Anyone using CIC HDPE

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Fred B

Fred B

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Location
Upstate, NY
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Electrician
Saw ads for HDPE with preinstalled cable but can't find any pricing and my supply house doesn't seem to carry so was wondering if it saves some back breaking labor trying to make long pulls, enough to warrant cost difference that I can't seem to find.
Seems that it would be great for, just have trench and drop it in, no pulling cable after through a conduit. Seems it would be worth it even if cost double traditional conduit and cables vs my fighting a 200ft pull of 250Kcmil.
 
200 feet not worth it unless whoever can supply it is pretty nearby.

I've used it for irrigation and for runs of 1000 - 3000 feet. Cost was always worth needing to drive ~70 miles and back to pick it up for me, but wouldn't be worth it to get 200 feet.

You need some larger equipment to handle those reels that handle 3000 feet of 2" HDPE with conductor in it. The reel diameter is about 8 feet.

My regular supply houses don't handle it, the place I get it from mostly handles just wire and cable products.

Haven't used any since maybe 2019 so not sure what pricing has done since then. But what I have used always was less cost than conventional conduit and wire was from supply house. But needed to be like 1000ish feet or more or was not worth the drive to go pick it up.

Of course you also need a truck or trailer that can handle those large reels. Aluminum conductor not terribly heavy compared to copper but 1500 feet or so of 4/0 or 250 quad still adds up. 200 foot length would still not wind up in much of a tight radius for 1.5 or 2 inch HPDE and would take up some space to haul it either off a reel or if on a reel would be a large one with little product on it.
 
Back pre-pandemic i got a quote on some CIC. It was for a 2KV step up step down system with two different meters, so it was a single common neutral THHN and two 2KV PV wire or 5KV L-824 (MGN system). IIRC it was like 4000', and I think it would have been in 3/4 or 1" pipe. I believe it was from Southwire, and the price was great, like about the same as the component materials. I dug up the email so here it is:


Ethan Pricing below.
This would be plus freight and has a 6-8 week lead time. Comes installed in 1 inch black schedule 40 pipe.For some reason there is a 20,000 min run on your option #2 so that is a no quote. The quote also has a plus/minus 5% clause. Will need to re quote at time of order due to copper volatility but this will give you a good idea of the levels.


option #1: 2 - #10 AWG 2KV PV wire/RHH-2, and one #8 white THHN. $1.44 per ft
option #2: 2 - #8 AWG 2KV PV wire/RHH-2, and one #8 white THHN.
option #3: 2 - #8 5KV unshielded L-824 (airport lighting cable), and one #8 white THHN. $1.83 per ft
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That job fell through but as you can see CIC was a great option. Well the pandemic came along and in 2021 I had another job come along i was interested in some CIC and my rep said southwire said that they now have a 50,000 foot minimum and a 1 year lead time! Ouch. Then a year later I was doing a 2000' single phase primary run off a delta system so needed two runs of #2 15KV concentric neutral. I tried to find CIC but I could not for the life of me find it at a reasonable price. The best I could find was to get the cable form okonite, and they would have to ship it to Dura-line to CIC it. The price was horrible so I didnt end up doing it. So that was a year and half ago, I dont know if things have opened back up with custom CIC runs, but at least at one time it was definitely the cats meow. I have done a lot of long service runs over the years, so If I could go back in time, I would probably order a giant spool of 250 URD CIC. I usually run 250 for a typical house if the run is 200-300'. Over that you could run two runs.
 
Birken Vogt said:
I have always just wanted to get empty 1.25" or 1.5" HDPE UL conduit for snaking through gardens, under sidewalks and stuff, but nobody is offering it easily.
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For that 2000' primary run I mentioned in post #8, we did use 1.5" HDPE conduit. That job was for my cousin so I put him in charge of ordering it and paying for it, but I think he said it was around a buck a foot delivered. It was from twcablellc.net. there's people selling on eBay too, but he said that TW place had better prices. But if I have another long run, I'll definitely price out the HDPE conduit, as PVC still hasn't really come down much at all.
 
Birken Vogt said:
I have always just wanted to get empty 1.25" or 1.5" HDPE UL conduit for snaking through gardens, under sidewalks and stuff, but nobody is offering it easily.
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Maybe find a directional boring contractor if you want shorter pieces now and then. They likely have plenty of remnant pieces.

Otherwise anyone selling it probably only wants to sell full reels and that is likely prohibitive for anyone wanting to use a little bit here and there.
 
tom baker said:
Question on CIC. It comes on giant reels, when you unspool to put it ditch how is it to handle?
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You are going to be using heavier equipment just to handle the spool. For long runs, you are probably pulling it with a truck, ATV, your excavator, etc. The weight will eventually be too much to pull by hand unless maybe you are a body builder.

It wants to lay flatter the warmer the temperature is, though that is more of a problem when runs are short.

You can certainly lay in open trench though it is the cats meow for directional boring and directly plowing into the ground.
 
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