DRiBOX – The Original Weatherproof Connection Box
DRiBOX – The Original Weatherproof Connection Box – Indoor & Outdoor Electrical Power Cord Enclosure for Timers, Extension Cables, Reels, Transformers, Lights & Tools (Small, Black)
From the brand
Indoor Lights
| Weight: | 280 g |
| Size: | Small |
| Dimensions: | 9 x 9 x 20 cm; 280 Grams |
| Model: | FL-1859-200 |
| Part: | FL-1859-200 |
| Colour: | Black |
| Pack Quantity: | 1 |
| Batteries Required: | No |
| Batteries Included: | No |
| Manufacture: | Dri-Box |
| Dimensions: | 9 x 9 x 20 cm; 280 Grams |
| Quantity: | 1 |
| Size: | Small |
Worked very well on my porch with Christmas tree lights. My plug is a 12v transformer and it was a little tight, larger plug transformer may not fit, but perfect for the standard plug.
I use it to keep plug sockets dry outside while charging my car. It’s good! Just a bit tight when closing the lid around the cords, but I guess that’s the poi
Big enough for awkward upstanding lights transformers. Seems to be holding fine. Liked the cable grips that are not a feature of some similar boxes. Wasn’t sure about having securing clips only at the box ends and not in the middle of the longer sides but the sealing mechanism works well.
Instructions were not very clear.Took a long time to find the flaps that lock the box.Once done however it does exactly what it should and gives me peace of mind that my outdoor electrics are safe.
I bought this box in preference to others because I figured the lid overhang would be a good waterproofing feature, rather than relying on just rubber or silicone seals on the cables. I installed it with a 4 gang extension lead feeding three outlet wires. That night it rained heavily. On opening it the next day, it was dry as a bone inside, so definitely fit for purpose. The only downside is that the lid pools water, it would be better designed convex, but this doesn’t affect it’s ability to keep the connections dry.
To be honest I was a little sceptical about how “weather proof” this would be. But it is and has kept the 4 plug extension lead dry for the last few months. There have been quite a few heavy down pours.
I’ve built a water feature and recently I’ve had to concede defeat to algae and buy a proper pond filter pump.
The problem is, I wanted to add a timer to the socket so it’s not running 24/7 and that would be far too bulky for my external power socket as the weather proof front wouldn’t close which isn’t good.
I thought about it for a while on how I could get round this and turned to Amazon for ideas that could help and found this.
I went for the medium so it has enough room for the timer socket but if it’s just a single plug you wanted then you could go for the small option and if you wanted to house an extension reel, then they have a large option to.
Could I have bought a tupper wear box with a lockable lid, drilled 2 holes in it, taken the plugs of both leads and thread them through, re-wired the plugs and finally put some silicone around the holes to make them water tight?…… The answer is yes, of course I could….. But it’s a lot of messing about and once done it’s a permanent fixture for those leads, where as with this I can put anything in it and it takes literally seconds to use.
Seems a little bit flimsy but it works well.lt can take a 4 socket extension along with transformer plugs.Had a few heavy showers recently a everything was completely dry
Excellent box. I purchased the large which can easily accommodate 2 5 gang extensions. Couldnt locate the clips initially. Contacted the seller who replied immediately and was very helpful. Eventually found the clips which were on the lid
All in all, a great product. Excellent customer service and best price!
There are five cable entry points, one on the left and four on the right. This arrangement is aimed at a cable entering on the left that connects to a 4-way extension lead that you put inside. Then the cables that are plugged into the extension can all exit the box via their own exit point. Unfortunately, UK extensions all have their cables on the right-hand side, but the cable can always loop around. This must be a universal box that is common to different countries, but it is a tiny bit less accommodating for UK extensions. You can, of course, use it for a variety of other purposes, wherever you need to keep some electronics dry.
Each cable entry point also comes with a cable retainer that pops in. There are no instructions included for these that I could find, but they are designed to help prevent cables from being pulled out, so have them facing inward as shown in my pictures.
The edge of the lid has a soft rubber gromet running around the edge so that the lid can seal against the box. The box must be placed level and is not suitable for mounting on its side, as the lid has an overhanging lip that also directs water away from entering. I found that even a 13-amp cable was enough to distort the lid slightly as it was closed over the cables, so time will tell if the box is sufficient to keep the weather at bay.
The lid is closed by two clamps to the left and right. These are folded inward on delivery, so just pop off the lid and unfold them before use. In a deviation from the product information, there are no cable ties included and no place to use them if there were. My other box has a place for this or a small padlock, making this DriBox a little less secure than I am used to.
