The grease trap challenges are one of the most common issues that restaurants’ owners have to face regularly, an annoying one at that! Aside from commercial cooking services, kitchens in homes sometimes do experience conditions where oil and grease collected in the tap tube accumulates and blocks the pipes and eventually destroy the trenches.
Your Kitchen And Grease Traps
If you normally pour greasy water down the drain, you are more prone to encounter clogged drains. These can be very costly in terms of the plumbing bill paid for the Grease Trap Cleaning. Besides the blockage of drainage systems emanating from homes, enormous amounts of grease released are frequently forced to the sewer systems by restaurants and other related establishments. These can cause a blockage. This is it is very much needful for such establishments to install grease trap/interceptors. Also, small-scale interceptors can be installed in homes.
The main sources of oil in restaurants are daily cooking and washing exercises. Installing a grease trap in such outfits will work miracles by every minute that passes. It works especially in inhibiting thick greases, rancid oils, and globs of fat from entering the municipal sewer system and causing a host of disruptive blockages.
There are different types of grease traps to serve your needs. Selecting the right one is important for maximum efficiency. In general, grease traps or interceptors in your kitchen can save you a whole lot of money on grease trap Cleaning services and time as well.
Features Of Grease Traps
The grease intercepting device is mostly made of metal or plastic, with a box-like shape. It is fixed in-between the kitchen sink and the main sewage system. It’s no secret that grease traps are designed to function in the kitchen sink outlets only. Also, the trap can be installed either inside the building or outside. The traps, installed inside need more frequent cleaning than the ones outside. However, the interceptors outside do not cause as much disruption as those placed inside.
Cleaning of the interceptors can be done with the hand. How often should you clean it? Well, it all depends on what is stipulated by your local authority. However, conducting a weekly check on your grease trap can be the best maintenance practice on your part. Failure to carry out these checks can lead to over full of the traps, culminating in its inability to hold off grease sludge. Offensive odor is bound to be the other in the kitchen. The work of cleaning them can be offloaded to the Grease Trap Cleaning company, who does the installation as well.
Tips On Buying Grease Traps
TYPE OF TRAP
There are different types of traps available in the market, each posing its advantages and limitations. For instance, the Passive hydromechanical grease interceptors are much compact and cost-effective type. However, they require frequent cleaning.
The gravity traps designed with steel, plastic, or fiberglass material are much effective but requires replacement every 15 years.
Automatic grease traps, though quite expensive, cost of maintenance is commendable. It captures oil mass from the cleaning area or a dishwasher and stores them beside the dishwasher.
EFFICIENCY AND SPACE
The efficiency of the equipment and available space it may occupy is worth put into consideration while shopping for a grease trap. As grease traps can be placed indoors or outdoors, restaurants in densely populated areas should consider an indoor trap. The efficiency covers lots of areas,such as the likely percentage of oil particles that can be retained by the interceptor trap and how much can they hold.
SIZE AND CAPACITY
How big your business is or the amount of activity carried out in your kitchen (like dishwashing) can influence your choice of a grease trap. Smaller units of traps get you a lesser amount of waste management, resulting in more frequent cleaning. The bigger units amount to lesser cleaning. Your choice will, therefore, depend on your usage of the sinks and the number of drains you have in the kitchen.
MAINTENANCE
When choosing a system, one should also think about maintenance. Some systems can be easily cleaned out by staff members. However, other systems are designed only to be maintained by Grease Trap Cleaning professionals. You will get the best service, but well, it’s all from your pocket.
COMPLIANCE TO LAW
Each region or state has a laid down code that is targeted at regulating kitchen grease traps. Before you buy any trap, ensure that it’s in full line with your local code. Your grease trap should not just be in line with the local and state regulations, but meet the federal stipulations. Your inability to abide by these codes will result in penalties, mostly in the form of a fine.
How Grease Traps Work
Commercial establishments like restaurants and commercial shops are required by law to install traps to ensure that a large amount of fats, solids, oils, and present in their wastewater does not enter the sewer system. These traps are required to be installed on the sanitary wastewater and kitchen waste fixtures.
Acting as a reservoir, these interceptors holds wastewater and food solids that get to it from the kitchen sinks and dishwashers. As this waste cools down, they all accumulate to form a mass. The grease interceptor will trap this mass of fat, oil, and grease. With its lower density compared to the general wastewater. Wastewater will get pass the grease trap to the sanitary sewer. This is, however, not the case for the grease mass. These food solids and mass of grease will ever be contained in the grease trap and, eventually, increase in volume with time.
Although grease traps are not meant to collect all the grease sludge fully, regardless, a well-maintained interceptor will certainly give you what you want. Once these grease traps become filled with food solids and grease mass, the efficiency drops drastically. This is because the trap will be incapable of retaining much grease mass again.
To ensure that your drains do not get clogged with oils, fat, and grease from your kitchen and to steer clear from polluting or blocking municipal sewage lines, your homes or restaurants need to use grease traps from reliable sources and more importantly, installed by the best hands.
Have no fear- ChutePlus LLC is a reputable company that will take care of all your cleaning need in Queens & NYC and that can handle all your sanitary needs.