sewer camera

I had inquired about getting inspection, but from the get go they wanted to redo everything. So I decided to order a 20 foot waterproof inspection camera. Going to cost $45. I might have to attach to a poly tubbing to push it. Don't know how stiff cable is. Anybody do this?

Should accomplish what I need to know.

Greg

Reply to
gregz
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I hear they take real shitty pictures......

Reply to
jw

The usual thing is to attach them to drain cleaning rods. If you see an obsruction do not push the camera past it, it may get stuck.

Reply to
harryagain

20' is not very long. What problem are you trying to diagnose? What's your situation?
Reply to
jamesgangnc

My main concern is which way a drain pipe under the slab is going. I also want to check for roots. No problems, just want to do things before I put up walls.

Greg

Reply to
gregz

I am confused by your original post. Presumably you told them you wanted to map the line location? What did they say the everything was they wanted to redo?

I was working at a commercial site a few weeks ago and they asked me to move my car. They said someone was coming to map the sewer line and check the condition.

He popped a manhole and paid out the camera into the line. He had a hand held wand and every so often located his device and painted a stripe on the blacktop. He marked maybe 750' of line and was wrapped up in less than an hour.

Reply to
George

You wrote later that you want to use the camera to figure out where the sewer line goes. I think you may not be able to do that with the camera you are buying. The reason is that unless you can be completely sure that the camera stays in the same position as when it goes in, and does not rotate in any way, you cannot tell from the camera view which way any turns in the pipe are going. Someone else posted how they trace the sewer line location and you may end up needed to have that done to find out where the pipe goes.

A few months ago, I did a little homemade sewer camera experiment. It was fun and interesting to try, and it did tell me that my sewer pipe was okay on the inside and did not have roots blocking it etc. But, there was one place where the pipe make a turn about 3 feet out from the front of my house. From my camera view, I thought it showed that the pipe made a downward pitch toward the main sewer line in the street. That would have been good news for me for what I wanted to do. But, when I dug down to the sewer line out front, I found that the pipe did not turn downward -- it made a horizontal 45 degree left turn. What I didn't know was that my camera had rotated by about 90 degrees so the picture I saw may it look like the pipe was going down when instead it was turning left.

Out of curiosity, could you post which 20-foot camera you are buying for $45 and/or where you are buying it?

Here is the complete information on the homemade sewer camera experiment I did a few months ago:

I bought a cheap laptop webcam at Office Depot for $13 that includes a built-in LED light (

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. Then I bought a 16-foot USB extension cable at Radio Shack for $35. I connected the webcam and USB extension cable to my laptop and taped the camera to a 50-foot flat metal sewer snake that I have and I tried to use this contraption to view and make a video of my sewer pipe going out to the street. It "almost" worked, but the built-in "night vision" LED on the webcam provided nowhere near enough light to really see the inside of the sewer pipe well enough to be of any use. Then I tried also taping a mini MagLite LED flashlight (
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) to end of the snake for more light along with the webcam.

That worked.

Yes, it was a goofy setup, and yes, it was a bit of a mess playing with all of this and using it in a sewer pipe. But, it did work, and I did get to make a videotaped inspection of the inside of my sewer line from inside the basement out to the street. My section of the sewer pipe is fine. I saved the video recording of the inspection on my laptop.

Would I recommend anyone else doing the same thing? -- no. If the camera light really did work, maybe it would be worth trying. But, the camera light was worthless. Also, with a USB cable going to a laptop, I learned that the maximum recommended length of a USB extension cable is about 16 feet for the USB port to work correctly. Luckily, 16 feet plus the 4 feet of cable on the camera was enough for what I needed and to do the experiment and view my whole sewer line out to the street.

For my next trick, I was thinking of buying a 50-foot sewer line inspection video camera and light for $250 on eBay (

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). They also sell a 100-foot version for $315, but I only have a 50-foot flat metal sewer snake that can successfully be pushed into a sewer line.

Supposedly, this 50-foot sewer line inspection camera works by just connecting it directly to a TV or LCD monitor. And, supposedly, the built-in light on the camera makes it work inside a sewer pipe. I wasn't sure so I didn't go ahead and buy one and try it, but I sure was tempted. Hopefully, you'll post back what kind of camera you are buying and how well it worked.

Reply to
Ron

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I only need to know if the pipe bends at all. Should be a straight shot.

I don't have clean out, thus the plumber wanted to install one.

Greg

Reply to
gregz

Interesting. Thanks. Let us know how well it works when you get it. You first mentioned getting a 20-foot one but the ad you showed was for a

50-foot one. I see they have both sizes (actually sized in meters). I only mention that because I think a USB cable loses a lot of signal strength after about 20 feet in length, so I'd be curious to know if you end up getting the longer one how well it works.

And, depending on what your existing sewer line setup is, it may be fairly easy for you to put in your own cleanout(s) without a plumber if you wanted to do that. I put one in on the inside of my property and also, after digging down 5 feet to the sewer line on the outside, I put in a cleanout Tee there and ran a vertical cleanout pipe up to the surface from there with a screw-on cap.

Reply to
Ron

quote; >The reason is that unless you can be

You can tell the bottom of the sewer either from staining, standing water or by flowing a little water into the sewer.

Reply to
Reno

Greg,

You said you bought this:

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Did you get it? How well did it work? I have been thinking about buying one.

Thanks.

Reply to
Ron

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