Another Stuck Conduit

[GoatsB]

I've got a ~10 yr old pool that I've owned for 2 yrs in Houston. The old color changing color wheel lights developed a leak in the gasket and the internals rusted a bit. I wanted to upgrade these old lights to color changing LEDs.

I started trying to pull out the shortest cable run (about 20' by surface distance and the actual cable run can't be longer than 30'). The cable won't budge. I tried pulling on both ends and am not getting anywhere. I dumped water down the conduit, let it sit, and tried tugging again. Nothing. I ran a fish tape down from the equipment junction box and got about 22' before I hit something. When I try to fish in from the niche I only get about 6" before I hit something. I'm afraid there is a 90 degree corner coming out of the pool concrete. Is that possible? When I look at the back of the niche I don't see any epoxy, star nuts, or putty.

Any suggestions? Next I'm going to try dumping wire-lube down the conduit and wrapping the cable and grounding wire (edit: I was confusing the bonding and grounding systems) around a handle pulling from the niche.

 

[kimkats]

How about if you have a friend help you-one on each end-heave, ho, heave, ho back and forth and see if that will make it start moving.

Kim

 

[Sseaman]

You can try dish soap, helped us this weekend replacing our lights. Put a good couple of squirts then follow up with a little water added slowly.

 

[GoatsB]

Thanks for the suggestions! I I'll try a little soap and then having a friend try to floss it back and forth.

Edit: After some more research I realize I am confusing the bonding and grounding. When I'm pulling the light, do I also pull the grounding wire that is grounding the niche or do I try to leave this wire alone. It is the larger gauge insulated wire that is connected to the niche and puttied over. This wire then runs in the conduit to the junction box where it is tied to the grounding wires.

 

[GoatsB]

I was able to pull through 2 or my 3 lights. It took dumping some water down the conduit and letting it sit for a few days and breaking off the old junction box so I could get a good, straight pull on the conduit. That 3rd light is not budging. It is the spa light and is located furthest from the equipment and likely has the most tortuous path. I think I stretched the cable about 5" trying to get it to move and I'm afraid I'm going to snap it.

 

[ps0303]

One question, would you do it again or pay someone to do this? I often wonder when the homeowner does something if they maybe realize why it costs as much as it does to get it done by a company. Pulling lights can be a pain.

 

[GoatsB]

Final update on this project. I finally broke down hired a professional top pull and install the last light. He was able to do it with a helper in an hour and half. He said he really had to lay on it while his helper pushed on the other end. He also had to pull the large gauge bonding wire out with the light cord because it was such a long run with multiple sweeps and they were twisted together. I'm so very glad to have this project done.

Now to answer ps0303's question, "would you do it again or pay someone to do this?". If I could go back in time, I'd just hire the right contractor to do it. I feel like I've finally found the right pool expert in my area that charges a fair rate and has 20+ years of pool experience in his back pocket. Although changing lights is conceptually easy, there is no substitute for the experience of doing it 100s of times and knowing every little trick and work around.