"Qualified" electrician of the day.

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Mr. Serious

Senior Member
Location
Oklahoma, USA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
As I recall, sch. 40 PVC water pipe in the early days was gray like electrical PVC.
Actually I think those were polybutylene water pipes. Installed in the 1970s and early 1980s, they've probably all failed by now. They tend to fail in a spectacular manner. The biggest residential water leak I've ever seen was due to polybutylene plumbing. The main coming into the house had burst and I was the first water-damage remediation technician on the site. Water was pouring out of the hall closet and the meter was spinning very fast. I estimated it at about 3 gallons per second.
 

Hv&Lv

Senior Member
Location
-
Occupation
Engineer/Technician
Something is not adding up about this post.

A new service riser would involve the power company.
Not always. I know many electricians that own a pop tool and squeezons.
A new service would also require inspection prior to connection.
again, not always…
Plus,
We're not seeing the entire picture.
agreed, somethings missing.
Seems odd a DIY'er would have the piece of mind to use strut and strut straps but not a sweep elbow.

JAP>
yep..
 

hillbilly1

Senior Member
Location
North Georgia mountains
Occupation
Owner/electrical contractor
I built the service and wired the shell of a general merchandise store, that was until the owner ran out of money, then he had his maintenance guy finish. At least he used EMT, but he didn’t have a bender, and pulled Romex in it. Where he had to make a turn, he just wrapped the joint in duct tape! LOL!
 

jap

Senior Member
Occupation
Electrician
Not always. I know many electricians that own a pop tool and squeezons.

again, not always…

agreed, somethings missing.

yep..

You do realize this post is from April of 2021, and, we never did seem to get the whole picture

JAP>
 

b1miller

Member
Location
Washington
Occupation
Electrician/Electrical Administrator/SCADA Engineer
Back in the 90’s I was at a project in China
Got to watch the electricians bending 2” rigid conduit with torches
They ran short of 90’s
Just shook my head and kept walking
 

norcal

Senior Member
In the 1960's PVC sprinkler pipe & fittings were gray, and there is still some in service, I would rather gray PVC be used for water then white PVC be used for conduit, I cut through some that had 14/2 UF inside, lucky for me it was not live, but get rather cranky when I see it.
 

GoldDigger

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Placerville, CA, USA
Occupation
Retired PV System Designer
I worked on a grain bin that had 10/3 NM cable installed with plumbing 90s. The original installers were obviously better field engineers than I. I could not wrap my head around how they did it. Sawzall took it all down.
Simple answer is once piece at a time, after the NM is in place.
 

gadfly56

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
Simple answer is once piece at a time, after the NM is in place.
So, I've got a threaded 90 that I slip over the wire/cable and run it down to the pipe. Now I start tightening the 90. The wire/cable starts to wind up. How many times before it jams up? Or how abraded is the wire going to get if I untwist it as I go? There's a lot of ugliness on the inside of a galvanized pipe fitting that water doesn't care about but plastic insulation may.
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
Something is not adding up about this post.

A new service riser would involve the power company.
A new service would also require inspection prior to connection.
Plus,
We're not seeing the entire picture.

Seems odd a DIY'er would have the piece of mind to use strut and strut straps but not a sweep elbow.

JAP>
Permit and inspections requirements and process are not the same everywhere you go. Majority of places inspection maybe is required, that don't mean it always happens either.
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
Actually I think those were polybutylene water pipes. Installed in the 1970s and early 1980s, they've probably all failed by now. They tend to fail in a spectacular manner. The biggest residential water leak I've ever seen was due to polybutylene plumbing. The main coming into the house had burst and I was the first water-damage remediation technician on the site. Water was pouring out of the hall closet and the meter was spinning very fast. I estimated it at about 3 gallons per second.
Apparently was more than a 1 inch supply line.
 

jap

Senior Member
Occupation
Electrician
Permit and inspections requirements and process are not the same everywhere you go. Majority of places inspection maybe is required, that don't mean it always happens either.

I'm not disagreeing.

There's just a lot of comments on this post based off of speculation seeing as how, we don't even know if this riser is even going to a piece of service equipment to begin with by the picture.

JAP>
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
So, I've got a threaded 90 that I slip over the wire/cable and run it down to the pipe. Now I start tightening the 90. The wire/cable starts to wind up. How many times before it jams up? Or how abraded is the wire going to get if I untwist it as I go? There's a lot of ugliness on the inside of a galvanized pipe fitting that water doesn't care about but plastic insulation may.
you turn the pipe not the fitting. Now if you have multiple 90's in same run it may be difficult to avoid twisting wire/cable somewhere in the run.
 

LarryFine

Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
Location
Henrico County, VA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
So, I've got a threaded 90 that I slip over the wire/cable and run it down to the pipe. Now I start tightening the 90. The wire/cable starts to wind up. How many times before it jams up? Or how abraded is the wire going to get if I untwist it as I go? There's a lot of ugliness on the inside of a galvanized pipe fitting that water doesn't care about but plastic insulation may.
When I have to assemble something like this, I will twist the fitting and wire in the opposite direction first, approximately the number of twists I'll be needing, so the wires are actually untwisting when threading together.
 

jap

Senior Member
Occupation
Electrician
When I have to assemble something like this, I will twist the fitting and wire in the opposite direction first, approximately the number of twists I'll be needing, so the wires are actually untwisting when threading together.

Which gives this type of installation twice the likelihood of jacking up the insulation. :)

JAP>
 
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