A drain pipe camera inspection is an inspection of your drain pipe via camera. To be more specific, a small, waterproof camera is mounted on a cable that can be fed through your pipes to examine your drains from the inside. The plumber can display what the camera is seeing as it moves through your pipes so that problems can be located and rectified. Here are a few of the reasons why you might need a drain camera inspection. 

Locating a Lost Item

Jewelry is probably the most common example of a valuable item lost to plumbing. Rings occasionally fall off, earrings can slide out of your ears, a necklace clasp may break, and you may lose a valuable or sentimental piece of jewelry to the drain or toilet. Of course, it's not always jewelry, other items may also be lost down drains as well. Sometimes you drop an item down a drain and you can still see it, and fish it out. However, when it gets washed further along and it is no longer visible, you'll need an inspection to find it.

Finding a Blockage

In general, blockages can be handled without the use of a camera. Snaking the drain solves the problem a lot of the time. However, if you get frequent backups and the typical methods don't seem to be working to clear the drain, there may be a blockage that is a little more serious. This will need to be located by camera, but once it has been pinned down the plumber can take steps to correct the issue.

Broken Sewer Pipes

This is one of those plumbing problems that won't always be obvious, straight away. If you have cracks or breaks in your sewer line, your plumbing will likely operate normally but there will be other signs. Sinkholes, for example, may begin to form in your yard. You also may have standing water in your yard or basement. This water will smell a lot like raw sewage because it will likely be mostly raw sewage. With an inspection, the damage can be found and repaired.

While it is theoretically possible to DIY a camera inspection, it's not recommended unless you are experienced with plumbing. This is because keeping track of where your camera is located is a skill acquired over time. You would essentially be taking a video input and the distance input from what you've fed into the drain and trying to use that information to map where you are, and that's a lot easier to do if you are familiar with plumbing.