Rant: My borescope battery died mid-inspection on a Cessna 172 Tuesday

Was 45 minutes deep checking a cylinder wall for scoring when the screen just went black. Grabbed a cheap USB-C powered scope from Harbor Freight instead and honestly it worked better than my $200 name brand one. Anyone else have good luck with the budget stuff?

3 comments

3 Comments

ivan7741mo ago

Man that's rough, getting that deep into a job and having the battery crap out. Had the same thing happen with my old borescope when I was checking some exhaust valves on an old pickup. Ended up using one of those cheap USB ones I grabbed for like thirty bucks and it actually showed the cracks better than the fancy one ever did. Sometimes you just get lucky with the budget gear.

allen.iris1mo ago

Oh man for real, I had the same thing happen with my little handheld vacuum. The expensive one died mid clean and I grabbed a cheap stick vac from Target for like forty bucks and honestly it picks up more cat hair than the pricey one ever did. Sometimes the budget stuff just hits different I guess. You really can't beat that luck when it works out.

sean8541mo ago

That "sometimes you just get lucky with the budget gear" line from ivan774 really got me thinking. I gotta ask though, was your Harbor Freight scope one of those super cheap ones that uses a tiny little camera sensor? Because I've tried a couple of those and while the picture was surprisingly clear, the field of view was so narrow I kept losing my spot inside the cylinder. I'm curious if you ran into that same issue or if the one you grabbed has a wider lens. It's just weird how something that costs a fraction of the price can sometimes do the job better, but then other times you get exactly what you pay for.