Ice in Conduit

[emartin00]

About a year and a half ago I installed a 6kW system on my parents house using a SolarEdge SE6000A inverter. Back in December the inverter quit working; it appeared to be a failed power supply, as it wasn't getting power anywhere but at the input terminals. After a bit of arguing, SolarEdge sent out a new inverter.
We decided to move it from the north side of the house, next to the electric meter, down to the basement next to the service panel. To do this, my dad put in a 6x6 outdoor junction box where the inverter used to be, then just used the existing conduit that ran into the basement.
Fast forward another few weeks and I noticed the inverter had quit producing power again. After checking the troubleshooting steps it appeared there was an isolation fault between the inverter and the first optimizer. I figured one of the wire nuts may have a bad connection in the junction box, so I had my dad pull the cover and check them all. It turned out that when installing the box, he jostled loose one of the conduit joints about 15 feet up, and the conduit filled with water during a rain storm. Now being winter, it's a solid tube of ice.

I quit digging when we discovered that, assuming the ice must be causing the fault.
My question is, do you think the ice damaged the wire enough that I'll have to replace it? It's standard THWN wire. Obviously I'll need to wait for it to thaw out first, which hopefully will be in the next week or so.

[Mike90250]

I doubt insulated wire, frozen into ice would be damaged. If water got into the end of the insulation and wicked up into the strands, then that wire will likely fail in a couple years from green corrosion ( wet copper)

[Sunking]

I quit digging when we discovered that, assuming the ice must be causing the fault.
My question is, do you think the ice damaged the wire enough that I'll have to replace it? It's standard THWN wire. Obviously I'll need to wait for it to thaw out first, which hopefully will be in the next week or so.

THWN is rated for WET Locations and the insulation being wet or frozen would not likely cause a fault. However if you have a Junction box with splices like wirenuts that are wet will cause a fault.

[NewBostonConst]

You could unhook both ends and do a resistance check on the wires. Check between each other and to ground. Can also us a long piece of wire to check the full length of each wire is continuous in the conduit.

I agree with Mike's assessment. Ice no problem but a cut could be.

[bcroe]

You could unhook both ends and do a resistance check
on the wires. Check between each other and to ground. Can also us a long piece of wire to check
the full length of each wire is continuous in the conduit.

I do not think a typical DVM with 3V battery can do an adequate resistance test. I would check
it for leakage at something like 200VDC. Bruce Roe

[Sunking]

I do not think a typical DVM with 3V battery can do an adequate resistance test. I would check
it for leakage at something like 200VDC. Bruce Roe

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner. It takes a high voltage ohm meter like a Megger.