Vanitek 200 Foot Reach, Spring-Steel Fish Tape Reel, with High Impact Case, for Electric or Communication Wire Puller

I used this fishtape to string a line through a 140 corrugated perforated drain line. It was an effort since there was some mud in the line but eventually I got the job done. As is, the end of the line would get hung up on each corrugation so I added a ball shaped drawer pull to the end and that helped a lot. I also was able to push a water hose into the line up to about 80 feet from each end which helped to soften the mud. I also used this tape to string a line through a 4” smooth wall pvc pipe also 140’ long and this was accomplished easily in just a few minutes.I just completed my third use of this fish tape and learned a bit more about its use. This time I used it on a 185’ 4” pvc smooth wall drain line I was installing. I pushed the line through 2 45degrees elbows first on the house end and then down the new pipe to the culvert. For long snaking, the line should encounter the highest drag sections first. As I did this, the push went fairly easy but the windup return was hard. The reason I learned is that you need to do a tight wind on the reel or you’ll have a mess inside the reel and a difficult wind. You must keep tension on the snake by winding with the red reel and using the handle to apply the snake to the reel. You don’t wind with the handle. Another thing that helps is to apply oil to the snake as you wind it up. The lubrication helps the snake slide better through the handle and also helps prevent rust forming on the snake. I used 10w30 motor oil and a paper towel to apply oil to about a 5 foot section of snake just before I wound it up. I also realized that the snake is not going down the pipe in a straight line. It actually tries to buckle the further you push it but the walls of the pipe prevent it. Instead you get snake deforming into a wave with each high and low point in the wave contacting the pipe. The wave is more pronounced the harder it is to push. This also means the wave shape is more pronounced on the reel end where your pushing. A dirty pipe will it’s drag on the snake will also increase the wave action and make it more difficult to snake.

I purchased this mainly due to two factors. Length of reel and above all the price. It was a great value compared to my much shorter Klein products at a fraction of the cost.

cheap plastic handle broke after 2 uses. Would not recommend. Would give 0 stars if possible. otherwise did the job fine.

Worked perfect did its job at 250 feet in about minutes👍

This fish tape is a good value. Of course it's a little on the thin side - it's 200' long! If you think it's too weak for what you need to tug on, pull a rope through with this and use it to pull your wire.

Seemed to catch and bind wile un spooling and sending down the conduit. was able to push through all 160 ft of conduit while unspooling. When pulling the pull tape through the conduit the steel fish tape split and broke off the first 30 ft of the fish tape. luckily the break just above ground at the time and i was able to complete the pull. Had the split occurred under ground it would have been detrimental to task completion. i choose to try my luck with a replacement since it was able to easily push through the 160ft of conduit.

First off, this is a light duty fish tape. A regular duty fish tape reel that was 200' long would be too heavy to use and turn. It worked perfectly for a 150' long conduit where the pull string broke. My good (read more expensive) 120' tape, which weighs about the same couldn't reach. This did the job. The tape is light and would kink easily, the case is flimsy. But for what it cost, it did the job and saved me a lot of trouble. If you need it, you ought to buy it. If you only fish shorter lines, buy something sturdier.

Very well made. Received on time