water that gets in at the connector flow down the co-ax, and 2 to stop any water in the co-ax coming out at the back of your reciever

patrickc

mukki wrote: »

i remember when setting up my cb aerial (in the 80's) i read that when installing co-ax you have to...

1. make a loop in the co-ax that is higher then the outdoor connector
2. make the co-ax lower at some point then the indoor connector

1 is to stop any water that gets in at the connector flow down the co-ax, and 2 to stop any water in the co-ax coming out at the back of your reciever

i havent a clue about it tbh, sky have always doen any work with my dish/cabling/box etc

mukki

patrickc wrote: »

i havent a clue about it tbh, sky have always doen any work with my dish/cabling/box etc

oh yeah, i'm not lecturing you, just saying that that would be the best way from them to do it.

patrickc

it just seems to be one thing or another with them in the last year, had sky out 3 times for various reasons, they never charge me though which is something

bigpaddy2004

mukki wrote: »

i remember when setting up my cb aerial (in the 80's) i read that when installing co-ax you have to...

1. make a loop in the co-ax that is higher then the outdoor connector
2. make the co-ax lower at some point then the indoor connector

1 is to stop any water that gets in at the connector flow down the co-ax, and 2 to stop any water in the co-ax coming out at the back of your reciever

This is very true, I have shown a lot of new installers this procedure. it's amazing how many of them dont even bother. Anything to just save the few inch's of cable.


Man it's a long time since I used a CB. Must be 12 years or more. Does anyone still use them even? I have a room full of them here, must hook one up some time and see whats out there!

bigpaddy2004

patrickc wrote: »

it just seems to be one thing or another with them in the last year, had sky out 3 times for various reasons, they never charge me though which is something

At the end of the day there is no point in calling Sky out when they are only going to send out someone whom is getting paid peanuts to do an excellent job, which they dont.

I have said it time and time again, if you dont want any hassle or breakdowns, call out a local guy whom's lively hood depends on it and will do a classic job.

patrickc

bigpaddy2004 wrote: »

At the end of the day there is no point in calling Sky out when they are only going to send out someone whom is getting paid peanuts to do an excellent job, which they dont.

I have said it time and time again, if you dont want any hassle or breakdowns, call out a local guy whom's lively hood depends on it and will do a classic job.

why should i pay someone when sky will do it for free though? i pay enough monthly for my sky

bigpaddy2004

patrickc wrote: »

why should i pay someone when sky will do it for free though? i pay enough monthly for my sky

It's your equipment, your problem. They are not going to go to the ends of the earth for you, neither are their installers/service guys.

Like the saying goes "you get what you pay for".

patrickc

bigpaddy2004 wrote: »

It's your equipment, your problem. They are not going to go to the ends of the earth for you, neither are their installers/service guys.

Like the saying goes "you get what you pay for".

well they seem to want to keep me so always send an engineer for free...

bigpaddy2004

patrickc wrote: »

well they seem to want to keep me so always send an engineer for free...

You must be joking, Im on the very basic pack Eur 20pm having nothing but problems with my sky+ box, 3 times since the new year they sent one of their "dish monkeys" to replace the box...for free!!

Its not what package you are on anymore, its the cs guys get paid 10 pounds commission to "save an account", per account.

L1011

patrickc wrote: »

well they seem to want to keep me so always send an engineer for free...

Its highly unlikely they'll send an "engineer", they'll send someone who probably has a working at heights course passed who'll replace the cable - which may not be faulty at all - and probably STILL fail to put a drip loop in, meaning the problem will re-occur. Could easily be the same "engineer" that did the initial install, at that!

If you check your contract you'll find that you own the kit, not Sky. They're not liable for it going wrong...

