I just have to love some of the skepticism I see expressed ... it's almost like someone is thinking "This Reno guy really hasn't a clue about REAL electrical work."
I can only speak to my experience and observations. For all I know, the folks in Amish country use trained ferrets
It's easy to sneer... 3/4? 170-ft? Golly, one time we did something a lot longer and a lot fatter. Sure you did - and for every such pull, you did hundreds of nice, short runs.
Fish tape? Yea, right. A fish has it's uses; I have several. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't - and most fish tapes are less than 100 ft. long (especially after some years of use). Especially on underground runs, there can be a real problem with the tape hitting a hard stop at the far-away last 90. Hence, the vacuum.
Liability? Huh? Please elaborate, with complete case citation, where it was successfully argued that someone committed a 'wrong' because they used a $25 Wal-Mart vac and taped a water bottle to the hose as a reducer to the pipe. Gawd, everyone's a lawyer these days. I sure hope OSHA doesn't come after me for replacing my old bootlaces with bits of paracord.
Freon? Now the truth comes out, we know WHO destroyed the ozone layer
In happier news, when I told the boss "we" were ready to pull today, he replied "We? Do you have a mouse in your pocket?" I was able to honestly say "why, yes I do!"
Also, as of today, my $21 out-performs the company 'big' shop-vac for this task. I believe this is largely because the impeller on my new vac has not been abraded by dust passing over it- years back I did some propeller testing, and it's amazing how even an invisibly small amount of wear to the blade edge totally killed the performance.
I note that Greenlee sells a much smaller vac, for "only" several hundreds of dollars. Looking to their accessories, I see one they sell for about $30, that I can readily assemble from an $8 set of "car detailing" accessories and a minor amount of tape. Their accessory for blowing line looks nice, but with a price in the three figures, it's no surprise I've never even seen it at the parts house.
IMO, the hard part is connecting the vac hose to the conduit, especially when there are access issues. On this current job, we've had some good results with tiny 1-gallon, 1-hp vacs .... making me again wonder why I haven't seen such an electrician-focused set-up offered for something like $75.
We can't let "best" become the enemy of "good enough." I still wonder at the critics of my tiny bandsaw, because it can't cut 2" pipe, etc. Milwaukee is crying all the way to the bank over that 'inadequate' product!
