What is a drip loop?

This one’s easy to answer. The drip loop is a slack bit of cable that sits lower than the rest. Take a look at the photo above, which shows a proper installation of drip loops. The whole purpose is to let water pile up at the bottom and drip off. If your cables were tight, water from outside could travel down the wire and get straight into an outlet or onto your electronic devices. If water were to get into an outlet, it could start a fire (ironic, right) by making sparks along the wet areas.

Drip loops take advantage of gravity to help water harmlessly move away from your sensitive electronics. Even if you live somewhere dry, there are going to be days when there’s dew on the ground in the morning. A proper drip loop will protect you in those cases. There’s just no excuse for not doing one.

Drip loops and ground blocks are the two easiest ways to make sure that your home is protected. They may not look very attractive but they do their jobs well. Every installation should have a proper drip loop so that water doesn’t travel where it shouldn’t. Even if you live in a dry climate, it’s going to rain sometime. You need that drip loop.

Other helpful aspects of a drip loop

Because a drip loop is a slack bit of cable, it’s going to help with the natural expansion and contraction of things due to heat. You might be tempted to use the least possible amount of cable and make everything tight because it looks nicer. When you do that, you’re not accounting for the possibility that things may shift over time. Even the tiniest bit of movement could strain a cable so it doesn’t work well, or break a component. You don’t want that.

I’ll also point out that in cases with very short runs, loops are used to keep signal integrity. I was always taught that when you’re dealing with high frequency signal like cellular and satellite, you always want cables to be two feet or longer. This stops interference caused by the signal bouncing back a little when it hits the connector. Splitters and such are engineered to avoid this problem, but cables are not. By making cables over two feet, you give room for those reflections to dissipate. In cases like that you’ll see loops in cables just so everything can look as clean and as compact as possible.

Get the cables and connectors you need from Solid Signal

Don’t count on cables from the local home store if you’re looking to work with high frequency signals. Chances are they aren’t up to the challenge. Even if they claim to be rated for signals up to 3GHz, they probably aren’t rated to carry current. Satellite dishes and cell phone signal booster antennas may need power in order to work. This power is supplied through the coaxial cable. If the cable you buy has only copper plating on its inside wire, it won’t carry power very well. You need a cable that will. Shop at Solid Signal and you’ll get cables that are certified to work with major service providers like DIRECTV, DISH, and weBoost. This is what you’ll need.

If you’re new to the world of cables, why not get an expert opinion? Call us at 888-233-7563. Our corporate offices are open during East Coast business hours. When you call you’ll get connected to a certified expert who can answer all your questions. Give us a try! If it’s after hours, fill out the form below. We’ll get back to you as soon as we can!

About the Author

Stuart Sweet
Stuart Sweet is the editor-in-chief of The Solid Signal Blog and a "master plumber" at Signal Group, LLC. He is the author of over 10,000 articles and longform tutorials including many posted here. Reach him by clicking on "Contact the Editor" at the bottom of this page.