electricity pit full of water!

[Amb]

Out of the front of my place there is my electricity pit and telstra pit (both my power and phone lines are underground to the house). I lifted the lids today, and found that both pits are full of water. We have had quite a bit of rain lately, but the area is not flooded on the surface. The water must have seeped in from the bottom or side. Is this normal? Or should the pits be very well sealed. Also does this mean that the undergound conduit containing my power supply is full of water, or is it normal practice to properly seal the ends of the conduit, so that water can't flow from the pit into the conduit?
Maybe I'm worried for nothing, and the water will just dry out slowly, with no bad long term effects, even if this happens evry winter. Thanks for any advice.

[mick101]

Out of the front of my place there is my electricity pit and telstra pit (both my power and phone lines are underground to the house). I lifted the lids today, and found that both pits are full of water. We have had quite a bit of rain lately, but the area is not flooded on the surface. The water must have seeped in from the bottom or side. Is this normal? Or should the pits be very well sealed. Also does this mean that the undergound conduit containing my power supply is full of water, or is it normal practice to properly seal the ends of the conduit, so that water can't flow from the pit into the conduit?
Maybe I'm worried for nothing, and the water will just dry out slowly, with no bad long term effects, even if this happens evry winter. Thanks for any advice.

I live in them all day long...perfectly normal to be full of water, i just pump them out if i need to work in there. It could have come from miles away as nothing is sealed in them but the electrical joints themselves. Dont worry about it & stop lifting the lids...one day you will drop one onto an 11kv joint & you will find out what its like to have bum skin grafted onto your face. Actually i assume you mean the small cement covered pits...im talking about the large manholes..still , same deal. Anything we put into the ground we fully expect to be submerged thus its designed that way.

If its running out the top then thats possibly a burst main getting in there so call the council.

[NCArcher]

Not a problem.
Most pits are full of water at some time. It doesn't matter how well you seal conduits and pits, the water always gets in.
The only thing you have to be careful of is if the end of the conduit at your house is lower than the conduit in the pit. There are regulations on the installation of conduit to cover this so i wouldn't worry.

[silentC]

When I got the phone line put into my shed, I foolishly ran the conduit up through the slab. The shed is at the bottom of the hill and when it rains a lot, the pit fills with water and it all runs down the conduit and makes a mess on the floor. I got a liney to come out and he put a gob of mastic in the top of the conduit. Didn't work though, so I think I need to pull it out of the slab and run it up the wall outside. Anyway, from talking to the liney, I gather it's not unusual. They certainly don't bother sealing the conduit.

[Barry_White]

I don't know about electricity pits but Telstra pits have holes in the bottom so the water can drain away when it gets dry.

We have a Telstra pit at our front gate that fills up every time we have heavy rain. Pretty rare occurance these days.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Ya also gotta remember that sealed pits make great boats... and they can literally float up out of the ground given sufficient ground-water! Not really a desirable event.

The same problem exists with empty swimming pools & semi-sunken water tanks, (Uhoh! Dazzler! ) as well as basements before the upper construction goes on to "weigh them down." Admittedly with pits it's normally on a smaller scale, but still...

[Tools]

It is illegal for you to open the Telstra pit, and you are leaving yourself open to hefty fines.

Tools

[Amb]

Ok, thanks everyone, so obviously nothing to worry about. You see I'm in a rural area, and maybe it is illegal, but if i don't check on these things (my services), no one else will.

[Barry_White]

It is illegal for you to open the Telstra pit, and you are leaving yourself open to hefty fines.

Tools

If you live in the bush and you take a lid off to take a look what odds.

It's like if a "Tree falls in the forest will anyone know."

[Amb]

It's like if a "Tree falls in the forest will anyone know."

More like, 'if your power goes out in the middle of the night becuase your pit is full of water, who else will know'

So I thought I'd better check with the experts. Thanks agaon.

[bsrlee]

Bl**dy hooligans, lifting the lids on your pits again! And there you were, just trying to make them safe again.......Honest Orfficer

The one around my place often have jets of water coming out of the lifting holes when it rains heavily, but the phone lines still seem to work, even if you get a wet ear

[Barry_White]

More like, 'if your power goes out in the middle of the night becuase your pit is full of water, who else will know'

So I thought I'd better check with the experts. Thanks agaon.

I am sure if you got a short circuit in a pit the council would know because it would probably blow a council fuse or a transformer somewhere.

But if your your phone went out Telstra wouldn't care and it would take them two weeks to come and fix it provided you had rung them up.

A different story with those electricity guys. There're out there looking for the fault even before you realise you have one.

[Vernonv]

Yeah, we've always found Country Energy to be quick to respond to any problems, especially if it's a down power line, or something similar. They came out in the middle of the night to fix a cable that had worn through and was sparking against a tree branch - it was blowing a gale, raining and they didn't even charge us to fix it (which they could have done).

Telstra on the other hand ... we had our pit fill with water and it knocked out our phone. Took them ages to come out and fix it (at least a couple of weeks) and months the replace the pit (it was an old one that needed upgrading). The most annoying thing was that they diverted the calls to my mobile (even though we don't get mobile reception at home, it was better then nothing) and said that we would not get charged for the diverted call ... think again.

[silentC]

we've always found Country Energy to be quick to respond to any problems

Unfortunately not the case in Sydney. We had a big wind storm one day and I saw sparks coming from cables where they were being brushed together by trees that had grown up through the lines. I rang Sydney Electricity (or whatever they're called now). About 4 hours later, a truck showed up, but they went down the wrong street. I walked down and told them I was the one who had called. I pointed to the trees in our street but they said they had been sent to the intersection of a and b street, not c, so they could only do what they had been told. They cut some branches away from about a foot below the lines and drove off. About half an hour later, the wind picked up again, the sparks flew and the power went out. Four weeks later, they came and cut the branches out of the trees in our street.

[maxpower]

The pit outside my place had water, leaves, lolly wrappers and ciggie butts in it. .... I must be paying extra