Pulling Wire Through Pvc

[hot-foot]

my panel in house is 40' feet away from gfci disconnect. I will run pvc pipe through wall and attached to out side wall to the disconect(40 feet)...then 6 feet to spa inground.

at this point when I pull 4 #6 THWN wire...what end do i pull wires? from disconnect to panel or panel end to (50amp) disconnect? and do i do 1 wire at a time?

I know these ? are no brainers but would like some pointers on pulling wire.

thanks..

[mark2550]

Pulling wires from one end or the other can be be done either way no biggie, as for you connecting one wire at a time if your not sure get someone to help or hire an electrician. when you pull wires do them all at once it will be the only way i would do it.

[late1]

Pulling wires from one end or the other can be be done either way no biggie, as for you connecting one wire at a time if your not sure get someone to help or hire an electrician. when you pull wires do them all at once it will be the only way i would do it.

Run a Fish Tape thru the pipe.

Strip 4-5" of insulation off the wires and cut 1/3 of the copper strands of each wire off so you can run the wire through the hook on the tape and braid them into a cut down on bulk and keep the wires connected firmly. Tightly black tape the first foot several layers, barber pole style.

Lube... Lots of cable pulling lubricant.

The guy doing mine put a connector between the stiff and flex pipe that was too small a diameter. The wires went thru if lined up perfectly, but the slightest twist bogged everything down. He had me on the outside pushing in as he pulled from the inside.

The wire would suck in a foot and several times the the tip of my fingers smacked into the plastic fitting. I was bloody and tow fingernails were bent back. We tried several times before he switched to 100% rigid pipe. The pipe melter to make the nice bends was pretty cool.

[hot-foot]

wow bloody fingers and bent nails dont sound fun. Could i run tech cable for outside 40' run instead of puting in conduit, if so, would it be to code attached to wall? Im in Ontario,Canada.

thanks....

[late1]

wow bloody fingers and bent nails dont sound fun. Could i run tech cable for outside 40' run instead of puting in conduit, if so, would it be to code attached to wall? Im in Ontario,Canada.

thanks....

Depends on local code.

In my case he couldn't get underground cable with the right size ground wire, so conduit was required.

My installation was complex.

Added a second panel, run 60 feet inside, pop through the wall, go down into the flower bed, under the sidewalk, under another flowerbed, come out of the ground and run under the existing gazebo, puttinging the GFI panel inside the gazebo.

BTW: My fingers throbbed for days.

[kengorman]

My run was about 30'. I pulled 4 AWG #6 wires through all at once. If you go with a slightly larger conduit, pulling is pretty easy. I used 1 inch schedule 40 conduit although code would have permitted the slightly smaller 3/4 inch conduit with 4 conductors. The extra space in the conduit helped tremendously. I didn't even use any wire lubricant. The wires went through pretty easily, considering there were a few 90 degree bends.

To save yourself bloody fingers and fingernails, increase the conduit size.

HTH,

Ken

[Dennnis]

I pulled 4 AWG #6 wires (approx 50ft.) through all at once from the panel to the GFI using a fish tape. Went from panel becasue I had lots of room on the basement floor to lay out the wire.

[hot-foot]

I pulled 4 AWG #6 wires (approx 50ft.) through all at once from the panel to the GFI using a fish tape. Went from panel becasue I had lots of room on the basement floor to lay out the wire.

Dennnis... your 50' run was outside above ground? if so , what height from ground did you attached to wall? I do realize it has to do with local codes.

thanks to all replys!

[Chip C.]

Pulling wires from one end or the other can be be done either way no biggie, as for you connecting one wire at a time if your not sure get someone to help or hire an electrician. when you pull wires do them all at once it will be the only way i would do it.

Run a Fish Tape thru the pipe.

Strip 4-5" of insulation off the wires and cut 1/3 of the copper strands of each wire off so you can run the wire through the hook on the tape and braid them into a cut down on bulk and keep the wires connected firmly. Tightly black tape the first foot several layers, barber pole style.

Lube... Lots of cable pulling lubricant.

The guy doing mine put a connector between the stiff and flex pipe that was too small a diameter. The wires went thru if lined up perfectly, but the slightest twist bogged everything down. He had me on the outside pushing in as he pulled from the inside.

The wire would suck in a foot and several times the the tip of my fingers smacked into the plastic fitting. I was bloody and tow fingernails were bent back. We tried several times before he switched to 100% rigid pipe. The pipe melter to make the nice bends was pretty cool.

This sounds like a good way to attach wires to the fish tape. One question to be clear, do you braid the bare strands before looping them thru the fish tape hook?

[Chip C.]

This sounds like a good way to attach wires to the fish tape. One question to be clear, do you braid the bare strands before looping them thru the fish tape hook?

I just want to make sure I understand how to braid & attach befre I try it.

[craighaggart]

I just want to make sure I understand how to braid & attach befre I try it.

It doesn't really matter how you braid the wires together or attach them to the fish tape, you simply want to make it possible to pull them all through the conduit together without overstressing any individual wire. The standard way is to strip back several inches of all of your wires, then twist all of the stripped ends together, then stick the twisted ends through the eye of the fish tape, then bend the twisted wires back on themselves, then tape up the whole shebang so that it doesn't come apart when you're pulling. (Don't forget to run the fish tape through the conduit FIRST!) If the fish tape loop is too small to fit the 4 twisted wires through, use an intermediate piece of scrap wire or something similar -- and make sure you tape it, too, so it doesn't pull apart.

It doesn't matter which end you fish the wires from, but if you have a tighter bend or series of bends at one end of the conduit, I'd pull from that end because you want the least resistance at the end opposite the one you're pulling from. Another factor is that it can be easier to run wires if there's room to lay them out to their full length (to help avoid the kinks that result from the fact that wire comes on rolls). So if you have room to lay out the wires at one end but not the other, that might help you decide which end to pull from.

One more thing: Conduit is cheap, and using a larger size than required by code usually makes it much easier to pull wires through.

Craig Haggart

Sunnyvale, California

[Hex92]

I will echo the previous poster's comment. Conduit is cheap compared to the frustration of pulling wire. I was able to run wire for my tub in 3/4 liquid tight flexible tubing, but I didn't have a run longer than 15 feet.

When I ran #6 to my garage last year I used 1.5 inch conduit since it was a longer run (~45 ft) with 3 - 90 degree turns. I put a puller box (or whatever they are called) in so I didn't have to do the entire run in one shot. Another nice thing was when I needed to run a #12 wire back to the house this year for a light switch to control lights on the garage from the house I was able to pull it through the same conduit.

And if it hasn't been mentioned already, use wire grease. Lots of it.