# when did the blue outlet boxes come into usage?



## BSSTG (Jan 4, 2012)

Greetings all,

I've been an electrician for a long time now and the subject came up. It seems to me that those blue plastic electric boxes came to be in the early eighties. Does anyone remember?

thanks

BS


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## fatboy (Jan 4, 2012)

Yeah, be my guess, maybe mid-80's.


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## High Desert (Jan 4, 2012)

I remember them as early as 1985


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## mark handler (Jan 4, 2012)

Electrical PVC Conduit fittings and boxes were being sold in the sixties


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## BSSTG (Jan 4, 2012)

I'm with you Mark but I don't recall those outlet boxes back then and I ran many a mile of PVC pipe in the seventies. That said, I didn't do very much residential work back then so I'm not sure of anything. I do remember having to nail on the metal boxes back in my days as a young whipper snapper apprentice in the seventies.

BS


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## mark handler (Jan 4, 2012)

I worked in a hardware store back in the early seventies and about one third of our conduit sales were Electrical PVC.


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## Pcinspector1 (Jan 6, 2012)

I worked in a hardware store back in the late seventies and about one third of our conduit sales were Electrical PVC. We sold a blue flexable conduit also, it was called "smurf" by the local electricans! I think it was made by carlon?

pc1

Mark I borrow part of your sentance, hope you don't mine?


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## fatboy (Jan 6, 2012)

The smurf pipe was for data cableing if I'm not mistaken.


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## mark handler (Jan 6, 2012)

fatboy said:
			
		

> The smurf pipe was for data cableing if I'm not mistaken.


Article 362. Electrical Nonmetallic Tubing (Type ENT)

Electrical nonmetallic tubing is a pliable, corrugated, circular raceway made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). In some parts of the country, this raceway is called "Smurf pipe," because when it originally came out, at the height of popularity of the children's characters the Smurfs, it was available only in blue.

It is not just for data


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## mark handler (Jan 6, 2012)

used for data







But can be used for voltage






Unless indicated differently on drawings, ENT systems shall be color coded:

BLUE for branch and feeder circuit wiring,

YELLOW for communications,

RED for fire alarm and emergency systems, or colors can designate different voltages.

http://www.carlon.com/Master%20Catalog/ENT_2B43.pdf


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## fatboy (Jan 6, 2012)

Sorry, I stand corrected...........


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## mark handler (Jan 6, 2012)

fatboy said:
			
		

> Sorry, I stand corrected...........


"No Apologies"


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## Mule (Jan 9, 2012)

mark handler said:
			
		

> I worked in a hardware store back in the early seventies and about one third of our conduit sales were Electrical PVC.


The ones back in the early 70's weren't blue though were they? If I recall they were more of a brown color and very brittle.


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## pwood (Jan 9, 2012)

the brown boxes were called bakelite?


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## mark handler (Jan 9, 2012)

The old ENT I use to sell was mostly grey. Not bakelite, PVC. The blue product was made by Carlon, a manufacturer.


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## beach (Jan 9, 2012)

I remember blue, yellow, and black in the eighties...depending on the manufacturer, I think the yellow ones were ceiling boxes. I also remember the brittle brownish ones from the late sixtys......they were really thick, probably bakelite as said above, I recall they had some sort of fiber in them you could see when they broke......probably asbestos!


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