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Found out coax cable can last 30 years if buried right
Was digging up an old run near a warehouse in Tulsa and pulled out some RG6 that had been in the ground since '93. Still passed signal clean on the meter. I always thought you had to swap it after 10 years or so, but that dirt actually protected it better than the stuff I see in attics. Anyone else come across old cable that still works fine?
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the_hannah14d ago
My uncle pulled up some RG59 from his yard in Phoenix that had been down since the late 80s and the signal was still solid. The soil out there is mostly clay and sand, so it kept moisture away from the shielding way better than any attic heat does. Honestly, I think the whole "swap it every decade" thing is just a marketing push to sell more cable.
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the_hannah14d ago
Dude, I get what you're saying about that specific setup, but i think that's more of an exception than the rule. Most people don't have dry clay soil in a low humidity climate, they have attics that hit 140 degrees and get humid from leaks or just regular weather. I've seen RG6 that was only 8 years old crack and fail because the sun cooked the jacket right off on a roof run. So yeah, maybe your uncle's cable is a tank, but telling someone in a rainy state or with direct sun exposure to not swap it out is kind of risky advice. There's a reason satellite and cable companies swap drops out every time they do a service call, it's not just to sell you more cable.
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