This week we’re going to have a look at the General Pipe Cleaners Gen-Eye Mini-Pod inspection camera system for troubleshooting drains and piping. I’ll give you a brief rundown of the features and then talk about using a Gen-Eye system here at the office during a demo presentation.

First off, this General Pipe Cleaners Gen-Eye Mini-Pod system is designed for working in smaller pipes and drains like those in sinks and such. The official specification for line size using the Gen-Eye Mini-Pod is 2”-4”. The system also offers a choice of 125 or 175 feet of cable on a highly portable reel. The complete system is only 19” high, making it ideal for indoor home plumbing. The Gel-Rod cable is highly durable and has a protective coating that protects against damage. Now, you can’t go jamming full force into a clog but it will take a lot of the standard wear and tear that comes with working with malfunctioning pipes. 

The camera head on this system has a 1” diameter for a lot of mobility in the pipe and is lit by 8 white LEDs for excellent visibility. The General Pipe Cleaners Gen-Eye Mini-Pod system, in contrast to some of the higher-dollar units, in an all-in-one system with the monitor built in to the frame. This adds greatly to the convenience of the system and the flexible gooseneck that attaches the monitor to the reel makes it possible to work with the unit on its side, as well as in the upright position (see image). 

The monitor on this system does not record internally but features a video out jack for easy recording to a mobile device if you have some good third party software with that capability. The main focus with these units is being cost effective and they pack quite a punch for the price tag. Also, like all the Gen-Eye systems, the Gen-Eye Mini-Pod has a 512Hz sonde built-in to the camera head that can be found using the locator that is included in the kit versions of the Gen-Eye Mini-Pod. This is a really innovative locator and great to use, but I think I will go into that in another post. That about covers the main features of the unit – let’s get into some hands on details.

We set up out front of the office a small PVC pipe system with a couple of bends and some objects intentionally placed inside with a deliberate clog towards the end of our miniature plumbing system. The picture quality on the General Pipe Cleaners Gen-Eye Mini-Pod is excellent and you can clearly see what’s going on even inside a pitch black pipe. We got a good look at our plastic models of bugs and lizards haha.

 When we reached the obvious clog in the system we stopped feeding the pushrod through and got out the locator so we could see where we would need to intervene externally on a real system. The locator has a very easy to understand interface and the screen guides even a beginner right to the camera head. It will also then give you null points on either side of the camera head so that, if the pipe were hidden, you would be able to determine the direction of the line. 

One final word of caution – if you are cutting into a pipe that is hidden, be sure to do so about 2-3inches in front of where the locator shows the camera head is. Otherwise, you will be chopping that camera head right off!

See you next time.