In a commercial kitchen, there is a lot of equipment that needs to be properly maintained to ensure efficiency. A grease trap is perhaps one of the most important pieces of equipment in your kitchen. With that, it’s no wonder why you need to have a team of grease trap plumbers in Stuart that are ready to help you.
Proper maintenance will not only ensure efficiency but prevents sewer blockages/backups and fines in the future. Even though there’s a lot to manage in a busy commercial kitchen, grease trap maintenance is not something that can go unchecked.
Why is maintenance so important?
Located outside your restaurant, grease traps are designed to filter grease from the water, which prevents it from entering the sewer system. Our Stuart grease trap plumbersat Cooke’s Plumbing have seen the damages caused by fats, oils, and grease (FOG) that enter the drain and we know how bad it can get.
FOG can form into a solid and clog the drain, which can damage the sewer system and pose many environmental hazards. It’s said that millions of dollars are spent each year unclogging sewer pipes caused by fats, grease, and oil from restaurants. Failing to properly maintain your grease trap, can cause serious damage and pollution to nearby areas, and some places will even fine you for this. Because of that, you’ll want to make grease trap cleaning and maintenance a priority. Here are a few things you can do to properly maintain your grease trap.
Minimize FOG Buildup
You can implement strategies and best practices to prevent excessive buildup of fats, oil, and grease from reaching the grease trap. Follow these instructions as your first line of defense:
- Scrape off all your dishes with a rubber spatula before putting them in the sink. You don’t want to pile your sink with dishes that have fat, oil, or grease on them. This will lead to clogging and cause more damage.
- Install sink screens to catch the smaller food particles that get into the sink. A sink screen will help protect your drain pipes from excess food debris and other small items that end up in the sink.
- Clean up all food spills, such as soups and sauces immediately. Spills and leaks that are left for long periods of time can enter your drain and cause further damage.
Hire a Professional
For routine grease trap maintenance and cleaning, hire a professional, like the grease trap cleaning experts we have here at Cooke’s Plumbing. Because they’re trained and experienced, they know how to clean and maintain grease traps to meet state and federal law requirements. By hiring a professional, you better protect yourself against waste damages, rotting smells, environmental hazards, severe penalties, and fines. Avoid DIY cleaning and other at-home remedies. Though some of these methods may work for surface-level cleaning, they aren’t as thorough as the services you’d receive from our experts.
Clean Your Grease Trap Regularly
As you know, an essential part of maintaining your grease trap is to clean it regularly. Grease traps get full of food waste, and if left too long, can start to smell. You can guarantee that a rotting smell will pollute your restaurant, and likely hurt your business.
In most locations, you are required by law to clean your grease traps every 1 to 3 months and this is usually enough to keep rotting smells at bay. Of course, the timeframe varies depending on how much FOG the establishment produces and the capacity of the grease trap.
We Can Help!
There are many responsibilities and challenges that come along with maintaining a commercial kitchen and maintaining the grease traps is no easy one! Here at Cooke’s Plumbing, we’ve been offering grease trap cleaning services in Stuart for years and we can help. Our team of professionals has the know-how and the expertise needed to make sure your grease traps are as clean as possible. To learn more about how we can help you, contact us here or give us a call at (772)287-0651.