Custom CIC

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electrofelon

electrofelon

Senior Member
Location
Cherry Valley NY, Seattle, WA
Occupation
Electrician
Anyone have any experience ordering custom cic, as far as venders and minimum length they will do etc? Granted things are all hectic right now so probably nothing is "normal". I Just got this back from southwire:

"....they are at capacity for 52 weeks with a 50,000’ min"

Ouch.

Did some quick googling and it looks like there are some vendors online that you can send the wire to and they will CIC it.
 
electrofelon said:
Do what? Extrude SDR 11 HDPE tube around 3000 feet of conductors?
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Is that the way it is done? I thought they just pulled it through after it wa extruded. The stuff I have seen looks like tubing with loose wires inside of it.

3000 feet would be a lot to do by yourself though.
 
electrofelon said:
Anyone have any experience ordering custom cic, as far as venders and minimum length they will do etc? Granted things are all hectic right now so probably nothing is "normal". I Just got this back from southwire:

"....they are at capacity for 52 weeks with a 50,000’ min"

Ouch.

Did some quick googling and it looks like there are some vendors online that you can send the wire to and they will CIC it.
Click to expand...
Unless you are a supply house of some sort or do have reason to purchase in large quantities I can see purchasing direct from manufacturer probably not so likely.

Vendor I have purchased from in past (all before the supply chain issues hit) I believe would cut most any length you want, presuming it doesn't leave them with a short reel they may not be able to sell very easily. Say you wanted 2500 feet of something that came on a 2800 foot reel, they don't want to have that 300 feet left over. At same time you likely could purchase that uncut 2800 foot reel at a price equal or less than what the cut price rate would be on 2500 feet anyway.
 
petersonra said:
Is that the way it is done? I thought they just pulled it through after it wa extruded. The stuff I have seen looks like tubing with loose wires inside of it.

3000 feet would be a lot to do by yourself though.
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No they extrude the conduit over the conductors. I don't think it would be possible to pull in 3,000 ft, would need a bunch of pull points then we're getting into a big hassle I'd like to get it all on a spool and just lay it in and be done.
 
kwired said:
Unless you are a supply house of some sort or do have reason to purchase in large quantities I can see purchasing direct from manufacturer probably not so likely.

Vendor I have purchased from in past (all before the supply chain issues hit) I believe would cut most any length you want, presuming it doesn't leave them with a short reel they may not be able to sell very easily. Say you wanted 2500 feet of something that came on a 2800 foot reel, they don't want to have that 300 feet left over. At same time you likely could purchase that uncut 2800 foot reel at a price equal or less than what the cut price rate would be on 2500 feet anyway.
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Yeah and note I am talking about a (likely) custom conductor arrangement so it would be made to order. There are certainly some cic arrangements that are common and stocked this would not be one of them. 5 years ago southwire gave me a quote on a custom run for 4,000 ft and it was very affordable,.. barely more than the cost of the wire itself
 
electrofelon said:
No they extrude the conduit over the conductors. I don't think it would be possible to pull in 3,000 ft, would need a bunch of pull points then we're getting into a big hassle I'd like to get it all on a spool and just lay it in and be done.
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But........ You can order HDPE conduit with pull tape installed..... This is downhill, I could play with some numbers maybe it could be done.
 
Update: So I kept looking. I have a 2000' foot 15kv primary run to do and would just love to lay in CIC. Also with the price of PVC, figure its gotta be cheaper. So Okonite shows #2 AL CN 15kv primary in the CIC catalog as a stock item. I find an okonite distributor.....turns out no its not stock, they send it to duraline to CIC it. I get a price. They price the cable itself at $4.87/foot. I got a price of $3.85/ foot from another place a month ago. To CIC it is $1.85/ foot which really is not bad, way cheaper than 1.5" PVC right now. Problem is they have a 10,000' minimum. Well its better than southwire's 50,000 minimum (n). So its looking like Ill buy a roll of SDR conduit with tape installed and pull it through that. ITs downhill and straight, I think I can do it in one shot
 
ptonsparky said:
Granted I've not tugged on 15kv cable in 3000 feet of conduit, but I have others. It moved surprisingly easy.
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Yeah if it's straight with no bends it is a lot easier than we often think. Last year we pulled about 750 ft of 500 AL urd (3 conductor). The last 150 ft was pretty funky so we just pulled the 600 ft with each end of the pipe just diving out of the ground, some slow gradual bends. We pulled it with a machine but then just out of curiosity we thought let's pull it by hand and see if it moves, it moved real easy, one person could pull it.
 
