I'm not sure what the yellow thing is but here is a side view:
It turns out that, with experience, the whole thing turns out to be comprised of half-inch fittings!
Note: The plastic nut, plastic elbow, and gray conduit are all one inch in diameter; but they're still considered half inch equipment, apparently.
It turned out to be even worse than you said.
Apparently the one-piece straight-through half-inch ends that I bought from Home Depot won't work on the motor end because they actually *screw* onto the conduit!
In fact, the Ace Hardware guy was amazed that they weren't two pieces, and he kept trying to take it apart!
His two-piece connector has a nut that holds it onto the conduit, just like the old elbow had.
However, the one-piece Home Depot connector actually, somehow, grabs onto the "ribs" of the conduit, to screw on tightly (patent pending I'm sure).
If I used the one-piece connector on the conduit end by the motor, it would make spinning off that connector impossible without spinning the motor or conduit itself!
And that's the whole problem I'm trying to avoid!
UPDATE:
It's mostly done. Thanks for all the advice. I learned a lot.
A lesson learned is those patent-pending one-piece connectors stink!
You have to spin the entire cable to remove them!
That's the problem I was trying to avoid in the first place!
Tomorrow I'll pick up two more two-piece connectors and finish the job.
Danny-
Try listening to the guys in the newsgroup.... remember the code is a minimum standard. Mounting a box,even a "water proof" box, on the ground when an easy alternative exists is a bad idea.
Note: boxes are described buy their nominal size ....like a 4" box or by a "gang" ..like single gang, double gang, etc The threaded hole callouts are secondary to box size.
I've never wired using conduit before, so I can use all the suggestions I can get; however, I must have missed alternative mounting ideas.
How would you suggest the junction box be mounted? Should I raise it up on a block of wood?
BTW, I added silicone to waterproof the bottom of the box:
And I put di-electric grease on all the connections:
And, I added o-rings to every conduit connection:
Q1: Would you drill into the concrete to firmly attach the box? Q2: Should I buy male spade connectors so as to connect spade to spade? (instead of the waterproof wire nuts?)
Hi Oren,
I went back to find this because DD_BobK said I had ignored your suggestion, so I apologize for not having taken greater note of this.
The location gets torrential rain during the winter (and not a drop of rain for the other 9 months of the year); so, I agree raising it up a bit might be a good idea.
How does it sound to put it on a thick block of wood?
Or is there a better way to raise it off the concrete? (bearing in mind the concrete itself is already raised a couple of inches)
LESSON LEARNED:
The old cable clearly says it's 1/2 inch cable on it, had I only looked!
In hindsight, I was lulled into complacency because I could easily measure the fat end of the original elbow at an exact 1 inch, so, it seemed so natural that the conduit was one inch that I didn't doublecheck.
It was only when the one inch box didn't fit, and the 3/4 inch box didn't fit either, that I took a second look at the problem.
Even then, it's wholly unnatural that both sides of that elbow were actually 1/2 inch connectors!
It's the biggest box they had.
I really wanted three holes in each side (one for each motor).
A lesson learned is that the only thing this pipe cutter turned out to be good for was for cutting the conduit (but a smaller irrigation cutter would have worked even better):
Unlike the useless pipe cutter though, the wire strippers and the wire crimper seemed to do the job quite nicely:
In fact, they did so well, I'm wondering if it would be to code to mate the female spade connectors to male spade connectors instead of cutting off the ends to wire nut them?
Regular old yellow wirenuts should be fine.
One tip, Point them up so they do not collect water and arrange them so they are not in the bottom of the box.
We told you many times right from the start that the size is *not* based on the fitting. It's based on the size of the inside diameter of the CONDUIT.
Well, there you have it.
Must be like my local Ace Hardware where every time I walk in, the resident wingnut who is clueless insists on "helping" me. One visit I was looking for a basic water pressure gauge for a well pump and he gave me a lecture about how residential water systems operate at
2 PSI.That fitting you have is common. It works fine for most applications. The end that connects to a box, typically goes into a blank hole and then the nut that is provided goes on inside to hold it. As you figured out, that won't work because your motor has a threaded fitting.
And right on the conduit in the pic is black lettering. Doesn't that say that it's 1/2"? Or, if that piece isn't readable, isn't there another section there that is?
Finally! Good grief!
Part of this comes from experience. One inch conduit is so large that it makes no sense that it would be used to hook up your pool motor. Once you have some experience, it's easy to recognize what size it is just by looking. Apparently, it's not so easy to tell by looking at a pic. You did have that one recent pic that shows the end of the 1/2", but the hole in that compared to the thickenss of the wall, and the different colors, made me think it was some kind of bushing inside a 3/4" conduit
As DD pointed out, it's not really a one inch box. It's a
4" box with one inch holes. Just so you don't wind up going over to ACE and asking for such a thing. The dopes they have over there might spend an hour looking for one.Well, I guess that's why even the right end wouldn't go into the box threads.
Some of the folks that have had discussion or issues with inspectors can probably give you a better answer regarding fastening it. It definitiely needs to be fastened and putting screws into the concrete would do that. However to avoid drilling, I wonder if construction adhesive would satisfy code? Not sure. I would be comfortable doing it for that application from a safety standpoint, but not sure what an inspector would say.
I think DerbyDad brought up the issue of raising it up higher. I don't believe that's required by code. If there is no pooling of water around the box likely, ie it runs off, then I wouldn't worry about it. If water can pool there, then putting something to raise it up an inch or so isnt' a bad idea. But I think most pool installers would just mount it to the deck.
I would not use spade terminals, more work and not typically how it would be done. And you're cutting the wires too short. I forget the exact code reqt, but think it's like 6" beyond the box. Don't go nuts, nobody is going to come measure them. But just looking at it, they appear short.
And not to get you into a rat hole, but just so you know and learn, there is a min box size allowed for a given number of wires of a given size. I would think that box is probably around the limit, you have 12 wires going into it. They don't want you to shove 10 lbs of stuff into a 5 lb bag,
Forgot to add, in the pic on the conduit fitting on the lower left, there is a locknut showing on the outside of the box. That locknut is to secure the fitting inside a box that has no threads. It should not be on the outside, where there should be a o-ring seal.
Interesting. I was keeping them to 3", but I didn't have a spec to go by.
Had I known it was 6", I would have added more.
I am buying wire today so I can buy some more and make them longer.
Yikes.
Nobody mentioned that, 'till now.
This is a 31 cubic inch box, with two 10 AWG lines going in, and two coming out, for a total of 12 wires.
And, I erroneously thought all the time that the fitting size was the same as the size of the inside of the conduit.
It wasn't even close.
My mistake.
Lesson learned. (Listen to the huckleberry team!)
Yes. You are correct.
It *clearly* states it is 1/2 inch conduit, in fact.
I just hadn't read it because I was sure I had *measured* it (via the elbow) at 1 inch.
I was wrong.
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