Coax ran, bury or bury with conduit..

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Gaprofitt

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Nov 16, 2008
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Directv yesterday ran four new wires for my new dish and claimed they wouldn't bury them. I have dug a new ditch for them, should I put them in conduit or not?

Thanks,

Greg
 
Absolutely put them in conduit. Unless you have direct burial cable, it's not designed to be in the dirt. Besides, if you ever need to add or replace a cable, it's much easier with conduit, you won't have to do any digging!
 
Actually, the cable will be fine in the dirt, but of you do it this way, at least take a couple of 6" long pieces of conduit and have it shield the cable as it comes out of the ground so as not to cut the cable with a weed trimmer.

That said, yes, conduit is the way to go, but if you anticipate having to ever run extra cable, put in larger conduit, and also a pull string.


Al
 
Nothing wrong with overkill & using some over sized conduit for your runs but I've had two lines buried to my office (75ft of which are underground) for 14 years & have had zero problems. Just make sure that whichever way you go never put a splice in a cable that will be outdoors above or below ground.

If I had it to do over again I probably would have used some large PVC tubing for the cable to run through even though everything remains fine.
 
Absolutely put them in conduit. Unless you have direct burial cable, it's not designed to be in the dirt.

+1 - I'm absolutely AMAZED at the number of people that do NOT know the difference between regular (what ALL the DBS installers use) & direct burial cable. It is NOT acceptable to bury "non-burial" cable - eventually, it WILL go bad & have to be replaced - which I've had to do many a time for clients. Yea, I KNOW ALL the DBS installers do this - still does not make it right!

Hello, why do you think every cable co. around uses burial cable for underground house drops... :rolleyes:
 
I will also have to recommend running the wire in conduit. That will help protect the cable. Burial cable will be fine though. Even if you use conduit I would still use burial grade cable. You can tell if cable is burial or not by seeing if it has sticky gel under the outer rubber coating. Also, I do not recommend putting ANY splices in the ground, even if you use special gels that are made to protect the connection. You still run the risk of having future problems.
 
It's worth spending the money for conduit. I went to my local Menards and got irrigation tube and it works very well and doesn't cost alot. I think I got 50' for like $20.
 
W hen you get to it............1.5 inch sch 40 will work fine with 4 rg6 cables + 1 PULL STRING, just to be safe.

If you never cut the UG, the cable now iin place will be fine.

Joe
 
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My 2 cents on this project -- if you do use PVC pipe, make sure you seal the joints with the PVC cement to prevent water from seeping in through the joints.

Without the cement, water will find it's way in and then just sit there around the cable.
 
My neighbor and I share a slimeline in our condo and the dish is in the back in a grassy area since that was the best clear spot away from trees to get the signal. Anyway, they buried the wire and about 6 months ago I lost half my channels and was getting 0's on every other transponder. DTV Tech came out and apparently one of the wires were hacked up by a lawn mower or weed trimmer. What a hassle!
 
My 2 cents on this project -- if you do use PVC pipe, make sure you seal the joints with the PVC cement to prevent water from seeping in through the joints.

Without the cement, water will find it's way in and then just sit there around the cable.

You are absoultely right.....a can of glue is cheap insurance....:up
 
Call directv about this, burial is a part of the service.

Whoever pays for the pole gets to charge for it (or not). IF Directv is paying someone by the hour, buying the pole, concrete, conduit, line amps, multiswitches, cable and fittings and wants to give away all that...great.

The last company I worked for that tried giving away that crap went out of business.

Last one I did went through tree roots in 1.5 in sch 40 conduit. I used two hundred pounds of concrete....$310.00..NOT free.

Joe
 
I buried my lines, regular RG-6, in 1998 using white PVC pipe and glued all the ends together, still going..... no problems

I sealed up the opening at the dish with sealant to keep bugs and such out. The other end goes into a sealed junction box
 
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