Crack in PVC Light Conduit

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xtrsports

xtrsports

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Jun 8, 2013
45
Cape Cod, MA
A couple of years ago my PVC conduit running to the deep end light must have frozen and cracked creating a slow leak. I "fixed" it by putting a small layer of epoxy around the area where the wires came out of of the cove. This was fine until last year when I needed to replace the light fixture. So, I chipped out the epoxy (fairly easy job), replaced the light fixture and reloaded it with a little more epoxy. Unfortunately this doesn't seem to be doing the trick and winter water level has returned to the level of the light fixture. I understand that there is a rubber stopper that can be used instead of the epoxy?? but the hole is fairly rough (I think gunnite got blown over it) so I'm not confident that rubber will form around the somewhat irregular shape of the hole. Suggestions? Is there something better than epoxy?
 
The light PVC conduit is designed to be wet and fill with water up to the pool water level. You can try and hack a plug to keep it dry however the long term fix is to replace the conduit if it is cracked and leaks water out. Yeah, that can mean digging up ground around the cracked area.
 
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Yep, part of the reason code requires the junction box to be above water level is because the conduit is expected to fill with water. It is inevitable due to a flexible electrical cable running through the hole, which prevents a truly watertight bond (as the cable moves or expands/contracts, it will open small leaks).

The rubber stoppers with a hole work reasonably well. But water eventually seeps into there.
 
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Thanks for the replies!! Not that I can think of a better way but this seems like an area ripe for some design improvements ... having a conduit with water in it surrounded by frozen ground is just asking for problems with cracks, especially since you can't blow this line out. At this point I'm not going to jack hammer the decking apart to repair (darn should have gone with pavers @#$%). So, the question is, if the rubber stopper approach is unsuccessful, anything else worth considering... like draining below the cove, waiting for it to dry and spraying in some semi rigid closed cell marine foam like Evercoat? I know, this makes lamp replacement a bit more challenging... but seems faster/easier... thoughts?
 
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