We came upon this story about fatbergs a little while back, but are just now getting a chance to write about it. This particular story emphasizes the need to have well-maintained grease traps. There are some places out there which don’t even have grease traps!
What does a grease trap do?
In its simplest form, the grease trap takes grease and oil laden water from a restaurant’s sinks and dishwashers, waits for it to cool to the point where the fats and oils resolidify, then removes the water that’s left by pushing it back into the municipal water supply.
Cleaning out grease traps
Frankly, grease traps have got to be the grossest things in the kitchen. They capture food sludge, fat, oil, and other detritus to hold for an indeterminate amount of time before they’re mucked out. The fats, oils, and grease are together for long periods of time to congeal and become… yeah.
How often should you clean your grease trap?
Cleaning out a grease trap is one of those necessary evils within the restaurant industry. It takes a bit of time and money (assuming that you don’t want to clean it yourself) and it’s mandated to be done in several jurisdictions. Cleaning and scraping your grease trap should be done at least once a month.
The reality is that your grease trap should be cleaned out when you get up to 25% capacity of that grease trap. It’s at that point when the efficiency of the trap rapidly declines. When you’re over 25%, you are pumping more fats, oils, and grease into the municipal water lines.
What size grease trap should I get?
There are a few ways to determine what size grease trap that you should get. We’ve found an offsite spreadsheet that will determine the size that you’ll need: Calculating Grease Trap Size (link goes to Tampa’s Wastewater Division.)
You don’t want to develop a fatberg in your very own restaurant. Clogging up the water lines is most likely the lowest thing on your agenda for things to do in your restaurant.
