How To Properly Clean A Grease Trap To Protect Your Commercial Plumbing

How To Properly Clean A Grease Trap To Protect Your Commercial PlumbingPhoto by Jacek Dylag

Originally Posted On: https://www.beehiveplumbing.com/how-to-properly-clean-a-grease-trap-to-protect-your-commercial-plumbing/

 

Grease traps are important for the overall integrity of your commercial plumbing, and taking care of your grease trap directly correlates to protecting your plumbing system’s longevity!

All of us at Beehive Plumbing have been assisting businesses of all types throughout our 20+ years as an industry leader in Utah, and the foodservice industry has continuously been in contact with our experts due to a whole variety of commercial plumbing issues.

The truth is that every restaurant needs to have an extremely thorough understanding of their kitchen’s plumbing system, and one of the most important aspects of a foodservice kitchen is the grease trap. It’s absolutely critical that a restaurant’s grease trap is maintained on a regular basis in order to ensure the overall longevity of the commercial property’s plumbing system!

What Do Grease Traps Do?

It’s always crucial for everyone in the foodservice industry to understand what their grease trap does, and this is mainly because these devices need to properly respected and taken care of. A grease trap is a device that’s directly connected to a restaurant’s plumbing system, and its main purpose is to separate grease, oils and other types of sludge from your building’s water supply in order to avoid clogged pipes and other types of plumbing issues.

This is exactly why it’s so important to keep an eye on your grease trap levels, because as a grease trap begins to fill up it becomes imperative for it to be properly emptied and cleaned.

The main issue with grease traps is that there are countless restaurants that don’t conduct these cleaning processes properly or frequently enough, and this is a very easy way to experience serious issues that affect commercial plumbing systems!

So here’s our guide to properly clean your grease trap!

How To Properly Clean Out Your Commercial Property’s Grease Trap
  • Step #1: The first thing you should always do when cleaning out your grease trap is to carefully remove the grease trap’s lid with a pry bar or similar type of prying device. It’s important to open up your grease trap very slowly, because if you’re too rough or move too quickly you can potentially cause damage to the grease trap’s gasket that’s located just beneath the lid. Once you’ve figured out how to properly remove the lid, you should always closely inspect the inside of your grease trap to make sure you’re recognizing all of its parts.
  • Step #2: Next you’ll use a measuring stick and slowly place it into the grease trap until you feel it reach the bottom of the trap. At this point you should give the measuring stick a little twirl to ensure that some grease is properly accumulating on it, and then you’ll remove the stick and read the measurement on it to have a better understanding as to how much grease is currently inside your trap. This measurement should always be properly recorded to abide by EPA regulations, and you should always mail this measurement record to the proper authorities once you’ve completely finished your cleaning.
  • Step #3: The next thing you’ll need to do is remove any standing water that has found its ways into your grease trap by using a bucket. It will be very important that you hold on to this bucket of excess water until the end of the cleaning process so you and/or your team are not dumping this water down your drains, because the oils attached to this water can have a very detrimental effect within your plumbing system as well!
  • Step #4: This is the step in which you’ll actually remove all of the sludge, oils and grease that have collected together within your grease trap, and the best way to do this is to utilize a small bucket or scooper that works best for you. It’s very important that you ALWAYS use heavy-duty plastic waste bags to properly handle these nasty liquids. You’ll also want to ensure that you’re properly scraping the sides and lids of your grease trap, and wet vacuums are also great tools for this type of cleaning. The only thing is that once you utilize a wet vacuum for your grease trap cleaning, it will essentially become your grease trap vacuum!
  • Step #5: The last step is to properly scrub your grease trap down with warm water, specialized soap and a metal scrubber. After you’ve properly cleaned out the grease trap, you’ll then need to rinse the removable parts and screens with warm water. Then you’ll replace all of the recently cleaned parts with your lid. A big consideration to keep in mind when you’re at this point in the cleaning process to make a copy of your EPA report so you have it for your personal records, and then at that point you’re ready to go!
Reach Out To The Beehive Plumbing Team For More Information About How We Support Restaurants And Other Commercial Properties!

All businesses within the foodservice industry need to ensure that their grease trap is properly and consistently cleaned. We can’t tell you how many times we’ve helped restaurants with consistent clogging problems only to tell them that they’re experiencing a tremendous amount of grease buildup!

So always feel free to reach out to us online or call us at 801-661-8155 today to learn more about how our experts support the plumbing systems for foodservice businesses, as well as many other types of commercial properties!

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