sticky lighting conduits

Jul 17, 2012
20
My pool has 6 lights (10" wet niches)
I got 5 LED lights on Amazon (Brand: Mopzlink).
1 of them went in relatively easily. I cut off the old light, taped the new cord to the old cord, pulled it through, yay, easy.
2 of them took some effort to pull through, but they got through.

The others are being difficult. It took some serious effort to get the old cords out, but they're out now.
Fish tape goes fine through the conduit.
On the 85 foot line, water flows freely through the conduit, and I ran water throught it for a day hoping to flush out any gunk. Twice I got the new cable within 5 feet of the end, but then pulled too hard and the tape junction between the fish tape and cable failed.
On the 40 foot line, water does not flow freely. Only a trickle gets through, but the fish tape fits through fine. Twice I got the new cable within 5 feet of the end, but then pulled hard enough that I literally snapped the cable (rubber outer and 4 inner conductors).

Any ideas what's going on inside the conduit? What can I do so that I can pull the cables the whole way rather than just right up to the end?

Thanks!
Derek
 
It worked!
I'm honestly a little surprised, since it felt like the lubricant was washing off pretty fast in the water.

I'm still curious what is actually going on inside the conduit. The 40' long conduit was completely full to the brim with water (about 18" above the pool level) two days after I tried flushing it. If I can push a fish tape into the pool or pull a cable up out of the pool, why is water not draining into the pool? Even after pulling the cable, the water was up to the top of the conduit.

On the 85' line, I was able to pull the ground wire back through after the light was pulled. I'm not sure the ground wire actually matters any more: I don't think the thin wires carrying 12V DC to the lights could harm a person. but the thick copper wire was there before, so I thought I may as well try to put it back, and it did go back. Maybe it'll help protect if lightning hits? who knows.

Anyway, I've now got 4 working lights in the pool and 1 in the hot tub. (I don't plan to replace the 5th light in the pool; 4 is enough).
Thanks ajw22!

Any bets on how long these cheap Amazon lights will last before they all fail like the Jandy ones did?

PXL_20240909_030429458.jpg
 
Note that your Mopzlink Lights are probably not listed to meet NEC requirements.

The National Electrical Code (NEC) requires all underwater lighting to be certified to UL 676, the Standard for Underwater Luminaires and Submersible Junction Boxes.


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