I tried to get a quote on some last week and southwire doesn’t even list it on their website now; they only show it with mule tape installed.

Are you saying they will still make it? I was looking for about 8k/ft but split in 4 different conductor sizes.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
brantmacga said:
I tried to get a quote on some last week and southwire doesn’t even list it on their website now; they only show it with mule tape installed.

Are you saying they will still make it? I was looking for about 8k/ft but split in 4 different conductor sizes.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Southwire says they are at capacity for 52 weeks and a 50,000 ft minimum. Duraline doesn't seem to have significant lead time but has 10,000 ft minimum. I believe duraline just extrudes the conduit, you need to supply them with the conductors you want in it. I know there are some other HDPE conduit extruders out there who will cic conductors in it, but I haven't checked with any others. I'm not sure if any of the other wire manufacturers do custom cic in house. That's what's nice about southwire, other than the high lead time and minimum quantity, they can supply the conductors and run it in pipe right in house.

I'm looking at getting a few rolls of HDPE conduit from this eBay seller:

www.ebay.com

3,000 feet 1.5" SDR 17 High Density Polyethylene HDPE w/ 1000# Tape Conduit | eBay

3,000 feet 1.50" SDR 17 High Density Polyethylene HDPE Smooth Wall Conduit w/ 1000# Tape. -One (1) Reel of 3,000 feet 1.50" SDR 17 High Density Polyethylene HDPE Smooth Wall Conduit w/ 1000# Tape. -HDPE Conduit.
www.ebay.com

They do say in the item description cic is available, so I have submitted a question to find out details.

HDPE conduit is looking real appealing with the cost of PVC right now.
 
Just wanted to note that pre covid I got a quote from southwire for a custom cic run of 4000 ft and they said they would do it. It was very affordable too, not much more than just the price of the conductors. I wonder why they are so far out now and have implemented such high minimums? Perhaps the typical staffing shortages crap, but I could see demand being way up due to the cost of PVC
 
There are some other duct companies that will do CIC, maybe try them. Blue Diamond is one theyre in KY. On minimums, sometimes companies will waive the minimum for an additional fee -never hurts to ask....
 
electrofelon said:
Southwire says they are at capacity for 52 weeks and a 50,000 ft minimum. Duraline doesn't seem to have significant lead time but has 10,000 ft minimum. I believe duraline just extrudes the conduit, you need to supply them with the conductors you want in it. I know there are some other HDPE conduit extruders out there who will cic conductors in it, but I haven't checked with any others. I'm not sure if any of the other wire manufacturers do custom cic in house. That's what's nice about southwire, other than the high lead time and minimum quantity, they can supply the conductors and run it in pipe right in house.

I'm looking at getting a few rolls of HDPE conduit from this eBay seller:

www.ebay.com

3,000 feet 1.5" SDR 17 High Density Polyethylene HDPE w/ 1000# Tape Conduit | eBay

3,000 feet 1.50" SDR 17 High Density Polyethylene HDPE Smooth Wall Conduit w/ 1000# Tape. -One (1) Reel of 3,000 feet 1.50" SDR 17 High Density Polyethylene HDPE Smooth Wall Conduit w/ 1000# Tape. -HDPE Conduit.
www.ebay.com

They do say in the item description cic is available, so I have submitted a question to find out details.

HDPE conduit is looking real appealing with the cost of PVC right now.
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I don't know differences in how they are made, but aren't both petroleum based and that is one the major reasons for high price?

Labor issues and transportation issues likely are similar challenges for either.

More demand for PVC than HDPE maybe a factor? HDPE basically can only be used underground so it does have more limitation on where it will be used.
 
kwired said:
I don't know differences in how they are made, but aren't both petroleum based and that is one the major reasons for high price?

Labor issues and transportation issues likely are similar challenges for either.

More demand for PVC than HDPE maybe a factor? HDPE basically can only be used underground so it does have more limitation on where it will be used.
Click to expand...
HDPE conduit doesn't seem to have gone up nearly as much as PVC.
 
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