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PBDME
Dec 22, 2009, 02:12 PM
I have a residential sewage pump station in the front of my house.
It’s a 300 Gallon concrete pump chamber.
In it, there is a Gould (Model 3886) Submersible sewage pump with a 220v plug that gets plugged into a SJERhombus Super Single pump switch that has a piggyback plug. That plug in turn gets plugged into a 220V single outlet plug
That is mounted inside of the tanks neck (yes I did say inside the tank, I am assuming that 19 years ago the residential code for this type of installation allowed this).

From the house side there is a junction box that has the end of the source line (NM Cable) hardwired to THWN line in the conduit. The THWN wires into the tank outlet are in the 3/4” pvc conduit approximately 14” below grade. The conduit run is 14’.

So after replacing the outlet 5 times, the pump and pump switch 2 times due to corrosion. After my last inspection
Looks like I will need to replace all 3 soon. Not wanting to climb back into the tank again to fix/repair this.

I would like to purchase a new pump and pump switch both which come with SJTOW,SJOW power cables with bare leads in optional lengths (30 feet in this case). I would like to run the two power cables in the pvc conduit and into the junction box on the side of the house and make my hard wire connections there and remove the outlet in the tank. So the question is can I run the described power cords in the PVC Conduit? Or do I need bigger conduit and if so what size?

Power cords. Specs below.
The pump switch power cord is a 230V 14G 2 Conductor (SJOW) and the pump cord is a 230v 16/3 cord (SJTOW).

Please let me know if I have left out any information that is needed…
Thank you in advance.
Sante

tkrussell
Dec 23, 2009, 07:16 AM
Outlets in sewage tanks for pumps have always been a problem with corrosion.

What has been done before is to terminate the cords in a junction box, either on a post, or in the ground with the cover flush with grade.

You plan is fine, not too long a distance.

Cord does not pull through conduit very easily due to the friction of the materials. I think a 1" conduit should hanle these two cords without too much difficulty.