At IP55, the box is more water-resistant than waterproof, but this is similar to other such boxes on the market. Given the way the cables slightly distort the case, I decided that the box was going to live inside a garden storage box for extra protection. It is certainly a large box, and I managed to place a 16-amp plug and socket, a single extension socket, and a SIM router inside without any problem. This is probably the limit, as it is not wise to overload the box to allow for devices inside to be cool.
The first one came damaged do we returned for an exchange. Second one was fine. Great for connecting outdoor Christmas decorations. Simple to fit and easy to use. No issues despite loads of rain. Quite expensive for what it is. Worth shopping around as lots of sellers have very similar items at different prices.
Very pleased with this purchase. Arrived very quickly. It is just the right size for a small timer and one plug. Very sturdy and has been outside through the recent snow and now heavy rain. So far so good .
This is the second of these we have purchased. It works well. The only issue is a small black plastic bit that you insert to trap the wire and assist with the waterproofing easily falls out. Not a major issue but the plastic lugs could be just a couple of mm longer to rectify this.
A lot smaller than I realised. Only holds one plug extension lead. My outside lights have strange plugs and are very bulky, so much so that they can’t plug into the outside sockets and put the cover down. So a box was needed
But the shape of the lid means that a lot of water sits on top of the box every time it rains. It doesn’t affect its use, and none of the standing water leaks in, but it does seem odd for a product designed to keep out the rain!
I really purchased this for some curtain lights I have in a corner of the garden, I have Philips Hue lights in the garden which are fantastic but these curtain lights are dumb, so I wanted something big enough to plug these into a Philips Hue smart socket, this is more than big enough to do this. The unit itself, is fairly simple, it has 2 plastic clips which lock the lid on and stop any water getting in to the electrics. As it is summer, it hasn’t actually rained that much so I guess time will tell but I do think any rain water would have a pretty tough job of getting in to this box.
I’ve just installed some mains-powered garden lights and the box contains a twin-socket at the end of a trailing lead from the mains. I plugged a remote control socket into this, (about the same size as a timer switch/socket) and in turn that has a normal 3 pin plug. It was a bit of a juggle to get the plugs to lie flat but it took less than a minute to check that the cables in and out of the box were correctly aligned in the cut-outs and that the box lid would still seal shut without being forced. All is well – the lights can be operated from inside the house, and the electrics are protected. Both in and out cables are gripped well.
A criticism is that the instructions are poor. They were, I expect, compiled by somebody who knew how to put everything together (fair enough) but I suspect not checked or tried out on some people who had never seen the box before. This is made much worse because the instructions use small black and white (mostly just black) photos that are low quality images. No detail is evident as all the bits are black. Much better would be to use some line drawings and a bigger bit of paper. After all the whole purpose of the box is electrical safety and if the various bits aren’t put together properly there is a risk of moisture getting in.
All in all – pleased I bought it.
Kids go back to school, weather not warm enough to use pool again and it has a leak somewhere so let it naturally empty. The Dri-box is still protecting the pump plug nicely.
Meanwhile, back in the house, the pump goes on my boiler (too much hot water putting pressure on & eventually it gave up the ghost. Unlike the usual bad luck I have, it was just after I’d had a shower, rather than before or worse still, during, but I digress…), call the insurance company and have a week long argument about why I haven’t had the boiler serviced during lockdown (I’m shielding and my gas man is also because of his wife), eventually they come out, brilliant. Hot water again… pressure drops… call insurance company again, they send an engineer who says ok, expansion vessels gone and need changing, will have to order them and come fit them one day next week. End of the week arrives and no expansion vessel. Still pressurising the boiler by hand to keep heating and hot water on. The plug in the Dri-box is still protected and dry in it’s weatherproof box.
Another week passes and I call the engineer, who is 100 miles away, but ‘closest’ according to insurance company. They text back to tell me engineer isn’t coming as work not authorised by insurance company? Speak to someone higher up than the customer services dude who’s working from home with his cat purring as it climbs across his lap, he’s slurping a cup of something hot while telling his dog to stop barking, in the background. Dog must’ve turned round, seen cat on his dude’s lap, cos you suddenly hear Rover’s 4 heavy paws pelting across dude’s laminate floor and Tiger lets out a big shriek, at which point I’m guessing he stuck his claws out and into dude’s legs cos dude gives a muffled shriek, the type of scream someone gives when they’ve been sliced by Edward Scissorhands whilst they were drinking a hot mug of something (I’m guessing tea, he sounded like a tea drinker and I’m not certain I didn’t hear the faint noise of a rich tea biscuit being crunched when he answered the phone?). Of course Tiger jumps to a place of safety and starts to wash himself as he can’t be certain when the last time dude washed his hands, so he could be dirty.
