New "toy" gloat - Ridgid SeeSnake micro

John Pollman

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1,332
Location
Rochester Hills, MI
Howdy folks,

I haven't been around much lately because I've been a bit busy. (Which is a GOOD thing ;)) Later on this afternoon I have to go back and give a bid on a kitchen job that I looked at last week. We discussed some different options that they could do with the new kitchen and one of them was removing the soffit that is currently in there. Well the customer called me last night and they want to order their cabinets in the next few days but we need to know whether or not the soffit has anything hidden inside. I doubt that it does and it's just decorative.

I just got back from Home Depot with a new "toy" that will make the decision a lot easier. It's made by Ridgid and is called the "See Snake". It's a very small lightweight color video camera. It has a full color 2.4" display and a three foot flexible cable with a waterproof camera and adjustable LED's on the end. It can even extend up to thirty feet with optional extender cables. Now all I have to do is drill a two inch hole near the corner of the soffit and I can stick the camera inside and see what's going on. If things are all clear they can go ahead and order the taller cabinets. If there are any obstructions that can't be moved, they can order the shorter ones and we'll leave the soffit intact. In that case I'd just have a small two inch diameter hole to fill. I could have used this unit a couple weeks ago for another kitchen job I did and it would have been great to have then. Here's a link to some more info on this cool new piece of gear. I just thought that some of our other contractors here might be interested.

http://www.ridgid.com/Tools/SeeSnake-micro

Have a great day!

John
 
Oops I thought that I put that in my post. I paid $199.00 for it. That may seem like a lot to some. But personally I think it's very reasonable for what it can do. It should save me a lot of time on this one job alone just trying to find out what if anything is up in that soffit.

John
 
From what I remember My last company paying for something like that 15 or so years ago, that's a great price! Very handy tool to have around. Wish I had one.
 
I had a plumber use one on a defective sewer line... started at a toilet and followed the drain line, looking at each incoming and vent pipe, and see the broken pvc connections. The trick was to look at where the water was trickling... that was the bottom, because after the see snake was a hundred feet or so out, up and down were no longer at the top and bottom of the screen.

Their see snake also had a transmitter, so that they could use a detector (like a metal detector) to find where it was underground or under the floor.

If they are only a couple hundred dollars, that almost makes it worth not having the plumber bring one! After they found my problem, the total bill was $5,000 but I don't know how much it was for the see-snake diagnosis.

Incidentally, Ridgid is a major plumbing vendor, and Home Depot only has exclusive distributorship of their woodworking tools.
 
Mission accomplished!

It worked great for its first test. I got to the clients house and popped a 2" hole saw into my drill and popped a hole. Flipped the switch on and turned up the lights and inserted the camera into the soffit. In about thirty seconds I had my answer. We can't remove the soffit because there are several wires running through it that would be a pain to move but I also found that the upstairs toilet drain is in there. So we're just going to leave it as is. But now all I have to do is patch that 2" hole and I'm done. That will be a simple task because I just took the "plug" out of the hole saw. I can easily put that back in place and a little bit of mud and it's good as new. This thing has already saved me a lot of time and headache in trying to figure out whether or not to try and remove the soffit.

Good investment so far! ;)

I'll report more later when I've found more uses.

John
 
Neat tool John. I think it just paid for itself. I can only imagine finding the toilet drain at the end of the demolition. That's how I usually work things!:rolleyes::D

Wes
 
Boy is that thing worth 200 bucks! Several times over. When I think of all the hours and all the anxiety wasted because I didn't have one! That thing's going on my christmas wish list for sure!

Thanks,

Bill
 
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