Monoprice Sycamore Outdoor 2.1 Buried Subwoofer Full of Water

[NCMike]

I know several of you have this system. Its the subwoofer and 2 satellite speakers. I installed 2 of these systems last fall. This spring the subwoofer is no longer working but the satellites are working fine. I contacted Monoprice and they sent 2 new systems overnight. So I go to dig up the subwoofers and discover that the side of the subwoofer that the speaker wire enters is full of water. Like, gallons of water inside it. I could hardly pick the thing up out of the hole. There is no water on the side with the port. So at least I know that part is sealed up good. It appears the water is entering through the holes on top of the subwoofer where the speaker wires go in. When I tip the subwoofer upside down, those holes/connections is where the water exits the subwoofer.

My question is when I install these 2 new subwoofers, what can I do differently to waterproof these holes and to keep water out. The soil that they are going in has some clay in it and seems to hold water and not drain well. There is a catch basin nearby that the surface water should flow to and out of the pool area. I thought about taking some post hole diggers and digging down directly under the subwoofer about 12 inches and then backfill with gravel to give the water somewhere to drain. Then maybe I should backfill with sand around the subwoofer instead of the dirt I took out of the hole. Or is that overkill, should I just use some silicone sealant around the connections for the speaker wires where they enter the subwoofer and call it a day. Pictures are attached.

 

[NCMike]

Well I went out and dug up the other subwoofer, this one is worse. Both sides are completely filled with water. It was a wet winter but I am shocked that these filled with water so fast. I have them dug to the appropriate depth per the manual. I don't understand how so much water is getting into them.

 

[Turbo1Ton]

Wow! That's terrible. Good on Monoprice for shipping out replacements so quickly.

Kinda makes me want to go dig the tops out on mine and check it. I had mine going all weekend but didn't notice anything different. I'll crank them on and check them more closely this coming weekend.

--Jeff

 

[NCMike]

I'm amazed the second subwoofer was full like the picture shown. Would it make sense to assume that since its level with the port opening that the water was entering at the port itself? I wouldn't think it would be entering from somewhere lower on the box and filling up. Only way that could happen if there was ground water pressure surrounding it and filling it up which shouldn't happen 12 inches below grade. That particularly sub is actually a foot above original grade due to backfilling around the pool.

I think Im going to go buy either a tube of silicone or gasket maker and try to seal up all external holes in the subwoofer. I don't know which would survive better underground.

 

[cowboycasey]

100% silicone is 100% waterproof... I use it liberally when I use it

I would open the wire up and put a bead inside, close it up and put one on the outside also..

 

[NCMike]

I going to go pick up some silicone today and will use it liberally around the speaker wires going into the sub and where the mushroom top fits on the top of the sub.

I also got out the hole diggers yesterday and starting digging down into one of the sub holes. When I went outside there was water standing in it from the day before where I emptied the sub out. So I know my soil is not very good at draining. I dug a hole down about 4 feet until I found more sandy soil that seemed to drain better than the clay the sub was originally in. I plan to fill this with some extra 57 stone I have from the pool build, then backfill around the sub with sand. Hopefully any water that finds its way to the sub will quickly drain down and into my hole filled with stone.

 

[cowboycasey]

That should work better