Vacuuming a Rat

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jmellc

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Durham, NC
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Facility Maintenance Tech. Licensed Electrician
I'll soon need to vacuum a rat about 200 feet through an 1 1/4 PVC conduit. I don't have the fancy Greenlee vac. Has anyone tried a small shop vac for occasional use like this?
 
jmellc said:
I'll soon need to vacuum a rat about 200 feet through an 1 1/4 PVC conduit. I don't have the fancy Greenlee vac. Has anyone tried a small shop vac for occasional use like this?
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Greenlee vacuums utilize the same basic design as shop vacs. I imagine some shop vacs may even out perform a Greenlee where it counts. The amount of vacuum and airflow that can be had is not based on the brand name.
 
should be easy, I've always used whatever vac is available. if the vac is not powerful enough to pull the rat I have sometimes sucked paper or part of a sandwich bag or whatever.
 
Only major difference between Greenlee blower/vac and a typical shop vac is number of stages on the blower itself. With Greenlee you get a blower that will move more volume and likely will develop more pressure. You also get all the fancy attachments for the hose.

If you are running through schedule 40 PVC that converts to schedule 80 you will want to use a piston that will not hang up easily in the schedule 80. 1-1/2 piston in 2 inch conduit will work but will travel slower because a lot of air blows past the loose fitting piston. Use some platic wrap or similar to help seal better will speed it up.
 
Unless we are trying to clean/clear a pvc conduit we just use a piece
of plastic shopping bag, jet line and a shop vac. Works all day long. If there is excessive water we blast it with compressed air first.
 
I use a Rigid shop vac and a plastic bag(HD or Lowes) all the time. I've found letting the vac suck the bag through works better than trying to blow it.
 
shepelec said:
I use a Rigid shop vac and a plastic bag(HD or Lowes) all the time. I've found letting the vac suck the bag through works better than trying to blow it.
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I think with leaky (like set-screw connections) that tends to work better for some reason.
 
mivey said:
I think with leaky (like set-screw connections) that tends to work better for some reason.
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I've found with set screw connections a vac is useless unless it's a short run, there is just too much leakage. Unless you have a CO2 jet line kit.:grin:

My comment applies only to PVC or compression connections.:)
 
We use Rigid shop vacs with mice or plastic grocery bags. Kite string works great, be sure to blow through the conduit first to get all the water out.

mivey said:
Leaky as all get-out. Would it have hurt for them to put in a rubber o-ring?
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Then they'd be like raintight connectors which suck for getting your pipe seated all the way in.

Plus they'd cost more.
 
Cow said:
Then they'd be like raintight connectors which suck for getting your pipe seated all the way in.
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Ain't that the truth.

There are also some seal-tite connectors that have caused me plenty of headaches as well. They act like you are trying to join some kind of metric connector with a standard flex.
 
ksmith846 said:
Another option is while you are running the EMT wrap the coupling with duct tape as you install them. Time saver when you are ready to pull wire.

No good obviously if it is a nice open display of pipe work.
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Eeww.:grin:
 
mivey said:
Ain't that the truth.

There are also some seal-tite connectors that have caused me plenty of headaches as well. They act like you are trying to join some kind of metric connector with a standard flex.
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I know which seal tite connectors your talking about. What a joke:mad:
 
ksmith846 said:
Another option is while you are running the EMT wrap the coupling with duct tape as you install them. Time saver when you are ready to pull wire.

No good obviously if it is a nice open display of pipe work.
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Duct tape is terrible IMO. We used duct tape in a pinch on a 700' run of 1 1/4, every wrinkle in the duct tape on every coupling allowed some of the suction to escape. At the feed end, there was no suction after 70 couplings. Gray phase tape is the way to go IMO. It stretches and doesn't leave wrinkles allowing air to escape.

mivey said:
Ain't that the truth.

There are also some seal-tite connectors that have caused me plenty of headaches as well. They act like you are trying to join some kind of metric connector with a standard flex.
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I tried some Appletons on 3" once. NEVER AGAIN! T & B FOR LIFE!!
 
A wet/dry vac is the way to go if your doing underground conduits. They are always full of water and will ruin a regular vac. Friday I had to suck a jet line in for the lazy phone guys, sucked out nearly 5 gallons of water. They were installing Fiber, and would not use the exsisting copper for a pull string. Hopefully for their sake they don't damage the fiber pulling it in next to the exsisting copper!
 
We use an old Craftsman w/d vac on buried pvc lines. New install so it was dry. I think 600 feet was the longest but that is because our pull line isn't strong enough to pull in the larger rope and cable. Never tried long distances with emt. Wally World bags seem to work the best.

Used CO2 back when. It wasn't a mouse that came out. It was a rocket.
 
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