Back in April, my 4-year-old’s birthday party went sideways when some finger puppet toys got flushed down the toilet. The thing barely drained after that, and I spent way too long with a plunger getting nowhere. My son kept telling me that a visitor put “puppets” in the potty and that “the toys went down and around the drain,” but that didn’t help me much since I couldn’t actually see inside the pipe. Emergency plumbers around here want $150–$300 just to show up, so I went a different route. Plus, I much prefer to DIY any home repair/improvement I reasonably can. So, I grabbed an Endoscope Camera with Light off Amazon for $23 with next-day shipping. I fixed the problem myself and ended up using it for another project a few months later.
The birthday party disaster that started it all
When curiosity meets plumbing
My son’s party had kids from 2 to 8 years old running around. Somewhere in the middle of all that chaos, one of the kids dropped rubber finger puppets into the toilet. My son saw them floating there and decided flushing made more sense than fishing them out. Kids, right?
It took me forever to figure out what even happened. My four-year-old just kept making this swirling gesture and repeating, “The toys went down and around the drain.” I grabbed the plunger and spent maybe 20 minutes working on it, but nothing changed.
The toilet would drain, just incredibly slowly. Lucky for us, we’ve got three other bathrooms, so I locked that one and gave myself time to work out a plan. My main issue was that I couldn’t see where the toys were stuck, how deep they’d gone, or whether my plunger was pushing them deeper. Plumbers charge a fortune on weekends, and I wasn’t ready to shell out hundreds for something I might handle on my own. I just needed eyes inside that drain.
Why a $23 camera beat a $300 plumber visit
The tool that changed everything
Rather than calling someone blindly, I looked for ways to actually diagnose the issue. I found these inspection cameras made specifically for this kind of thing. The Endoscope Camera with Light had solid reviews and didn’t cost much.
Here’s what made me pull the trigger: dual-lens 1920P HD camera with eight LED lights you can adjust, so visibility wasn’t going to be a problem even inside a dark pipe. IP67 waterproof rating meant toilet water wouldn’t wreck it, but the real clincher was the 16.4-foot semi-rigid cable. It bends enough to navigate pipes but stays firm enough to push where you need it.
It works with both iPhone and Android through their app, and I got it for $23 with next-day delivery. Emergency plumbers hit you with $150–$300 before they even look at anything, then tack on hourly rates and parts. If I bombed at fixing it myself, at least I’d know exactly what the plumber was dealing with when I did call.
How I found and removed the clog
Seeing is believing (and fixing)
The package showed up the next afternoon. I plugged the endoscope into my iPhone, downloaded the app, and got started. It’s a pretty straightforward setup—you get live video on your phone with brightness controls for the LEDs.
I fed the cable down the toilet drain while watching my phone screen. Those LED lights worked better than I expected. About two feet down in the trap curve, there they were: two finger puppets jammed next to each other.
Knowing exactly where they sat made the fix obvious. I grabbed my drain snake from the garage and worked it down while keeping the endoscope in place. Being able to watch what was happening on screen made a huge difference. I could see when the snake hit the toys and watch myself work them loose.
It took me maybe five minutes of wiggling things around before I pulled both puppets out. The toilet flushed normally right away. I ran the camera through once more, all the way past my sewer cleanout to make sure nothing else was hiding down there. Start to finish, I was done in 15 minutes and $23 versus what would have been a $300+ weekend service call.
The bonus discovery that saved my neighbor thousands
From party disaster to neighborhood helper
A month or two later, my neighbor was dealing with a gross sewer smell in his finished basement shower. The shower drain looked like it just turned 90 degrees with no visible P-trap. His contractor kept insisting there should be one “further down the line under the concrete slab.” That struck me as sketchy. You don’t bury P-traps in concrete—codes don’t work that way, and you’d have no way to service them. The home builder wouldn’t have done that.
I brought the endoscope over, and we dropped it down his shower drain. As we expected, the drain pipe turned 90 degrees and went straight to the sewage ejector pit. There was no P-trap, period—we could see it on video, crystal clear.
Here’s why that matters: P-traps hold water that blocks sewer gas from coming up through drains. Without one, you’re pulling hydrogen sulfide and worse into your house every time you breathe. My neighbor showed the contractor the footage (which we recorded with the app), and suddenly, they agreed to tear out part of the shower to fix it right. He caught this while other areas were still open. Fixing it later, after everything was finished, would’ve meant ripping out a bunch of completed work. He probably saved a few thousand dollars.
A $23 investment that keeps on giving
This whole toilet fiasco turned into one of my smarter tool buys. Skipping the plumber saved me a couple of hundred bucks, and catching that missing p-trap saved my neighbor a few thousand. I’ve used the endoscope half a dozen times since—checking HVAC ducts, checking out my washing machine drain after some weird noises, and squeezing into tight corners during projects. If you’ve got plumbing problems or just need to see into spaces you normally can’t access, this thing’s useful. I didn’t think I’d get much mileage out of it beyond that first toilet fix, but it’s one of those tools I reach for more than I expected. I’m all about reuse, so I’m always looking for ways to get the most out of it.
