Greenlee 50110411 Conduit Pistons

A conduit piston is the carrier you send down an empty conduit run with a blower or vacuum power fishing system. It tows a line through the run so you can then pull your pull rope and the wire behind it. The Greenlee 50110411 has a flexible foam body that seals against the conduit wall so air pressure or vacuum moves it, and a steel center rod with loops on both ends to tie your line to either end depending on whether you are blowing or sucking.

Greenlee makes pistons for all types and sizes of conduit from 1/2 inch through 6 inch. The piston has to match the inside of the run to hold its seal, so you order by the conduit size you are fishing. Model 50110411 is one size in that range. Each piston carries a color-coded end disk with the size embossed on it, which is how you pick the right one out of a bucket on the job instead of measuring every time.

Yes. The steel center rod runs through the foam body and terminates in a loop at each end, so you can attach line front and back. That lets you use the same piston in a blower setup, where the line trails behind the piston, or a vacuum setup, where you pull the piston toward you and the line follows in from the far end.

The piston alone will not move. It is the carrier for a powered fishing system, so you also need a blower or vacuum unit to generate the airflow, and a light line (foam-carrier twine or mule tape) tied to the rod loop to be pioneered through the run. Once that line is through, it pulls your rope, and the rope pulls the conductors. The piston handles only the first step.

Greenlee lists pistons for all types of conduit in the 1/2 inch through 6 inch range, so the line covers PVC, EMT, rigid and IMC. What decides the fit is the inside diameter of the raceway rather than the material, because the foam body has to seal against the wall for the blower or vacuum to drive it. Order the piston to the conduit size you are fishing.

Distance decides it. A fish tape is the tool for short runs and a few bends, where you can physically push steel or fiberglass through and feel it. A piston with a blower or vacuum is what you use when the run is long enough or has enough bends that pushing a tape stops working, because the air does the work over the whole length instead of your arms doing it from one end. The 50110411 piston is the powered-fishing option, so it needs an air source; if you do not have a blower or vacuum on the truck, a tape or a rod set is the practical choice.

By the end disk. Each piston is capped with a color-coded disk that has the size embossed into it, so a crew carrying a set for several conduit sizes can grab the right one by sight. That matters when you are running multiple sizes on the same job and a piston that is undersized will blow through without pulling, while an oversized one hangs up in the run.

Country of origin on the 50110411 is the United States. Institutional and government buyers working under domestic-sourcing requirements on a project usually need that on record before the purchase order goes through, and it is stated on this part.

The part number is Greenlee 50110411. That is the number to quote when ordering or matching a piston already in your set, since Greenlee catalogues each piston size under its own number rather than one number for the family.