If it re-occurs just get a proper local installer out, the job is virtually guaranteed to be done many times better.

mukki

bigpaddy2004 wrote: »

Man it's a long time since I used a CB. Must be 12 years or more. Does anyone still use them even? I have a room full of them here, must hook one up some time and see whats out there!

have you not seen this forum
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=922

dont think anyone uses them,but its like the all things retro forum

Tony

IF the F connector is sealed correctly even without a coax loop it should be ok. The loop will stop water going down the cable but you will still lose signal if the copper at F connector corrodes when it reacts with air and water.

listermint

I found that you can get bad installers. The First guy that installed our sky was spot on although it wasnt exactly neat by any means. obviously the quality of the work is not very high on the schedule when they have the old in and out mentality. The chucking the cable up and over the roof barely fixed down correctly job.
Anywhos the second guy who came to put the multi room in was a chancer. Taking the easiest option drilling two large holes through the pvc window and hanging the cables at what can only be described as a 45 degree angle 7 feet across the wall. Looked awful i was pissed when i arived home. Took all the cables out myself, drilled the wall and ran the cables under the floor to the sky box. Then had to fill the holes in the pvc correctly. I dont expect the lads to run the cables under the floor, but come on the could have used an extra couple of feet to fix them neatly to the skirting or something.
Also as for the call outs. The equipment is yours after the first 12 months and unless you take out the insurance you can get from some of the sky retailers. its your issue or pay for a callout.

Darth Maul

Yeah you will be always far better off calling one of us independents, some of the stuff I've seen the official installers do beggars belief.

I got a call from one of my regular customers last week, he had one of the SKY monkeys in the house replacing a blown sky+ box and he couldn'nt get the magic eye's working that I had installed recently, he put him on the phone and I tried to explain to him how to do it, but after 5mins I soon realised that this fella hadn't a clue, so I dropped over later that day, he had the cable going to the eyes plugged in to the RF1, RF2 power was turned off and it was on the wrong channel. (all of which I had told him on the phone) Oh and another thing he said was that one of the remotes I gave them wasn't working and he replaced the batteries and still it wouldn't work, turns he was using the ordinary sky remote they had for multiroom in one of the bedrooms, SKY were as well to send a courier out with the box.

To the OP
- make sure to disconnect cable until its repaired
- Make sure they replace entire cable
- Make sure the use Self Almagating tape and silicone grease in the connector
or if they don't have any grease put some blue tack into the connector before tightening
- Call an independent local satellite repair guy (not a aerial installer)

patrickc

Darth Maul wrote: »

Yeah you will be always far better off calling one of us independents, some of the stuff I've seen the official installers do beggars belief.

I got a call from one of my regular customers last week, he had one of the SKY monkeys in the house replacing a blown sky+ box and he couldn'nt get the magic eye's working that I had installed recently, he put him on the phone and I tried to explain to him how to do it, but after 5mins I soon realised that this fella hadn't a clue, so I dropped over later that day, he had the cable going to the eyes plugged in to the RF1, RF2 power was turned off and it was on the wrong channel. (all of which I had told him on the phone) Oh and another thing he said was that one of the remotes I gave them wasn't working and he replaced the batteries and still it wouldn't work, turns he was using the ordinary sky remote they had for multiroom in one of the bedrooms, SKY were as well to send a courier out with the box.

To the OP
- make sure to disconnect cable until its repaired
- Make sure they replace entire cable
- Make sure the use Self Almagating tape and silicone grease in the connector
or if they don't have any grease put some blue tack into the connector before tightening
- Call an independent local satellite repair guy (not a aerial installer)

thanks for the advice

Puggy

mukki wrote: »

i remember when setting up my cb aerial (in the 80's) i read that when installing co-ax you have to...

1. make a loop in the co-ax that is higher then the outdoor connector
2. make the co-ax lower at some point then the indoor connector

1 is to stop any water that gets in at the connector flow down the co-ax, and 2 to stop any water in the co-ax coming out at the back of your reciever

This is basic stuff, anything going into your house from the outside should always travel upwards. This stops moisture etc from traveling into your house. It's really basic, but often overlooked.

spongerobinson

Just 2 days ago i had to go out to a mates house as his sky digital wasn't working.

The rep who installed it a few months back had used the cable from their old dish which was already running through the house to the tv point, but he had added about a metre or so of extra coax between the old cable and the sky dish for no apparent reason (the old cable was just about the right length to reach the dish).

