Favorite borescope for electrical work?

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A.Adams

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Tennessee
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Electrician
I’m looking for recommendations for a borescope. My main purpose would be to get a better view inside of a wall. It’s pretty common that I’ll remove an existing 1G box during a remodel and need to go through the top plate or bottom plate to add onto the circuit or to feed wire for a new circuit. Having a borescope could really be handy to see what obstacles may be in the way. Have you found one that you really like? Any that you were dissatisfied with?

Thanks for the help.


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I've used a cheap harbor freight that works fairly good given cost. Been eyeballing one of those bluetooth that link to your phone and attach to the end of a fish stick.
 
www.kleintools.com

Borescope for Android® Devices

Klein Tools ET16 Borescope features a 9 mm camera surrounded by 6 LEDs attached to a 10-Foot (3 m) armored gooseneck cable. The digital camera has a USB Type-C (and micro-USB) connection for most Android® (OTG 4.0 or higher) smartphones and devices. The camera and video output is displayed on...
www.kleintools.com www.kleintools.com

I bought this one. Only hooks up to android devices, but I have an android pad and it was only 40 bucks.
 
One thing with the ones I've used is trying to adjust the right/left, top/bottom views to what you are seeing to actually move in the direction desired. But I have used for just that scenario the OP is wanting. 50/50 on the results, the camera or maybe the lighting from the scope not adequate to distinguish some of the interior landscapes at times. Might be a higher quality scope would get better results.
Wish I could actually save screen shots on it as did find some very interesting views inside the wall. Had used on a trouble call that found a mouse with jaw clamped on the NM, dead. Found another time a wall cavity with a piled bone yard in the bottom of the cavity, birds, mouse and squirrels. But on the helpful side have used several times to aid in fishing wire though the cavity of the wall and not have to remove the nail-on box at all.
 
I've had a couple of whatever was reasonably cheap and decently reviewed on Amazon. They connected to my phone through their own wifi.
I would note a few things:
* look for a fairly stiff lead wire for better control
* I have found that the little accessory kit that my latest one came with has been useful--including a little hook and a right angle mirror that screws onto the end
* A big problem I had with one was that the app it used got discontinued and was removed from the (Android) app store. This made it useless. Look in the app store for whatever you're considering and see how long the app it's been around, it's updates, etc.
 
Nothing else works for looking inside a wall to see hidden traps. Are you drilling into a pipe or wire? Even works to illuminate a stud bay when you can see with your eyes too. And you can get the fish "wire" (I would say tape, but usually it is a short piece of wire at this point) onto the NM in the wall when doing some fishing. Maybe in all new work it would not be handy. Both my old Harbor Freight and the Snap On I bough used just take AA batteries, so nothing to charge. Today I would check out a phone accessory. Get one small enough to fit through a 14mm hole and you can see inside the engine, why I bought the Snap-On one. Hobbies. (y)
 
Theres a milwaukee one that lets you rotate the image on the screen without moving the snake. I hear good things about it. Personally I have a $40 one with a screen from Amazon. I'd stay away from using my phone for fear of it getting damaged or dropping it somewhere inaccessible. I do like the cable ferret but that's not a replacement for an inspection cam (borescope, or endoscope to our far east suppliers). Maybe get a cheapo tablet like a amazon fire tablet to avoid using personal phone.
 
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