Had to pick between a fish tape and a glow rod for a tight conduit pull today

I was doing a 60 foot run through a 3/4 inch conduit in a finished basement in Brookline and couldn't decide between my steel fish tape or a fiberglass glow rod. Went with the glow rod because I thought it would bend better around the tight corners. Big mistake, it snapped on the third bend and I had to leave the wire halfway in and come back tomorrow. Has anyone else had a glow rod fail on them like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

tarab542mo ago

Started using glow rods a lot for tight spots but after snapping two on simple bends I went back to steel tape, just gotta baby it through the corners.

hugo_ellis2mo ago

You ever had a buddy who swore by glow rods no matter what? I had a friend who was all in on them until he tried to fish one through a crawlspace with a 90 degree turn and it snapped clean in half. He was so mad he threw the pieces in the trash and drove straight to the hardware store for a steel tape. Now he keeps the glow rods for straight runs but won't touch them if there's any real bending involved.

wade5581mo ago

Kinda feels like that's how it goes with most "upgrade" tools nowadays, they work great until they don't and you're left wishing you had the old reliable backup. You ever notice how we tend to circle back to the stuff that's been proven when the new thing fails us?