Got a name for this?

[Morich]

I'm helping a fellow install a 30 amp outlet for RV and niether of us want to go stand around a store to ask so he is ordering it all but when we looked it over to be sure I did not miss something, we need an "official" name for these little plastic gizmos.
Any of you electron guys that do this everyday got a real name for these besides "doobie, thingie," etc.? Piece of scrap?
He is in a part of the state where they still haul in water to drink so regs/codes are not a big factor!
I might tend to leave it off but he is very concerned about doing it right and I can't argue with that if we can find the parts!
I can't find any of those names for him to order!

[Winterbagoal]

They look like insulators, like the ceramic ones on high tension lines. Sorry I know you wanted a professional opinion.

[Morich]

A name like "standoff" would be right if it were on a board to keep it from being too close and it would be insulation but not really needing insulation on the mounting screws as it works to keep allowing slack in the strap to hold it to the wall or being without it, the conduit would have to be bowed in and look really odd.
When dealing with doing things for and with other people, I like to let them decide what level they want to fit and this would feel better if there is some "official" item that is normal.
I was amazed to see where he is doing this and when he started pointing out some of the weirdness, he pointed out that it is less than twenty miles from the state capital in Austin and it has no running water to the homes, so folks take a truck to a hydrant to fill it and haul back to storage tanks at the side of the house! About ten miles from Elon Musk's new Tesla factory! Isn't that kind of mind bending for a 21 century situation?

[US1]

Looks more like someone bought an 10' piece of ENT flexible conduit from Menards and just cut a piece off.


https://www.menards.com/main/mainten...3644783&ipos=4

[Wyatt]

I tend to agree with Richard on this one. Looks like the strap he had was not wide enough to go around the pipe so he found something in his garage that he could use as a standoff that just happened to also be an insulator because it doesn’t appear to be any reason he would need one insulated.

[Winterbagoal]

Originally Posted by Morich

A name like "standoff" would be right if it were on a board to keep it from being too close and it would be insulation but not really needing insulation on the mounting screws as it works to keep allowing slack in the strap to hold it to the wall or being without it, the conduit would have to be bowed in and look really odd.
When dealing with doing things for and with other people, I like to let them decide what level they want to fit and this would feel better if there is some "official" item that is normal.
I was amazed to see where he is doing this and when he started pointing out some of the weirdness, he pointed out that it is less than twenty miles from the state capital in Austin and it has no running water to the homes, so folks take a truck to a hydrant to fill it and haul back to storage tanks at the side of the house! About ten miles from Elon Musk's new Tesla factory! Isn't that kind of mind bending for a 21 century situation?

I envy that level of simplicity of every day life. Maybe time to help them set up a rain water collection system. Not a perfect solution, but might help out a bit at certain times of the year.

[deucehotrods]

The clamp is the correct size, and the reason the conduit is not against the foundation is that probably there is siding above it that has to be lapped over the foundation to prevent water infiltration to the bottom plate. So what that means the is clamp will be an inch or more away from the foundation due to the thickness of the siding. Any tubing could be used as a spacer, like the ENT pictured or EMT, RMC, PVC, or plumbing pipe, either black or galvanized. An insulator isn't needed either, as the conduit is grounded if it is metal, and if its rigid PVC conduit it doesn't matter.

[Ozarkryder]

Agreed - it looks like a handy item someone had lying around. I've seen blocks of wood, a stack of washers, metal and plastic pipe, most anything that won't compress used as a spacer.

[Morich]

The reason for the spacer is the way knockouts are put into the boxes which means there has to be space all around the knockout and then at the bottom there is concrete for footing, etc. so there is almost always a space but I had never noticed any specific part to fill that space, so I've been doing some asking around and found the guy who had the house built as he is an electrician and did a lot of the work as they built the house. Lots of extra weirdness there, too.
But it is just a spacer and he tells me it can be pretty much anything on hand so it was a bit of flex conduit. It just looked so nice that I thought it might be something specific!

Weirdness on wiring? I have a switch in the closet to switch outside Christmas light outlets on/off. A switch behind the hall door turns the garage opener off and a switch at the back door which really had us wondering until his wife explained that they might someday want to enclose the patio, so wired for lights in the finished canopy. And to find those wires, there are four screws in the ceiling----just in case!

