Sliding a camera through Heating and Air ducts allows the customer to see all of the dust accumulating throughout the system. I've sold a few electronic air filters like this as well as entire systems.

Accessing the inaccessible

There are times when you just can't fit your body where the pipes are. Let's get creative. With electrical tape, fasten the first few feet of your camera's cable to a length of rigid pipe. Use the pipe as a pole to push and guide the camera to where you want it to go. Use copper pipe with a bend in it to look around corners or get behind obstacles...I hear those wheels turning now!

Septic and seepage pits

Never enter a septic tank via the 4" sewer—you'll get hung up in the inlet baffle. Always enter tanks and pits from the top only. Use the string or bent-pole method mentioned above to get a good look around the inside of the tanks to check for any damage. First— the tank in question needs to be located. Second—the earth above the tank must be removed to expose the lids. Third—the actual camera inspection. An inspection of this sort will generate between $1500 and $2000. Then there is the cost of the actual repair. It all adds up quickly to a major repair job.

Commercial maintenance contracts

A plumber I know was called out to alleviate a main sewer stoppage in a shopping mall that had just been jetted by one of his competitors at a cost of $3500. He performed a video inspection with the owner present only to find a series of grease restrictions caused by the mall's string of restaurants. He then attached his camera to his jetter hose about 3 feet behind the jetter nozzle to make sure he was getting all the grease out of the system. The customer was so impressed he purchased a monthly preventative maintenance program at a cost of $3000 every single month. The first contractor refunded the $3500. You see, the owner now had videotape of the first contractor's shabby results and threatened legal action as well as complaints to the Contractors' License Board and the Better Business Bureau. Take a lesson here. Commercial jetter jobs on long lines should always be checked with a camera before leaving the job-site.

Cameras to the rescue