below grade junction in pvc conduit....

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ultramegabob

ultramegabob

Senior Member
Location
Indiana
I know that they make large hand holes for the utility companies buried cables, does anyone know of any approve small hand holes for making repairs in broken pvc conduit? its not always very practicle to pull the wire out to make a repair in a damaged conduit, especially if the damage is only a few feet away from whatever it is feeding. Im pictureing somthing similar to a valve box used for underground sprinkler valves. I believe some carlon boxes are rated for burial, but they dont look very professional laying in the dirt, would there be with digging a hole making a repair with a carlon box and covering it with a valve box to make it look more finished in a lawn?
 
S

SiddMartin

Senior Member
Location
PA
I have seen at the supply house a "broken conduit" fixer, may be made by carlon or Ipex. It is basiclly a section of pipe that is split down the length of it, and you snap it together around the bad section. Claims to be water tight, not sure how... you may have to also apply pvc cement. Haven't tried them yet though
 
J

jdsmith

Senior Member
Location
Ohio
SiddMartin said:
I have seen at the supply house a "broken conduit" fixer, may be made by carlon or Ipex. It is basiclly a section of pipe that is split down the length of it, and you snap it together around the bad section. Claims to be water tight, not sure how... you may have to also apply pvc cement. Haven't tried them yet though
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I've seen that in the Wesco catalog, never used one though. It really doesn't matter if it lets water through, since underground conduits fill with water eventually anyways. I'm sure it's expensive, probably 10% less than the labor for pulling the wire out, fixing the conduit, and pulling the wire back in.
 
ultramegabob

ultramegabob

Senior Member
Location
Indiana
I have seen those on display but never used one, it would work for repairs where the wire isnt damaged , I didnt state it clearly in my post, but I would like to find an approved method of spliceing cut wires in conduit underground also....
 
ultramegabob

ultramegabob

Senior Member
Location
Indiana
SiddMartin said:
splice wires in broken conduit.....can't say i know a way to do that by code and ul listing.. sorry
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Im not wanting to put a splice in a conduit, Im wanting to know if there is an small approved hand hole or is it okay to use a carlon box inside of a valve box to dress it up....
 
ptonsparky

ptonsparky

Tom
Location
NE (9.06 miles @5.9 Degrees from Winged Horses)
Occupation
EC - retired
We have used them. We use stainless steel hose clamps to help hold them together at least until they are buried. Big cable ties probably would have worked as well. I think the run we spliced was close to 3000'. They were worth the $$. A riser in middle of a corn field just won't fly.

(Refering to the two piece conduit repair kit)
 
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C

Cow

Senior Member
Location
Eastern Oregon
Occupation
Electrician
That 2 piece kit would probably work best. If you go the handhole route, that means you're cutting the broken spot out of the conduit. No way to put bushings on the cut ends with wire in the pipe. That's not saying I still wouldn't do it though...;)
 
C

CHWflorida

Member
Just cut the pipe off clean, pull the shorter end of the wire back to that point, 90 up both ends of conduit, run a new length of wire to your load, install a handhole over your conduit ends, and splice wires in handhole. I would use a handhole that says "electric" on the lid.
 
C

CHWflorida

Member
Yes, the handhole is exactly like the irrigation valve handholes, only they say electric. We use them often. They come in several sizes. Supply house should have them.
 
ultramegabob

ultramegabob

Senior Member
Location
Indiana
CHWflorida said:
Just cut the pipe off clean, pull the shorter end of the wire back to that point, 90 up both ends of conduit, run a new length of wire to your load, install a handhole over your conduit ends, and splice wires in handhole. I would use a handhole that says "electric" on the lid.
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that is exactly what I want to do, the supply houses here dont stock anything like that, they want to sell me a carlon box... can you give me a manufacture name or part or model number? I have found some online that are humongous, made for utility companies, I would like to get one more the size of a sprinkler valve box, 12 inches diam. or smaller....
 
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ultramegabob

ultramegabob

Senior Member
Location
Indiana
follow up...

follow up...

originally, there was a differnt stone wall that is a sign in front of a church it is located near an intersection where someone was going about 75 mph through town, t-boned someone and then plowed through the wall disentegrating it.... anyway, there were several conduits surface mounted with j-boxes and lights on the back of the wall, and a couple conduits underground feeding lights in the landscapeing facing the wall, I met with the stone masons and routed some smurf tube through the center of the wall while they were laying stone in order to flush mount the new lights and recepticles. I managed to dig down and remove stumps from bushes and such, remove the broken conduits and re-sleave with pvc, and using a heat gun routed them into the bottom of the carlon box. all splices were done with direct burial wirenuts with the "white goo" in them, I then dipped the wirenuts in liquid rubber tape. I used this valve box to hide the ugly carlon box just below grade, the hole was backfilled with gravel for drainage... does anyone think I made any violations here?


View attachment 1876

View attachment 1877
 
ultramegabob

ultramegabob

Senior Member
Location
Indiana
just so you know, that is a double W.P. in use box, there is a gfci recept in it, its just a funny angle where you only see the duplex rec.:D
 
Pierre C Belarge

Pierre C Belarge

Senior Member
Location
Westchester County, New York
Water is a very powerful force, you know "Mother Nature" and all.

With that said, your installation if I understand it correctly is somewhat different than using say a Quazite type box.

Again, if I understand you correctly, let me try to explain.

Your install:
you have a plastic box installed underground with PVC pipes directly attached to it from the underneath. The type of box you show is not designed to be installed below grade and remain watertite. Therefore water will enter it and have not place to go but into the raceway(s) and enter into the box filling it up - eventually. It may not always stay full of water, but could have water in it for some amount of time (I am not sure how much rain you get where you live).

Quazite type of install:
The main difference in the install between your box and a Quazite type box is the Quazite type can be bottomless. The pipes do not need to be enter from the bottom (they can be if necessary), the box will drain water if there is substantial amount of rain.


As I alluded to "Mother Nature" earlier, water can be pretty bad for electrical underground work.
It seems like you went to extremes to keep the termination as free of water/failure as you possibly could...only time will tell now. It could be a long time at that :wink: :grin:
 
Rampage_Rick

Rampage_Rick

Senior Member
Location
British Columbia, Canada
ptonsparky said:
We have used them. We use stainless steel hose clamps to help hold them together at least until they are buried. Big cable ties probably would have worked as well. I think the run we spliced was close to 3000'. They were worth the $$. A riser in middle of a corn field just won't fly.

(Refering to the two piece conduit repair kit)
Click to expand...
I just did one a couple weeks back. Occupied 4" DB2 teleduct met a tractor bucket. (he missed an 8" poly gas line by a foot) Unfortunately in my case they don't make a 2-piece conduit repair kit for DB2 (I think it's called C-Duct down there; 4.325" OD versus 4.500" for Schedule 40 PVC)

What was suggested to me (by my supply house, likely via Ipex) was something called H-clip. A 10-foot section cost me $3. Took a piece of scrap DB2 and cut it lengthwise with a circular saw. Also cut a pair of couplers. The whole affair gets cut to length and installed around the existing cables. The cut along the conduit gets glue, and the H-clip joins the seam. At each end of the repair the H-clip gets ground down do the profile of the pipe so that the couplers will fit properly. When the couplers were glued into place they each got 4 large cable ties to maintain pressure while the joint cured.
 
stickboy1375

stickboy1375

Senior Member
Location
Litchfield, CT
I use these from www.newbasis.com

10"x10" round encloser $14.50 Cat.No NB10/10

http://www.agenity.com/sitemanager/uploads/documents/195/SGA100010.pdf
plasticsbiggray.jpg
 
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