Getting water out of a conduit?

[Coyote machine]

The water indicates a break or crush spot, IF the 'ends' are not open to weather, on either end. Usually the pull string is attached to the wire/coax/whatever and then pull lube is put in the conduit to ease/reduce friction on the item being pulled. The pulley rig and truck are attaching to just the wire and no pull string to keep the wire from breaking outside of the conduit. And if there is a crush spot(s) the wire being pulled will be destroyed if not stretched in it's jacket, enough that you'll have to run another piece of it too.

Use the fish tape to determine where the blockage is and hand dig the area and fix the break/crush. Before spicing in new conduit, you could run a pull string from the broken area in both directions, to ensure you get the string through the entire conduit. Just put the string through the repair section too so when you splice it's one continuous pull string/cable of choice/need. Once everything reaches both ends, put the splice together with correct glue for the conduit.

 

[jjlite]

Use high psi CO2 to blow the water out. If the wire was pulled in using wire lube or dish soap then it has glued itself to the inside of the conduit. The water is your problem. If your using a shop vac and a light weight pull string with a piece of light weight plastic it will still go bye a kink in the conduit ,but if you have water in there it will go no where. Also if its rigid conduit corrosion will stick the existing wire good. Good luck.

 

[JerryK]

Almost all underground conduits condense water from the air, even if sealed with monkey chit on each end [ clay like putty ]. We used to drill a small weep hole in rigid conduit run in a low spot to let the water out during installation. Also, some folks put the wire into PVC pipe while they are gluing the 10' sections together... too lazy to suck a mouse/pull cord thru the finished conduit after the conduit is in..

 

[k0ua]

Almost all underground conduits condense water from the air, even if sealed with monkey chit on each end [ clay like putty ]. We used to drill a small weep hole in rigid conduit run in a low spot to let the water out during installation. Also, some folks put the wire into PVC pipe while they are gluing the 10' sections together... too lazy to suck a mouse/pull cord thru the finished conduit after the conduit is in..

That has been my experience too.. there are two kinds of buried conduits, Those that have water in them and those that will. It may be possible to seal one up air tight, but most that have been in the cool ground have water in them, including ones with both ends inside a building. If any air can get in the conduit, it will have water in it over a period of time. The air has water in it.

 

[JerryK]

Another thing, coax/phone cables/etc. are a bee ach to pull thru conduit. The makeup of their covering sometimes is a pain even with use of pulling compound. Just a normal telephone wire is hard to pull around a couple 90's. We used to put LB's/etc. in every so far if there were a lot of offsets or 90's. Just the nature of the beast. I'd get some fairly strong nylon cord, tie a piece of foam on the end, and try to vacuum the foam [ mouse ] completely thru the pipe. Then, get some good pulling compound, tie the new cable onto the end of the cord, and grease the krap out of it with the pulling compound. Might go thru.. We used Ideal pulling compound, which dries, but tends to stay soapy/waxy feeling even after drying. Lowes sells it...

 

[SPIKER]

if you have too much water a mouse or plastic bag wont pull thru using shop vac. You CAN remove a great deal of water using the shop vac and a air hose , stick air hose or stiff garden hose down conduit and push it thru with shop vac on other end sucking water out as it slides in. 300 feet is good run so might have to work from both ends, and once you got some water out they may pull thru. that all said I bet the others talking about crushed run is correct somewhere (maybe 2 spots heavy truck crushes both sets of wheel paths.)

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[Industrial Toys]

I have seen plenty of crushed 4" corrugated plasic tile or conduit, but never crushed ridged PVC. I have also seen pull cord or wire burn it's way through the corners of that corrugated pipe, if it is a difficult pull.