What is a Grease Trap?
When it comes to managing a commercial kitchen, ensuring your grease trap is clean and maintained is critical. A grease trap is a device that captures fat, oil, and grease (also known as FOG) before it enters the wastewater system. They can be found in all manner of food service kitchens.
Keeping your business’s grease trap clean and well-maintained is crucial to avoid clogs, backups, and costly repairs to both your own pipes and other parts of the sewage systems around your business.
Why is it Important to Maintain a Grease Trap Properly?
Maintaining a grease trap in a commercial kitchen is important for several reasons, from ensuring that you are meeting regulatory requirements and that your kitchen is fully operational.
Avoid Fines and Penalties: Healthcare and environmental agencies require commercial kitchens to maintain their grease traps properly according to set-out regulations. Failure to comply with these regulations can result in costly fines and penalties that can be avoided by regularly cleaning your grease trap. This ensures proper disposal of FOG and lessens the likelihood of violating regulations.
Clog Prevention: When grease accumulates in the trap, it becomes thick and solidifies over time, making it more difficult to remove. If left uncleaned, the trap will clog. This can lead to foul smells and sewer backups – two scenarios that are not pleasant to deal with. These can create serious health hazards and can even force a kitchen to shut down until the problem is fixed.
Increased Efficiency: If grease traps are not regularly cleaned, they can become less effective. A blocked trap will have a limited flow of water, leading to slow-draining sinks and dishwashers. This can have a knock-on effect of slower overall operations in the kitchen. Proper maintenance ensures your grease trap is always working as it should be.
Longer Lifespan: Proper maintenance can significantly extend the lifespan of your grease trap. FOG can easily corrode pipes and the trap’s material. But, regular cleaning eliminates FOG from the trap, keeping it in proper working order. This helps save on repair and replacement costs.
Environmentally Friendly: Finally, a clean grease trap reduces the amount of FOG that enters the wastewater treatment system. This reduces the negative impact on the environment that comes from FOG, as FOG can contaminate water if it is not correctly disposed of or captured by the grease trap.
The Benefits of Grease Trap Cleaning for Your Home or Business
Grease trap cleaning and maintenance are key to keeping your drains free of clogs and avoiding expensive repairs. By ensuring your grease trap is regularly serviced, you can save yourself time, money, and stress in the long run.
Keeping a clean grease trap is also great for the environment. It reduces FOG entering wastewater treatment systems which can cause harm to both your own system and the larger systems around you. Investing in regular grease trap cleaning is a smart decision.
If you own a home or business in Columbus, Ohio, and are looking for professional grease trap cleaning services, look no further than Green Mountain Products Inc. Our team of experienced technicians provides industry-leading solutions to help keep your grease trap clean and ensure your kitchen is compliant with all environmental regulations.
We provide thorough inspections, preventive maintenance, repair work, and permanent installation of grease traps alongside larger services such as industrial bulk tanker service. Contact us today to learn more!
What can happen if grease traps are not cleaned regularly?
When grease traps are not cleaned regularly, they can easily become clogged. Unclean traps lead to foul odors, blockages in the sewer system, health hazards, and expensive repairs. Accumulation of FOG can also corrode pipes and damage the material of the trap itself.
Buildup in a grease trap also increases the likelihood of violating environmental regulations. Violations often result in costly fines and penalties that will range in cost depending on factors like the amount of FOG that has entered the sewer system.
Regular grease trap cleaning is the best way to avoid these issues and ensure that you are meeting all required regulations.
What is the proper maintenance of a grease trap?
Properly maintaining your grease trap includes cleaning it regularly, inspecting it for blockages or damage, and removing any accumulated FOG. Depending on the size and type of your grease trap, you should have it serviced by a professional every few months.
Having a professional look everything over will ensure that the trap continues to function properly. Green Mountain Products Inc. can help you keep your grease trap clean today.
What Are the Best Practices for Grease Trap Cleaning?
Grease trap cleaning requires specific tools and techniques, so it’s best to have a professional handle the job.
Once your grease trap has been cleaned, it’ll be important to keep up with regular maintenance. Regular maintenance will include:
- Making sure that all the FOG is disposed of correctly.
- Blockages in the pipes are cleared quickly.
- Inspect the trap for any signs of corrosion or wear and tear regularly.
- Have your grease trap serviced by a professional every few months.
How often should you have maintenance performed on a grease trap?
The frequency of grease trap cleaning and maintenance will depend on the size and type.
Residential traps should be serviced every 3-4 months while commercial traps should be inspected every 1-3 months. Try your best to stick to these timelines in order to keep your grease trap in the best working order.
How to Tell if You Need Professional Grease Trap Cleaning Services
Grease trap cleaning is best when carried out by professionals. But there are signs you can keep an eye out for yourself that will help you get your grease trap serviced when it needs it the most.
Signs that can point to your grease trap needing to be cleaned include:
- Foul odors
- Clogged or slow draining drains or pipes
- Visible buildup of FOG in the trap
- Corrosion or damage to the trap material
If you notice any of the above signs, it’s time to reach out to a professional. Here at Green Mountain Products Inc., we’re proud to offer trusted services for residential and commercial kitchens in Columbus, Ohio.
In the long run, keeping up with regular maintenance of your grease trap will save you time, stress, and money. Be sure to reach out to the Green Mountain Products team today over the phone or online to learn more about how we can help.