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A sewer inspection camera is a significant investment. It can open the door to numerous opportunities to grow your business and get a great many sewer and drain cleaning jobs done a lot more efficiently, effectively, and timely than ever before. That being said, because a plumbing camera is such a large investment of your funds, you want to make sure that you never do anything that could potentially damage it. It could end up costing you a great deal of money and opportunities to get repaired. Spartan Tool is here today to provide you with some pieces of helpful advice on how to avoid damaging your sewer inspection camera.
How a Sewer Inspection Camera Works
In order to have a solid idea as to the kinds of things that you should avoid doing with a sewer inspection camera so that it does not end up getting damaged, it is a good idea to first have a basic idea as to how they work. A sewer camera is a device that is set on wheels with a high tech camera set on a cable with wire running through it back to a monitor near the operator. It is meant to be able to get a clear look at what is in a sewer or drain when the human eye and instinct is not enough to figure out what is causing a problem of some sort. Usually pipe cameras are used to find obstructions in the line, but they can also be used to do preventative maintenance and locate other types of problems that might be occurring.
While an operator is handling a sewer camera and moving it through the line, it will in most cases provide live video of what it is currently seeing to the monitor. This live video can then be recorded onto the plumbing camera’s internal memory as well as onto external storage such as SD cards or flash drives, depending on the kinds of external memory an individual machine works with. This video can then be edited to have narration and various notes put on it that the plumbing professional as well as the client can look at any time they should choose to do so.
How to Avoid Damaging Your Sewer Inspection Camera
As you might imagine, a sewer camera is a somewhat fragile piece of technology. You do not want to be overly rough with it or treat it in such a way where it could become damaged over time or during transport. There are a number of different things you need to take into consideration when you are looking to keep your sewer inspection camera in as good of condition as possible for as long as possible. The following pieces of advice should help you in doing so, and allow you to be able to do your best work and take advantage of new opportunities for business for years to come.
NEVER Use Your Sewer Inspection Camera to Break Through Clogs
One of the most important things to remember when you are using a sewer inspection camera is that its only purpose is to observe what is happening inside of a drain or sewer, not alter it in any way, shape, or form. You must NEVER use it to break through a clog. It might seem like it would be a convenient and time saving idea to just be able to bust through an obstruction right then and there instead of going about things with the proper procedure, but it is definitely not. Using an insertion probe is actually one of the worst things you can do when conducting a plumbing inspection job. Using a drain camera for anything but plumbing inspection can also result in damage to the lens as well as the cable that it is connected to. Needless to say, but this can result in some costly and time consuming repairs that you could have easily avoided.
Do Not Use Short, Fast Motions
While you are down in a line with a sewer inspection camera doing plumbing inspection, you do not want to make the common mistake of using fast and short motions in order to be able to get your insertion probe around a corner or bend. By doing this, you could end up doing some considerable damage to the lens of your plumbing camera. In order to avoid running into such problems, what you want to do is move the sewer camera slowly around the inside of the sewer or drain that you are doing a sewer inspection for. By going slowly, you can avoid having to shell out hundreds of dollars in repairs as well as downtime from further opportunities for business.
Always Remain Near the Drain Opening
While you are operating a sewer inspection camera for a plumbing inspection job, you must remain kneeling beside the drain opening. Should you instead push the cable through the line while standing, it could end up resulting in the sewer camera breaking. In addition, you want to always make sure that your hand is kept near the sewer or drain opening while you are pushing the sewer inspection camera through it. Any reeling that happens could end up kinking up and damaging your plumbing camera if you are standing up while you are inserting the tube through the drain opening.
Watch Carefully as You Work
While you are conducting a plumbing inspection job, you must always be watching everything carefully. There are any number of different things that could cause serious problems for your sewer camera, such as clogs or broken pipes. These things could prevent you from moving, and if you are not careful, it could cause damage to your equipment, like your sewer camera head. This is another reason why you want to take it slow throughout the entire drain inspection process with your pipe camera. Keeping a close eye on things right now can help you avoid damaging your sewer inspection camera and have to repair it or having to find another sewer camera for sale later on.
