Enclosure Protection
There are a number of standards dealing with enclosures protection concerning access to hazardous parts, resistance to solids (dust/dirt), and protection against liquids.
A marketing blurb saying water proof, could mean as little as splashed water on the top won't hurt, to full immersion at 15 meters. The key is to look at the standards that are being used to back up the claim.
Here are some standards for enclosure ingress protection. There is a lot of simliarity between standards as far as terms go, however, testing criteria varies substantially. The linked pages go are summaries, and may or may not reflect the current document revision. These are only guidelines, and in the interest of not wanting to violate copyright, they are not copies, and as a result do not tell everything one should know. They are a mere starting point.
- JIS C 0920:2003 : Degrees of protection provided by enclosures
- http://www.dtc.army.mil/pdf/810.pdfMil Std 810
- Australian national standard AS 1939
- UL 50
- UL 508
- CSA C22.2 No. 94.