In reply to a post by gazzyk1ns:

In reply to a post by Icaras:

No, don't read anything into vents.

Agreed, but...

Normal copper cabinets are usually vented.

No they aren't!

The old cast iron ones weren't, the fibreglass ones weren't, the pre-modern ones might have had had couple of vents in the side, and the most modern ones have no vents at all.

Many of the cast iron ones have a big V on the inside of the door though! Which means they are vented.

There's no obvious vents on the cast iron ones though you're right, and we don't have many fibreglass ones round here so I can't really comment on that. The modern ones seem to have some kind of dual layer on them, you can see it from inside, so effectively the vents are at the bottom. I'll have a look next week and report back! But as I say you can only tell by opening them up, you can't always see from outside. I'm assuming you have direct contact with the network then? As do I.

Edited by deleted (Sat 26-Mar-16 10:22:16)

Thought so. Stand off shell then, extra pair blocks in there.

Excuse the state of that cabinet. Virgin Media's contractors had just dug up the pavement right in front of it.

In reply to a post by Icaras:

I'm assuming you have direct contact with the network then? As do I.

Not exactly direct, although half my family and nearly all of my friends work for BT, in various positions. Sometimes the best thing is laughing at how out of date the BT "maps" of the network are in certain places.

Those fibreglass PCP shells must be quite rare now, the only way me and anyone I know spotted that they were fibreglass and/or foam-insulated was that most of them had holes hacked in them by vandals, and so you could see the guts of the doors/cabinet. That single cabinet I was talking about got re-shelled about a month ago, despite having been FTTC-enabled since 2012. So maybe it was a damage report, or maybe it was a physical capacity issue with the extra verticals. It probably serves over 350/400 properties, so it would probably be the latter, and the footway boxes in front of it got extended from "double" to "triple" (bit of ignorance there, I don't know the technical term... you get the point though). I don't think they were connected to the PCP despite being right in front of it, though, as it was all fibre and two aggregation (I think, not splitter) nodes which went straight past it. So maybe it was a damage report. Here's a photo of what was in the double>triple verge/footway box. I am standing over the PCP which was subsequently re-shelled to take this (the fibre is travelling past it, no entry to the PCP):

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v217/gazzyk1ns/DSC...

This is a bit off-topic, sorry, I was bored and so thought I'd post some fibreporn. Bored and eaten half of my Easter egg.

Edited by deleted (Sat 26-Mar-16 18:38:44)

Depends what system they use. There's a system that begins with G that is bang up to date, I've rarely been caught out by it. The older systems stopped being updated some years ago.

Many of the cast iron shells have been replaced by the current ones. As I say I'll have a little look next week and see, but in fairly sure most are vented but it's not really something I've looked into much. As you say I'm not entirely sure why they need to be vented.

Double jointbox covers are called JF6s, triple ones JF10s

Edited by deleted (Sat 26-Mar-16 18:17:18)

That is EAHAS 13 if you were interested. Like I say though, I think that fibre just happens to be in the same verge as a convenience, it's not connected to the PCP (but the PCP is FTTC-enabled).

From memory, the only externally vented PCPs I've seen are the relatively rare modern-ish ones, which came in the very late 80s/early 90s. not cast iron, not fibreglass, probably pressed steel... but they look a lot more square (i.e. straight-edged) than the current ones. I haven't got a photo to hand at the moment. Actually:

Street view link

You can't even see the vents in that Google image, but they've got a couple on the bottom of each side. That's what I'm talking about, anyway.

Happy Easter everyone! Now let's talk cabinets.

Edited by deleted (Sat 26-Mar-16 18:33:05)

As promised, I've seen some cast iron PCPs today that have VENTED sprayed on the inside of the doors. They are vented, as I explained but this just involves removing the bottom water seal on the inside of the door, so from the outside you can't see any evidence of vents. But there is a small gap underneath the door to allow air to circulate.

As I said, the more modern ones have a dual layer structure with a gap at the bottom that you can't see from the outside.

So, I can confirm that the vast majority are vented. I don't have any fibreglass ones to check though.