IP65 vs IP67: What Is the Difference?

IP65 and IP67 are ingress protection ratings from IEC 60529. The first digit, 6, is the same in both and means the enclosure is dust tight: no dust gets in during a test in a chamber of circulating talcum powder. The second digit is where they part ways. A 5 means the enclosure resists water jets; a 7 means it survives being briefly submerged.

That makes IP65 vs IP67 a comparison between two different kinds of water, not a stronger and a weaker version of the same test. Jets hit the enclosure from outside at speed, and test how well the seals resist a moving stream. Immersion surrounds the enclosure with still water under a little pressure for half an hour, and tests whether water seeps in slowly through joints, glands and connectors.

The dust test is identical. The water tests use completely different equipment.

The depth figures apply to enclosures under 850 mm tall; taller ones are tested with the top 0.15 m below the surface. As with every IP test, a little water inside can still be a pass if it does no harm, so a rating is a tested result, not a promise that the inside stays bone dry.

Not automatically. For water jets, IEC 60529 treats the second digits up to 6 as cumulative, so an IP66 enclosure also meets IP65. The immersion ratings break that chain. The standard states that an enclosure marked only IPX7 or IPX8 is not necessarily suitable for jets, which is why it asks for a dual marking, such as IPX5/IPX7, when both are claimed.

The reason is physical. A water jet strikes harder than the gentle pressure of 1 m of still water, and it can force water past a lip seal or around a connector that would hold perfectly well in a tank. A sealed box that passes the immersion test can still let water in when a hose is pointed at its vent or a gasket edge. So an IP67 product is better if it might end up under water, and an IP65 product may be the better tested choice for spray and rain if the IP67 one was never jet tested.

The reverse also holds. An enclosure designed for jets can rely on drainage paths, labyrinth seals or a breather that shed water well from outside but let it in once the enclosure sits in a flooded pit. When you read a datasheet, check which tests were actually run, not only the highest number. A product listed as IP67 alone, with no jet rating, has simply not been shown to resist spray, which matters for anything mounted outdoors or cleaned with a hose.

In practice the choice follows the water the equipment will meet.

Start with the worst water the equipment will see. If it is rain, spray or a hose, IP65 is the baseline and IP66 the safer choice outdoors. If it could be submerged, even briefly, specify IP67, and ask for a dual rating if it will also be hosed. Our IP rating chart sets out every level side by side.

In food and drink plants, the cleaning routine usually decides the rating more than the weather. Our guide to hygienic design for washdown computers explains why IP69K is the norm on open food lines.

The rating must also survive installation. Every cable gland, connector and blanking plug needs at least the same rating; M12 connectors are a common way to keep a sealed computer at IP67. A sealed IP67 box that heats and cools can draw in moist air, so many designs add a pressure-equalising vent. Our IP67 computers are sealed for temporary immersion, most of them with M12 connectors for power and I/O, and our fully sealed IP65 panel PCs suit wipe-down and hosed areas.

We supply IP65 and IP67 computers, panel PCs and monitors with the cable glands, connectors and mounting matched to the site as standard, so the installed system keeps the rating it was tested to.