[theSane]

Originally Posted by Morich

Weirdness on wiring? I have a switch in the closet to switch outside Christmas light outlets on/off. A switch behind the hall door turns the garage opener off and a switch at the back door which really had us wondering until his wife explained that they might someday want to enclose the patio, so wired for lights in the finished canopy. And to find those wires, there are four screws in the ceiling----just in case!

Had a co-worker who found random switches in his dad's house after his Dad passed. They were color-coded red/green for on/off and controlled "automated safety features" within the home. He was fortunate and found the switches before he tried to access the secured rooms.

The bomb squad removed all of the "safety features" before he sold the house.

[kaiweb]

Just my thoughts but if you are unsure of the names of the parts you maybe shouldn’t be installing a power outlet. I’m sure you don’t want to smoke his unit.

[Morich]

Originally Posted by kaiweb

Just my thoughts but if you are unsure of the names of the parts you maybe shouldn’t be installing a power outlet. I’m sure you don’t want to smoke his unit.

Now that must be among the brightest things I've read in a long time!
Anybody who has ever done anything related to construction will know there are lots of names for things that will never show up in the catalog to order parts!
Anybody want to tell him what "hocky puck" is used to do?
I don't know what it's real name is either!

[jerichorick]

Originally Posted by US1

Looks more like someone bought an 10' piece of ENT flexible conduit from Menards and just cut a piece off.


https://www.menards.com/main/mainten...3644783&ipos=4

Yankee ingenuity at work. Not a great idea because UV will destroy it over time.

[Usaswimdad]

Originally Posted by Morich

I'm helping a fellow install a 30 amp outlet for RV and niether of us want to go stand around a store to ask so he is ordering it all but when we looked it over to be sure I did not miss something, we need an "official" name for these little plastic gizmos.
Any of you electron guys that do this everyday got a real name for these besides "doobie, thingie," etc.? Piece of scrap?
He is in a part of the state where they still haul in water to drink so regs/codes are not a big factor!
I might tend to leave it off but he is very concerned about doing it right and I can't argue with that if we can find the parts!
I can't find any of those names for him to order!

Looks like someone put plastic wire loom over the bolt, to take up space and /or cover it.

[Herbste]

Looks like a short piece of this used for a spacer because they didn't have the right size clamps for the hard conduit they used. https://www.lowes.com/pd/CARLON-Comm...uit/1000380299

[bigb]

Originally Posted by US1

Looks more like someone bought an 10' piece of ENT flexible conduit from Menards and just cut a piece off.


https://www.menards.com/main/mainten...3644783&ipos=4

That's exactly what it is, ENT or as we call it in the trade "Smurf". Someone just made a redneck spacer out of a chunk of it. If we need a little spacer we will use a few washers or thin slices of EMT but for that much space they should have used a piece of unistrut and a unistrut strap, that's just plain sloppy work.

[Morich]

Originally Posted by bigb

That's exactly what it is, ENT or as we call it in the trade "Smurf". Someone just made a redneck spacer out of a chunk of it. If we need a little spacer we will use a few washers or thin slices of EMT but for that much space they should have used a piece of unistrut and a unistrut strap, that's just plain sloppy work.

That's as close as I need to get to an answer for what the "official name" might be! Smurf is a good thing to call most anything we can't/don't want to remember the real name!
We've now moved way beyond as he has been back to town again and we did the deal and it's all finished and the Rv is all set.
We do a lot of stuff back and forth and he never wants me to go far out of the way to get the supplies, etc. so he wanted to have it all shipped as he feels kind of bad to have asked me but it tasks so much time to meet and get things done that just having me do it when he was here was much better for all of us.
Since it only fills about half inch of gap, I was ready to just go with most any filler but he likes to not put me out in any way, so I let him take care of that part when we work together.
All solved now! I'll ask for "smurf" if I get out your way!

[peggwn]

Put in the "stand-off" crowd.

[ldfeat]

I'd call them "spacers."

[gabbyh]

agree with us 1, looks like a piece of plastic flex electrical tubing