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When Should You Have Your Restaurant’s Grease Trap Pumped

When Should You Have Your Restaurant’s Grease Trap Pumped

Grease traps are the unsung heroes in your restaurant’s kitchen. While the heart of your business is cooking delicious food for your restaurant patrons, the backbone is your commercial grease trap, which catches all of the waste and grease that a busy restaurant kitchen generates. This is extremely important for the health and safety of your business.

Septic One offers restaurant grease trap cleaning services in the Fort Worth area. Most municipalities in the state of Texas require food businesses to have their grease traps pumped every 90 days to ensure it is operating efficiently. Below, we’ll examine in a bit more detail the reasons you need to have your grease trap regularly pumped and why regular maintenance is important to ensure it functions properly. Contact us today to get started!

THE IMPORTANCE OF GREASE TRAPS

Before the advent of grease traps, most wastes from cooking was disposed of like every other waste product was: in the streets. When city sewer systems began to be developed and employed in the 1800s, food establishments were gleeful; now they had a place to dump all of their fats, oil, and greases (FOGs) — down the drain. However, the city sewer system quickly realized what a problem this was causing with the entire plumbing system and cleanup system. Thus, something had to be done — and quickly.

The Invention of the Grease Trap

It didn’t take long for someone to realize that all you had to do was invent a system to catch the grease before it entered the sewer system. In the beginning, this was little more than a box that filtered out the FOGs and other waste products. Today, grease traps still retain their box shape, but just a bit more sophisticated.

REASONS FOR GREASE TRAPS

Septic One in Fort Worth alluded to some of the reasons that grease traps are necessary if you are a business that has a lot of FOGs that need to be disposed of. Below, we’ll formally outline the top reasons to invest in grease trap maintenance with Septic One.

Prevent Clogs in Your Plumbing

Fats, oils, and greases are notorious for clinging to the walls of your pipes. This is because the chemical compounds that FOGs are made from bond with the chemical compounds in your piping and stick, making them extremely hard to wash away. When you dump more FOGs down your drain, the sticky areas grow, clogging your pipes, which then can cause a backup in your plumbing. A plumbing backup will usually require the help of a professional plumber to fix, which you could have avoided with regular grease trap maintenance service by Septic One in Fort Worth.

Keeps Your City’s Sewer System Healthy

If you can imagine if everyone dumped their FOGs down the drain and they all ended up at the city’s main sewer facility, what a mess that would be! Odds are, major blockages would occur throughout the entire system, causing problems for every home and business that feeds into the city’s sewer system. You can imagine the backups from this!

Required by Texas Law

In order to remain compliant, your food establishment must have a grease trap installed, and it must be regularly maintained. If you do not do this, you could face major fines and eventual shut down. There is more than sewer backups involved here. Backups in sewer systems could cause backflow problems, which is where waste products mix with your water system. This can cause major illnesses if not rectified right away. The city’s job is to protect our health and safety, which is the reason for grease traps requirements.

Protect Your Employees

The chemicals in grease, fats, and oils are highly flammable, which means a build up in your grease trap could be a fire waiting to happen. Furthermore, if your grease trap is not maintained, it could overflow in your restaurant. This creates a major hazard for your employees’ safety. Septic One in Fort Worth notes that grease, oil, and fats are extremely slippery, and they cling to your shoes. This is a slip, trip, or fall hazard waiting to happen, which not only can cause serious harm to your employee, but it can also cause a serious lawsuit, which could shut your business down completely.

Eliminate Bad Odors

Grease, oils, and fats don’t exactly smell like brownies or chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven. When you neglect to invest in grease trap maintenance services, the stagnant FOGs can begin to smell — and bad. Bad smells lead to a decrease in customers. After all, no one wants to eat food with a lingering bad odor hovering in the air. As one of the five major senses, food aromas are associated with pleasant memories, such as your grandmother’s favorite pies she used to cook and more. Even outside your restaurant you do not want bad odors lingering that could drive away business, and drive away employees who can’t stand to be around the smell any longer themselves.

How Often Should I Have My Grease Trap Pumped in Texas?

Most local municipalities require restaurants and other food establishments to pump their grease trap at least once every 90 days. However, if you run a busy restaurant that uses a lot of FOGs, you may need to invest in grease trap pumping sooner.

CALL SEPTIC ONE FOR YOUR RESTAURANT GREASE TRAP MAINTENANCE

Once you install a grease trap, the hard part is over. With regular grease trap maintenance service, you can prevent all of the serious consequences of overflowing drains, slips, and bad odors from happening.

Septic One in Fort Worth offers the best grease trap maintenance services for restaurants and other food establishments. We come to your location and rid your grease trap of all the FOGs and other wastes, making it like new. When you partner with us for regular grease trap cleanings, we can come every 60 to 90 days to not only ensure compliance by your restaurant, but also to make sure your grease trap is functioning effectively. Contact us today for all your grease trap cleaning services, as well as your septic services!

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