PSA: The trick with cable pulling lube on a hot day in Austin

Last Wednesday I was on a job in Austin and it hit 98 degrees by noon. I used my usual pulling lube but it dried out so fast I had to stop twice to reapply, cost me an extra hour. A senior guy from the next truck over told me to mix a little dish soap into the lube when it's that hot. It kept it slick all the way through a 150 foot run through conduit, no sticking at all. Has anyone else tried that trick or got a better way for high heat?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_henry2d ago

Does dish soap leave any kind of residue that could cause long term issues inside the pipe? I remember back about ten years ago I had a helper who thought it would be a good idea to dump bar soap shavings into the pull box thinking it would lube things up. We had to pull the whole run out and scrub every inch of that cable with a rag to get the gummy mess off before we could pull it again.

margaret_bennett32d ago

12 years ago I used Dawn dish soap on a slow draining kitchen pipe at my old house and it seemed fine at first lol. But like 6 months later I could hear this weird gurgling every time the water ran, and when I finally took the trap off @the_henry, the inside was coated in this slimy film that smelled like a wet dog that rolled in old grease. I had to scrub it out with a wire brush and it took forever. So yeah, dish soap definitely leaves something behind, just not as bad as bar soap shavings sound like.