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clearing conduit blockage
Well, winter is in the air, and I've just finished building my 'Murf tube' for the front of my FEL. (Thanks Murf!).
Now, I need to get power down my hill to run a small (300w) tank de-icer for the horses. When my excavator blasted for the water line, he left a shelf on the side of the trench for me to throw a conduit in (yet not have it at the same level or position as the water line in case we had to service either.).
In this trench, I put a 1" sch 40 grey PVC running from my garage down to where I need to put an exterior outlet. My plan was to pull a 12-2 with ground and put a single outlet down there, with the GFCI protection for it in the garage so the whole run is 'protected'. The run is about 270 feet.
Now, today I hooked up the shop vac, tied a small piece of baggie to a monofilimant line, and started to feed it up, as my electrican had done with the service feeder conduit (3".
The end at the house had been capped, but the end of the run that terminated outside was covered with duct tape, which had weathered and fallen off.
I'm convinced I have a partial blockage at around 150' or soo (guessing by how much string I was able to feed up). I tried clearing it with compressed air, etc. I finally glued on an elbow and started flooding the run with water from a garden hose (but our water pressure is low up on the hill). The water cleared out some gravel that appears to have gotten in during assembly.
Ideas for clearing it? I guess my alternative is going to be to try to measure the approximate length of the run until the string/bag hits the blockage and dig it up (which if I do, I'm going to put in an access/intermediate pull box like there should have been in the first place).
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clearing conduit blockage
Thanks to everyone's help.
Well, I ended up digging it up. Even with my excavator neighbors big compressors, we just couldn't free the obstruction. I could vac my foam rubber 'mouse' quite a ways each way, but even with super light thread, I couldn't get more than about 1/2 way or so.
So I started digging it up. I dug and I dig, through my jigsaw puzzle boulder garden I call soil. I just couldn't find it, but my excavator was able to locate it with his fancy equipment. I was 2" away from the hole I dug.
Where I dug it up, I've turned it up and added an outlet and pull box at that location, should make things easier to service, and really, an outlet would be handy there.
I have 3 thhn wires to pull, or a 12-2 romex. But based on feedback here, I'm thinking I'll go get some uf and pull; it's got the better/heavier jacket, can handle some moisture in the conduit, etc. Will I have any problems with heat dissipation (hence thhn) or should I not worry about it. I'm running 12, but have a 15A breaker (instead of a 20).
BTW, I was running 12 instead of 14 in case I decided I want to run a drill or something down there. What is the maximum voltage drop you could have when running something like a drill (inductive load) without damaging the tool? (I'll save the harbor freight tools for the far out field work just in case!).
Thanks,
John
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clearing conduit blockage
I ended up running #12 THHN. I'm only pulling 300w in a resistive heater, so it will work fine even with a voltage drop (we're at less than 3A). Not really big enough for most tools, but it will run a light or the tank de-icer.
Thanks for all your help guys!
J
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