3/4" or 1" EMT ELBOW

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Alwayslearningelec

Senior Member
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NJ
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Estimator
Is one of these more commonly used than the other when running 3/4" or 1" EMT or does it purely depend of the circumstance? THanks.

1. Pull elbow
2. Bending
 

sameguy

Senior Member
Location
New York
Occupation
Master Elec./JW retired
Depends,
pulling Ls only if must use LBs.
Emt use a box.
small pipe of most types hand benders/hicky
big jobs 555 bender and hand benders
 

infinity

Moderator
Staff member
Location
New Jersey
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Journeyman Electrician
You would only really use a pulling ell to go around a corner. Otherwise the installer would bend an elbow.
 

Strife

Senior Member
HUH?
You use a 3/4" LB for a 3/4" conduit and OBVIOUSLY a 1" LB for a 1" conduit.
Unless you plan to have splices in the LB I don't see any reason to use a 1" LB with 3/4 conduit.
I only use LB's if the space doesn't allow me to make a bend(that includes going around a corner. I hate goose necks, plus they look REAL ugly especially on an exterior of a building)), or I exceed the 360 degree.

Is one of these more commonly used than the other when running 3/4" or 1" EMT or does it purely depend of the circumstance? THanks.

1. Pull elbow
2. Bending
 

Alwayslearningelec

Senior Member
Location
NJ
Occupation
Estimator
HUH?
You use a 3/4" LB for a 3/4" conduit and OBVIOUSLY a 1" LB for a 1" conduit.- I know, that's not what I asked.
Unless you plan to have splices in the LB I don't see any reason to use a 1" LB with 3/4 conduit...I know.
I only use LB's if the space doesn't allow me to make a bend(that includes going around a corner. I hate goose necks, plus they look REAL ugly especially on an exterior of a building)), or I exceed the 360 degree.
.... THanks.
 

infinity

Moderator
Staff member
Location
New Jersey
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Journeyman Electrician
Thanks....I thought so.

If you ever go somewhere and look at an EMT job where they used all straight pipe and pulling ell's instead of elbows you can pretty much assume that the installer had no idea how to bend pipe. :happysad:
 

Alwayslearningelec

Senior Member
Location
NJ
Occupation
Estimator
If you ever go somewhere and look at an EMT job where they used all straight pipe and pulling ell's instead of elbows you can pretty much assume that the installer had no idea how to bend pipe. :happysad:

And I do otoce that pulling elbows(lb's) are really only used on corners.
 

jmellc

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
Occupation
Facility Maintenance Tech. Licensed Electrician
If you ever go somewhere and look at an EMT job where they used all straight pipe and pulling ell's instead of elbows you can pretty much assume that the installer had no idea how to bend pipe. :happysad:

But we are talking outside corners here, right? Unless right angle walls have rounded corners, a bent 90 would have to be offset also. That is usually not an attractive bend. Rounded corners are not very common in most buildings I have seen.
 

infinity

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Location
New Jersey
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Journeyman Electrician
If you ever go somewhere and look at an EMT job where they used all straight pipe and pulling ell's instead of elbows you can pretty much assume that the installer had no idea how to bend pipe. :happysad:

But we are talking outside corners here, right? Unless right angle walls have rounded corners, a bent 90 would have to be offset also. That is usually not an attractive bend. Rounded corners are not very common in most buildings I have seen.

Nope this has nothing to do with corners. Just conduit run flat on a wall with only straight pieces and a pull ell where an elbow should be. :)
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
If you need to change direction of a raceway you:

Bend the raceway (pre made elbows are included in this category)

Use a pull/junction box

Use a conduit body.

If number of bends in a run are more than 360 degrees then you must use pull/junction boxes or conduit bodies to achieve individual segments with less than 360 degrees of bend. Outside of that it is simply design choice.

What looks good is a design choice, and does not necessarily make other methods wrong.
 

K8MHZ

Senior Member
Location
Michigan. It's a beautiful peninsula, I've looked
Occupation
Electrician
Is one of these more commonly used than the other when running 3/4" or 1" EMT or does it purely depend of the circumstance? THanks.

1. Pull elbow
2. Bending

Bending is more common. I have done jobs with hundreds of bends and not so much as a single 'pull elbow'.

Pulling elbows are nice for going around the outside of a 90 degree corner. You will also see LBs used for the same purpose. If you try to go around the outside of a corner by bending, you end up with what is known as a 'Shepard's hook' bend, or a 90 with an offset. They don't hug the wall and are not the easiest to make look good.

On the inside of a corner, bent pipe is the norm.

Bending EMT is always preferred over using fittings unless there is a good reason for using them. Not knowing how to bend pipe is not a good reason.
 
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jmellc

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
Occupation
Facility Maintenance Tech. Licensed Electrician

You started off saying that straight conduits and pulling L's meant someone did not know how to bend. Pulling L's are used on outside corners where bends are not practical. I referred to this and you said use them instead of bends. Why say someone does not know how to bend when a bend was not the practical thing to do anyway?
 

infinity

Moderator
Staff member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Journeyman Electrician
If you ever go somewhere and look at an EMT job where they used all straight pipe and pulling ell's instead of elbows you can pretty much assume that the installer had no idea how to bend pipe. :happysad:

You started off saying that straight conduits and pulling L's meant someone did not know how to bend. Pulling L's are used on outside corners where bends are not practical. I referred to this and you said use them instead of bends. Why say someone does not know how to bend when a bend was not the practical thing to do anyway?

What I said was that if you see a job where they used nothing but straight pipe and pulling ells instead of bending elbows then you know the installer was good at using a hack saw and not a bender. Why would you think that I meant they were using pulling ells instead of elbows to go around an outside corner. :?
 

infinity

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Location
New Jersey
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Journeyman Electrician
Elbow is a common term used by manufacturers and even the NEC. An elbow can be can be 90?, 45?, 30? etc. As mentioned a sweep is a large radius elbow. One example:

250.80 Service Raceways and Enclosures.
Metal enclosures and raceways for service conductors and equipment shall be connected to the grounded system conductor if the electrical system is grounded or to the grounding electrode conductor for electrical systems that are not grounded.
Exception: A metal elbow that is installed in an underground installation of rigid nonmetallic conduit and is isolated from possible contact by a minimum cover of 450 mm (18 in.) to any part of the elbow shall not be required to be connected to the grounded system conductor or grounding electrode conductor.
 
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