# spartan tool water-line slitter?



## droptopgt (Dec 17, 2008)

Hey all,

I'm kind of looking to get into trenchless water line replacement. Most existing residential water lines here are 3/4" polyethylene and 20 to 30ft from curb stop to inside the house. 

Does anyone here use this setup and is it reliable? Is it possible for the new pex pipe to rip off the cable in the middle of the pulling process?

http://www.spartantool.com/water-line-slitter-with-100-ft-products-1819.php?page_id=597


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## ShtRnsdownhill (Jan 13, 2016)

I use to pull new copper mains by piggy backing the new copper to the old steel or bad copper line with a mechanical coupling or silver braze...and kept track of how far it went, so if it broke , we wouldnt have to dig the complete way..biggest problem I see with that is if you have 2 big rocks that wont let the cone or wedge through..then your digging to free it up, I wouldnt be concerned as much with the pex breaking off...do you also need to run a tracer wire with the new pex?


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## Nevada Plumber (Jan 3, 2009)

I have used that Spartan tool a couple of times to replace some water lines from the street to the homes. The clamp that came with it would not grip the cable though so we ended up just wrapping the cable around the bobcat bucket to get the job done. The tool paid for itself on the first job.


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## dhal22 (Jul 30, 2010)

I have this rig and it works well. I have an F350 4x4 that does the pull. It pays for itself it 1 pull.

Sometimes pulls can be messy. Here's 1 from a few years ago.


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## CPR2010 (Nov 25, 2014)

I was going to start offering that service. I spoke with the Inspectors with the City of Charlotte NC about how they would inspect it. Thats when I found out that the City prohibits pipe splitting of service water lines after the meeter. Basically, they can use it for the City side of the meter but we can't offer it to the property owner. He said they were looking at possible reviewing the policy but also couldn't say why the policy existed in the first place.


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