I tried using a cheap fish tape puller on a 200-foot run

I had a long conduit run under a new parking lot in Austin last week, so I grabbed one of those $15 fish tape pullers from the hardware store to save some money. It snapped clean in half about 80 feet in, leaving me to dig up a fresh patch of asphalt to get the tape out. Has anyone else had a budget tool fail on a big job like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_tessa13d ago

Bought the exact same kind of garbage tape for a 100 foot run in a crawlspace two months ago. It made it maybe 50 feet before the handle just twisted right off in my hand. I was stuck under a house with no way to get the tape out and had to cut the whole run and start over. Cheap tools cost you twice, once when you buy them and again when they break and you have to fix the mess.

ray_campbell4621d ago

Did you try pulling it back out before it snapped? I used to be the same way, always buying the cheapest tape puller thinking it would get the job done. But after one broke on a 150 foot run under a sidewalk, I swore off the budget ones completely. It cost me way more in time and concrete repair than just buying a decent tape would have. Now I spend the extra 30 bucks and never look back. That lesson stuck with me hard.

harper_foster21d ago

Nah, I actually yanked it back the second I felt it start binding. Still snapped about 6 feet from the head. That's the thing with the cheap ones - the steel is garbage and the rivets holding the tape to the coil are basically made of pot metal. You can baby them all you want and they'll still find a way to let you down on the one job you really need them to hold up. I get the logic of spending more to save time, but I've had just as many mid-range tapes split on me too. Probably just cursed at this point, or maybe I'm running tougher pulls than most.