He had done this using an f-joiner but hadn't bothered putting any insulation tape around it...basically water had gotten in and eroded the copper away to nothing so the signal was coming and going all the time.

I took out the f-joiner and ran the old cable straight into the dish, and no problems at all now.

I reckon the lads who work for sky aren't getting paid enough so they do a crap job to make sure they get called back!!

Tony

I'd recommend using self amalgamating tape instead of insulation tape although ultimately a new cable run is much more secure

spongerobinson

your prob right tony....i must get some of that tape...don't do it professionally myself so usually just using whats at hand...and everyone has insulating tape around the place! a new cable run of course would've been better but as I said, they are prob trying to make sure there called out again at some stage!

I had a look and the old cable seems to be of quite a high quality, and the signal quality and strength on the box is quite high, so its not a major problem at the moment, and can't see it being a problem anytime soon hopefully!

Perhaps I should start doing it professionally cos I constantly seem to be fixing somebody's satellite dish!! Or messing about with my own system!

Tony

Honestly I think its just a case of getting away quickly as theres no guarantee the same guy will be called back and they get paid badly for service calls. There is a shortage of good installers so you would be more than welcome to join the ranks.

spongerobinson wrote: »

your prob right tony....i must get some of that tape...don't do it professionally myself so usually just using whats at hand...and everyone has insulating tape around the place! a new cable run of course would've been better but as I said, they are prob trying to make sure there called out again at some stage!

I had a look and the old cable seems to be of quite a high quality, and the signal quality and strength on the box is quite high, so its not a major problem at the moment, and can't see it being a problem anytime soon hopefully!

Perhaps I should start doing it professionally cos I constantly seem to be fixing somebody's satellite dish!! Or messing about with my own system!

patrickc

Tony wrote: »

Honestly I think its just a case of getting away quickly as theres no guarantee the same guy will be called back and they get paid badly for service calls. There is a shortage of good installers so you would be more than welcome to join the ranks.

that is true, we've never had the same person back twice.

patrickc

well the guy came today and replaced the cable, there was 2 slits in it, he can't explain how they got there himself, this guy works on his own as an engineer and his own installation company, so sky must contract him, he seemed pretty good .

sparkyjo

sky employ the like of sierra to do most of there work in the dublin region now just incase you don't know sierra are civil company who do work like digging roads and digging holes in the ground and i was told out stright by a sky rep from scotland that they have no training and that is why their not insured to get in to attics or lift floorboards

i had a guy replace my standard sky for sky + and he refused to use the dish that was there and insisted on putting up a new as he said the other was in such a bad spot to get cables to and what an idiot obviously didn't realise i was an electrician i throw him out of the house as soon as he put up the dish as he had done after me telling him not to and i only stepped out of the house for 2 min.
sky sent out a proper installer a week later and i had absolutly no problems with him as it was his own company and he even lifted a couple of floorboards.


oh by the way i hate sky nothing but problems but really there is nobody else out there with any kind of decent tv sevice

sorry for the rant

bigpaddy2004

sparkyjo wrote: »

not insured to get in to attics or lift floorboards
..............sky sent out a proper installer a week later and i had absolutly no problems with him as it was his own company and he even lifted a couple of floorboards.

It's absolutely above the call of duty if an installer lits any floor boards. Its not their job.

Tony

What was the name of the sky rep from Scotland?

sparkyjo wrote: »

sky employ the like of sierra to do most of there work in the dublin region now just incase you don't know sierra are civil company who do work like digging roads and digging holes in the ground and i was told out stright by a sky rep from scotland that they have no training and that is why their not insured to get in to attics or lift floorboards

i had a guy replace my standard sky for sky + and he refused to use the dish that was there and insisted on putting up a new as he said the other was in such a bad spot to get cables to and what an idiot obviously didn't realise i was an electrician i throw him out of the house as soon as he put up the dish as he had done after me telling him not to and i only stepped out of the house for 2 min.
sky sent out a proper installer a week later and i had absolutly no problems with him as it was his own company and he even lifted a couple of floorboards.


oh by the way i hate sky nothing but problems but really there is nobody else out there with any kind of decent tv sevice

sorry for the rant