Grease Trap Pumping And Cleaning
A grease trap is a plumbing device designed to catch grease and solids before entering the wastewater system. Typical wastewater contains small amounts of oil, which can block the drain pipes that later can cause an increase in untreated sewage in the environment.
Grease traps help to reduce oil, fats, and greases that enter the sewage system. Make sure to clean them on time to avoid any annoyance. They help to keep your surroundings clean, environment friendly, and without any unpleasant smell.
Where are Grease traps located?
Grease traps are mainly found outside restaurant buildings. Since restaurants produce extra oil and other greasy waste from cleaning dishes that have leftover food on them, look near a restaurant’s dishwashing station. You will see it. They look like a standard manhole with a lid covering them.
What is grease trap pumping?
As mentioned, grease traps intercept the grease and oil coming from kitchen waste before the waste enters the primary sewage system. This happens because grease and oil are light in weight in comparison to water and other waste substances. These lightweight particles float on top of the waste coming from kitchens. Grease traps intercept this waste and allow grease-free waste to enter the main sewage line. After these lightweight solid particles are caught in grease traps, they need to be removed, so they don’t contaminate and block the sewage line. This process of cleaning is called grease trap pumping, where the waste contained in these traps is removed.
How to clean grease traps?
Grease trap pumping and cleaning is a way of removing the grease from these traps. There are numerous ways by which you can clean grease traps. You can do it yourself or ask a professional plumbing company that offers grease trap pumping and cleaning services to do it for you regularly. We will discuss here how you can do it yourself.
First, you have to wait before your restaurant closes and all the dishes and other food-contained items are cleaned. You can clean it early in the morning as well. It doesn’t matter when you decide to clean; follow the steps below.
- Remove the lid of the traps slowly and gently. Make sure to not damage the gaskets on the lid.
- Stick a ruler in the grease trap to check how much inch’s waste has been collected. Record this in a log sheet.
- Remove water from the trap using a pump.
- Now start removing grease from the trap using a bucket, shovel, or any other device which suits you the most.
- Ensure to check the bottom, sides, and lid of the trap to see if any grease is there. This will prevent quick build-ups and prevent solidifying of waste, which becomes difficult to remove.
- Scrub the trap to make sure last time that all the waste has been removed.
- Place the lid back again on the grease trap.
Follow these steps if you plan on doing a cleaning of grease traps yourself.