Anyway, person above him says they do have to come and leaves me reassured that she’ll sort it (no tea being slurped or pets being chased on this phone call. Very professional).
So engineer texts to say he’ll be there on Monday. Brilliant. In the meantime I ask my 17yo son to pack the pool away as it’s killing the grass below it (in all honesty, I’ve asked him to do it every day now for at least a week and been met by ‘eurgh’ and ‘sigh’, but I’m disabled and can’t do it myself, so I keep ‘reminding’ him daily) and he packs the pump away, removing the plug from the Dri-box, which is still working a treat and hasn’t let any water in. In fact, it is so good he decides to leave the extension lead plugged in in the garage and the Dri-box housing the plug end for a few more weeks, just to check how watertight it really is!
Sunday night I realise I’ve got hospital on Monday when engineer is coming, so I arrange for someone in my bubble to house sit and let him in. Before I leave I spray everywhere I think he might touch with a thick layer of anti bac as I know he’s not wearing a mask or gloves.
Thanks for reading. I give the Dri-box 5 , my ideal boiler, the insurance company and the engineer’s company all only get 1 to share between them!
This product (in the 330mm size) was recommended by the Mitsubishi PHEV Owners BBS, and, indeed the charging unit, and the end of a 1-way 13A extension lead, fits comfortably in the box – and I can vouch that it is protected from even direct rain whilst it is in there.
As I say it “does exactly what is says on the tin”.
Only a few semi-downsides:
The plastic latches that hold the lid on do seem very flimsy, and I’m hoping that the snapping sounds they make on open/close are intentional, and not indicative of them being likely to fail – they hold the lid well, but don’t feel like they are intended for many open/close cycles.
In the required orientation, the lid has a raised lip around it that causes water to pool – whilst none makes it into the box, it is a little bit of a concern that the design doesn’t allow this water to drain externally – though I’ve never had it get inside (you do need to remember to upend the box prior to opening it).
The rubber pads that form the weather seal on the cable entries are prone to falling out, which is a pain….
The documentation says that there are locations where tie-wraps can be used to provide a “security seal”, but doesn’t say where these are, and I’ve yet to find them – given my charger costs hundreds of pounds to replace, it would be nice to be able to put a few small padlocks on the box…..
But, overall, it suits my purposes, and I’d be glad to have any kind of outdoor electrics (pond pump, Christmas lights, Halloween stuff etc.) in it and exposed to the elements for an extended period. And it is a LOT cheaper than having a new 32A spur and “intelligent” charging point fitted!
I plug my car in overnight and needed a waterproof connection in which I could leave the extension socket during the day (until I return and plug it in again).
What’s to like?
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Nicely sized. This wasn’t a random purchase, I read up about the various sizes and this seemed to fit my needs and I was not disappointed. Actually a double extension socket would fit into the box but I don’t think you’d fit two plugs in there with it (maybe low profile ones would). (update Jan 2016: yes you can fit a slimline double socket in it – see the updated video for more information)
Totally weatherproof. It’s been outside all of January 2014 (so far) in torrential rain and whilst the lid fill with water the inside is completely dry.
Available in two colours and I chose green so it was more visible. Frankly, I would haver chosen fluorescent orange if it had been available, as I’m not trying to hide this box, I want it seen, during the day, at night, under snow and ice…
Lightweight so easy to move and generally use.
What could be better?
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The lid is like a bird-bath – it fills with water when it rains. This doesn’t affect the integrity of the seals inside but it’s a pity the design wasn’t different to prevent that build up of water (that has to be emptied before you take off the – now wet – lid). I don’t want to turn the box upside down to prevent this as then it just might leak (I don’t think it’s designed to be used upside down).
The side clasps sometimes come off as you unclip the lid. OK, so you can clip them back into place but I would have preferred a more sturdy arrangement where they didn’t come off unless under extreme duress (which they are not under just by unclipping the lid). I’m trying to change my lid-removing technique so this doesn’t happen so often.
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Conclusion
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I’m very happy with it. It gives me assurance that my electric connection is going to be kept dry even in the severest downpours. There are some aspects that could be improved but I still wouldn’t let you take it away from me.
Recommended and I’d buy it again in a heartbeat.
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