Do Not Keep Your Plumbing Camera Immersed in Liquid Continuously
Although it might seem as though a pipe camera would be fine being continuously subjected to copious amounts of liquid, it is actually not the case. Your sewer camera will have a better chance of lasting longer if it is not kept somewhere wet when you are not using it. It is also rather common to think that because the tubing on the drain camera is waterproof, that it is fine to submerge it in any liquid for any amount of time. This can end up causing your sewer inspection camera to become defective over time if it is continuously left in such environments. It is better for you to leave your plumbing camera somewhere dry and out of direct sunlight. Continuous exposure to direct sunlight can end up causing the lens of your sewer inspection camera and cause the supporting adhesive to come undone. Needless to say, this is a circumstance that is best left avoided at any cost.
Check Your Sewer Camera Before and After Every Use
An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure. You have probably heard this saying thrown a lot, but there is certainly a great deal of truth to it, especially when it comes to sewer inspection cameras. One of the best things you can do to avoid damaging your sewer camera is to give it a thorough looking over as well as a complete wash before each time you use it, as well as after. The reason you want to do this is because you want to make sure that nothing gets into the cable that could damage it and that the plumbing camera in general is in good working condition. Additionally, you want to make sure your pipe camera stays clean because you do not want to accidentally contaminate someone else’s sewer or drain line with bacteria or other contaminants that came from a different job that you had recently.
Do Not Bend the Tube
One important thing that you must always avoid with your sewer inspection camera is bending its tube through winding or other actions. If you were to bend a pipe camera’s tube, you run the risk of damaging its fiber optics. This in turn cuts down heavily on the quality of the image that you get from the plumbing camera. As a result of this, you end up not being able to see any blockages or plumbing damage as well, and you could end up missing something vital. In addition to this, you also run the risk of damaging the sewer inspection camera’s articulation cables. This all ends up resulting in repairs that cost a considerable amount of money.
What you should do with your sewer camera cable when it is being stored is to keep it in a proper storage container. You should also ensure that all of the sewer camera’s tube is safely and completely inside when you close the container’s lid. This helps keep your cable in better condition for longer and help keep it from wearing out by being exposed to external elements.
Keep Sewer Camera Away from High Heat
As we mentioned earlier, it is best to keep your sewer inspection camera out of direct sunlight when you are not currently using it for plumbing inspection. This can cause considerable damage to your pipe camera’s lens as well as cause the supporting adhesive to no longer hold its grip. The same principle applies to other places that your drain camera could end up going that are of considerable heat.
Any place that has a temperature at 80 degrees Celsius/176 degrees Fahrenheit and above can do a great deal of damage to your pipe camera and require you to seek out costly repairs for it in order to get it back in action. That being said, you should check your sewer inspection camera’s user manual and read up on how to use and care for it in environments that are either considerably low or high in terms of temperature in order to avoid any defects occurring while in use.
Know When You Need to Replace Your Sewer Inspection Camera or Its Parts
Some times, no matter what amount or kinds of preventative maintenance you put in, there comes a time when the right thing to do is to know when it is time to replace your sewer inspection camera and find a new sewer camera for sale. This can end up happening for any number of different reasons, regardless of how careful you might happen to be throughout the lifespan of your pipe camera. Some times, human error comes into play. For example, you might have had some sort of accident with your plumbing camera that lead to catastrophic damage. In other cases, maybe you were so careful that old age finally caught up with your sewer camera. If a pipe camera is too damaged to repair or is just too old and worn out to safely keep using in an effective manner, then it is time to put in the investment for a brand new one.
When looking for a new sewer camera for sale, it is important that you keep in mind that you get what you pay for. Just because a drain camera is on the more affordable end of the spectrum, it does not mean that it will serve your needs reliably for the long run. By purchasing a higher quality sewer inspection camera, you are more likely to have one that will last considerably longer and be able to hold up better under the conditions that you typically work in when conducting sewer and drain cleaning jobs. Just make sure that it has all of the features, durability, and specifications you will need on a day to day and long term basis. When you do get your new sewer camera, make sure to follow all of the above advice for avoiding doing any damage to it.
