Spent $350 on a new camera inspection kit and it's already paid for itself

I was on the fence about buying a new camera system for a while, thinking my old mirror and flashlight were fine. Finally dropped about $350 on a decent one with a 20-foot cable and a color screen. Used it on a job last week in a big old house downtown. The homeowner was sure their chimney was blocked. I ran the camera up and found the problem right away... it wasn't a blockage, but a huge crack in the flue liner about 15 feet up. Showed them the video on the spot. They went from thinking I was trying to sell them something to signing off on a full liner replacement that same day. That one job covered the cost of the camera and then some. How many of you use cameras now versus the old mirror method?

3 comments

3 Comments

kevin33117d ago

Watched a guy argue with a mirror for twenty minutes once, convinced he saw a dead bird. Turns out it was just a weirdly shaped clump of soot and his own reflection. The camera would have saved us all a lot of time and his dignity.

eric_adams1117d agoOG Member

Saw a documentary where they said our brains fill in patterns with familiar stuff, like faces or animals. That guy probably just got stuck in a feedback loop with his own reflection.

anthony76317d ago

Yeah, I used to think people were just making stuff up for attention. Then I saw a weird dark spot on my wall after a long shift. For a whole hour I was sure it was a spider, even saw its legs move. My brain just would not let it go. Turns out it was a tiny bit of loose paint. That documentary is right, once your mind picks a pattern it locks onto it hard.