What to Know about Keeping Grease Clogs out of the Kitchen

Flooded floors, foul odors, costly repairs and business down time are all effects of a blocked grease line in a commercial kitchen.

Hot, liquid fats and oils are poured down restaurant and commercial kitchen drains several times a day. Even food scraps are scrapped into drains. These liquid fats and scraps eventually solidify to create a mass that clogs up your kitchen drains. As the owner or manager of a commercial kitchen, you may have had grease traps or other bucket traps installed to catch grease and food scraps. However, these measures do not reduce the responsibility of regularly maintaining your kitchen plumbing.

Untold Dangers of Grease Lines and Traps

If you fail to pump out your grease trap, the trap and the grease line can become clogged. In this eventuality, the clog will lead to a buildup of waste materials that has the potential to overflow into the kitchen. Waste water can also overflow and cause contaminated water sources that create a health hazard.

The waste materials will also cause foul odors, which will create an undesirable workplace and negatively affect staff as well as customers. Employees could become sick over time from the exposure to the fumes and odors that the drain emits. The smell would also turn away customers and create a bad reputation for your business.

In a worst case scenario, grease is highly flammable and could cause a kitchen fire. Grease fires can cause serious damage to a property as they are difficult to control and spread quickly.

The Best Solution

Regular maintenance of your grease traps and lines will give you the peace of mind that your kitchen is safe from grease, and it greatly minimizes the risk of grease related plumbing problems, which savers on costs.

At Inspector Jet, we recommend regular pumping of the grease trap and plumbing check ups to ensure all possible preventative measures are in place. Education of employees on pumping the grease trap or minimizing the grease that goes down the drain can also go a long way to avoiding plumbing incidents.

We also understand that accidents happen and sometimes things go wrong. In an emergency situation, the best thing to do is to flush your pipes with hot water. This aims to transform the fat clog back into its liquid state so it no longer blocks the pipe. However, this is only a temporary solution as the oils can congeal again. You should always call Inspector Jet after a plumbing emergency to prevent further damage.

Do not rely on caustic chemicals to clean your drains as they can be dangerous and result in chemical burns, the pollution of the environment, and the contamination of water sources. When looking for a drain cleaner it is best to go Green.