Seeking Camera Advice for Restaurant Work

[Mowtown]

Hello!
I am the Facilities Supervisor for 26 restaurants (and about 5 other non-restaurant properties).

Being a greasy environment as well as victim to towells, tampons, and needles being flushed, our hired plumber often has to camera our lines.

The other situation that has arisen recently is clogged toilet lines after a store remodel. We often have to camera just to determine if it's a construction debris issue (fittings, 2x4 blocks, insulation) or it's a maintenance issue (too much tp, etc). I would also like to camera vent lines after remodel for penetrations, etc.

Cameraing has become such a frequent event that I have decided to purchase one for our use in house. That way, I can call our plumber when needed, call our contractor if applicable, or snake it ourselves (short snake).

But NOT being a plumber who is using this daily or even weekly, I'd prefer to not spend $5,000+ on a system (even though I do appreciate quality equipment).

My needs:
100'
2"-6" waste line
Some tight turns
Low to medium cost

Do I need?
Self leveling?
Color?

Don't need:
Recording capability

With this info, can anyone recommend a few options?

Thanks in advance,
Mike

 

[Twowaxhack]

Ridgid is my recommendation and they cost around 5k.

I like color and self leveling.

 

[johnjh2o]

Why are you using a camera so often? After the camera is used I'm sure his next step is to snake the line to clear it. Seams to me he is doing it backward. If he can't clear the line by snaking it then run the camera to see what the problem is being caused by.

 

[Twowaxhack]

Why are you using a camera so often? After the camera is used I'm sure his next step is to snake the line to clear it. Seams to me he is doing it backward. If he can't clear the line by snaking it then run the camera to see what the problem is being caused by.

On rare occasions I use a camera first. It just depends.

 

[Jeff Handy]

Whatever system you buy, keep it locked up.
Or someone in your company will always be borrowing it at night or on weekends, and maybe even making money with it.

 

[Mowtown]

Why are you using a camera so often? After the camera is used I'm sure his next step is to snake the line to clear it. Seams to me he is doing it backward. If he can't clear the line by snaking it then run the camera to see what the problem is being caused by.

Many reasons:
First off, you might have missed that I would like to start cameraing myself to determine if my plumber is needed and how extensively. He does my snaking on anything over 10'. I am a GC who runs these 26 stores. My plumber is very busy on my stores. But here are my specific reasons to answer your questions:
1) To see if it's a contractor issue or a plumber issue.
2) To assess if we need to jet or not. Very greasy environment but each store is different and some stores need jetting every 6 months or so and some need it every 2 yrs. We would know if we need to hire the plumber to jet it or if we can wait a while because the grease build-up is only 15 feet downstream as opposed to 100'. We could also tell if the entire store needs to be jetted or just a branch line. When you multiply this x 26 stores, you can save or spend a lot of money, sometimes unnecessarily.
3)To assess if any of our waste lines are sagging. I would camera stores before we do a major remodel so that I know that I can fix lines that are sagging during a remodel as opposed to down the road which would be much more invasive.
4) Our company's owner also purchase multiple non restaurant properties and we have recently had to pay for camering inspections on three houses, 2 of which did, in fact, have "bad" pipes/blockages (Orangeburg, roots, etc).
5) In our stores, there can be serious deterioration issues with the soda syrup vs. old cast iron under slab. I would be able to assess whether a drink station drain is just clogged by debris (ketchup packets, straws, rags, etc) or rusted/collapsed before calling our plumber. If it's the latter, I usually saw cut the slab and replace it myself as it involves many other dominos including kitchen equipment removal and shutting down the store.
6) there are many other reasons as well but I think I've made my point. I am a licensed contractor and have nothing but respect for my plumber and other plumbers. But there would be a lot of opportunity to save dollars by cameraing myself.
Thanks for your interest. Any camera setups to recommend?

 

[Mowtown]

Whatever system you buy, keep it locked up.
Or someone in your company will always be borrowing it at night or on weekends, and maybe even making money with it.

No doubt, Jeff. I was thinking the same thing.

 

[Mowtown]

Ridgid is my recommendation and they cost around 5k.

I like color and self leveling.

Thank you.

 

[Geofd]

Is the main drain existing and your just remodeling the baths in the restaurant I work for a large university in Boston , we have been he having major drain issues , I think ours are caused by the pandemic.....our buildings were full and fixtures being used all the time, now with sparatic use the waste isn't being flushed
And the grease , paper, and anything else hardens up if we can't clear it with our equipment we have a co jet it's best if they jet from the main sewer to the stoppage area that way they are pulling all of the obstruction away from the stoppage to the main sewer in the street then it can be camered we have 2 rigid brand cameras, one was more than 25 years old the fiber optic cable bent talk to rigid they will set you up we just ordered a replacement for our old camera it was 13k we use ours very ofen

 

[breplum]

I was in hot water with a developer for over a year, b/c the Peet's Coffee shop we built was getting constant calls to clear the oft-clogging sewer.
Camera always showed smooth drain lines so no true indication of why the clogging.
By happenstance, they decided to upgrade to electric hand dryers, and removed the paper towels. Clogged pipes no more.
Except for the coffee grounds in the two inch lines.
Then: Soda draining into cast iron, hopeless

 

[Geofd]

I was in hot water with a developer for over a year, b/c the Peet's Coffee shop be built was getting constant calls to clear the oft-clogging sewer.
Camera always showed smooth drain lines so no true indication of why the clogging.
By happenstance, they decided to upgrade to electric hand dryers, and removed the paper towels. Clogged pipes no more.
Except for the coffee grounds in the two inch lines.
Then: Soda draining into cast iron, hopeless
View attachment 27695

We had the same thing with soda drains we changed them to glued acid waste piping

 

[LIBERTYNY]

Any one will tell you rigid is the go to brand for good reason, But their are plenty of other good brands like lennox/reed. Personally with something like a snake system used equipment is fine with me.

 

[LIBERTYNY]

We had the same thing with soda drains we changed them to glued acid waste piping

We use chemical neutralization tanks hear, about 10 years back alot of people were installing these water-less urinals around hear, and stale whiz is acidic and with no water dilution . . . and whooo does it stink.

The restaurant should bear responsibility (code dependent)

 

[Geofd]

We tried those (waterless urinals) I put in about 5 the custodians love them,when the back up it's quite the mess we took them all out

 

[LIBERTYNY]

The custodians/maintenance are susposto dump a few gallons of water slowly down the urinal every week but they never do, or they dump to fast washing all the oil out the cartridge that makes the seal.

 

[Twowaxhack]

The custodians/maintenance are susposto dump a few gallons of water slowly down the urinal every week but they never do, or they dump to fast washing all the oil out the cartridge that makes the seal.

When I hear the words “ waterless urinal” I automatically think of a Gatorade bottle in the back of the truck.

Sorry