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I'm adding an electrical line to my outdoor pool breaker box. I was digging near the box with a pickaxe (yeah, I know, stupid) and was trying to be careful, but I was not careful enough. I don't believe the wire cable itself is damaged, but it is possible. The conduit and its hole is shown below. Unfortunately some mud has gotten into the hole because of the rain last night.

Conduit hole

Some water leaked out of the conduit when I made the hole so water was already getting in. Given that, I'm inclined to either leave it as-is or wrap it with duct tape or something. I could cut it and splice it inside of an outdoor electrical box but I'm not sure if it's worth the trouble or not. Advice would be appreciated.

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As a minimum, you really ought to test the cable (or have it tested by a professional) to ensure that it hasn't been damaged. You really don't want to find that there is a problem when a fault occurs at a later date.

If there is no physical damage to the cable, you should at least seal the conduit to prevent further ingress of water, for example wrap the damaged area with self-amalgamating tape.

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  • I could ohm it out, but beyond that and a visual inspection, how would a professional test it?
    – Jim Clay
    Sep 27, 2014 at 18:29
  • An insulation test might highlight damage to the cable.
    – John
    Sep 27, 2014 at 20:20
  • Testing with an insulation tester (at least 500V, ideally more) will find more faults than testing with a low voltage multimeter but a pass on an insulation resistance test is no gaurantee that the insulation is undamaged.
    – Peter Green
    Nov 23, 2016 at 16:40

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