Grease Trap Services Seattle

Cleaning Your Grease Traps in 6 Easy Steps

Cleaning Your Grease Traps in 6 Easy Steps

Grease trap cleaning in Seattle is imperative if you own a restaurant or a foodservice kitchen because you’re compelled by state laws to take care of your waste, including fats, oils, and grease (FOG). Although many restaurateurs have designated cleaning staff, others choose to hire professionals particularly for grease interceptor cleaning.

Food preparation usually involves grease as a waste product. Without proper management, the grease can clump in and block the drains. If it makes its way into the sewer, it becomes an environmental concern. This is why you need to have a working grease trap or interceptor, and this plumbing device needs maintenance to work as it should.

How does a grease trap work?

A grease trap traps oily and greasy sludge, as its name suggests. The purpose of trapping grease is to separate it from water during waste management and disposal. A catch system serves as a cooling receptacle for these oily gunk. Grease solidifies in the catching system. Water comes out grease-free, at least in an ideal scenario. The system isn’t perfect, but it’s designed to remove as much grease from the waste water as possible.

When does a grease trap need cleaning?

All of the trapped grease accumulates over time and reduces the ability of the device to function properly. At Seattle Grease Trap Services, we recommend that you clean your grease trap when you see the following signs:

You have a clogged or slow drainage.

You check the liquid depth and see a quarter of it is grease.

Your kitchen smells bad.

You can’t remember the last time you had your grease trap cleaned.

You see grease leaks.

Grease trap cleaning steps

1. Using a pry bar, remove the lid of the grease trap. Do this carefully. You don’t want to damage the gaskets under the cover. If you break them, you will have to replace them.

2. Examine the internal parts of the grease trap. Slowly remove these parts before cleaning. Again, you don’t want to break them. You may take a photo of the structures, so you know where to put each part after cleaning.

3. Insert a dowel or stick into the grease trap and slowly push it to the bottom. Gently twiddle the stick. Then pull it slowly. Check how deep the layer of grease is. Measure how many inches of greasy sludge is there using a ruler or a measuring tape. Record the figure in your FOG pump out report.

4. Collect the water from the grease trap. You can either discard this waste water or return it to the drain after collecting the sludge.

5. Scoop the sludge out of the trap using a bucket. Then pour the brownish or grayish soupy gunk into a plastic trash bag. Scrape the fats off the sides and lid of the trap.

6. To finish off, clean the trap sides and lids using soap and water. Scrub off the stubborn slime, and then rinse the parts with water until the trap looks and smells clean.

When you’re done cleaning the grease trap, reinstall the parts that you previously removed and return the lid.

Do you want professional grease trap cleaning in Seattle?

Ensuring your grease traps are completely clean is difficult if you’re cleaning it on your own. Most clients don’t have the right set of tools and equipment for this task, so they end up not being able to fully remove the fatty debris from the grease trap. In large food chains or catering businesses, the task is just too overwhelmingly huge for their maintenance staff. This is why we get calls from our regular as well as new clients, who want a professional service.

How difficult it is to clean your grease traps depends largely on the size of your business. The larger your restaurant is, the more greasy waste you produce each day and probably the larger your grease trap is. Large grease traps are harder to clean manually. It’s probably too cumbersome to scoop the grease out of the interceptor using a bucket, hence professionals pump the sludge out of the trap.

However, don’t just hire any service provider. Look for efficient, eco-friendly, and cost-effective grease trap cleaning company that’s available both for routine cleaning and emergency pump. Call us at 206-880-7424.

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