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If you are running a business that includes a commercial-sized kitchen, like a restaurant or a bar, are you keeping your grease trap or interceptor properly maintained and cleaned? If you are having strong odors coming from your drains or having your plumbing back up, you may want to search for a “grease trap service near me” or risk losing business. FOGs (fats, oils, grease) can cause major issues with your pipes, and municipal sewer if you aren’t properly maintaining your system.

What is a Grease Trap?

A grease trap or grease interceptor is designed to limit FOGs from making it to the municipal sewer system and water treatment facilities. They work by routing your drains through a system that will separate grease and oils from wastewater. The tank is filled with water, and when your wastewater enters, the grease will float to the top, solids will sink to the bottom, and just wastewater without FOGs will make it through. You should search for a “grease trap service near me” to maintain your interceptor.

Is Grease Really a Problem?

Grease can be a huge problem, both for your business’s plumbing and for the sewer systems of the municipality. Without a grease trap to capture FOGs, you’ll start to have a buildup of grease in your plumbing, which over time will restrict the flow of water going out to the sewers, causing backups in your sinks, floor drains and dishwashers. It isn’t just your drains you have to worry about though, municipal sewers can also get backed up with FOGs over time, with the number of households and businesses that empty their wastewater into the sewers every day. If a clog happens, and it is found out that your business has contributed to the issue, you can be heavily fined. Make sure the grease interceptor you do have is cleaned out regularly to avoid backups by contacting grease trap cleaning service.

Does Your Business Need a Grease Interceptor?

Grease traps and grease interceptors are similar devices, just different sizes. A grease trap will generally be inside your restaurant under the sink and can handle below 50 gallons per minute. However, if you have a larger business, you will need a grease interceptor, which handles more than 50 gallons per minute and is installed underground outside your business. If you don’t know what size of system you need, search for a “grease trap service near me” and get their professional opinion.

How Do You Maintain Your Grease Interceptor?

Just because you have a grease interceptor, doesn’t mean you should be pouring grease, or solids down your drain, they are designed to capture residuals only. So to keep your interceptor running smoothly, make sure you scrape off any plates and pans before washing them. For smaller traps, clean them before and after work every day, and for interceptors with a capacity of 100 gallons or less, once a week in between pump outs from a “grease trap service near me”. Recycle any waste cooking oils you can to avoid pouring them down the drain.

How Often Should You Schedule Servicing?

You should consult the local municipality for your local regulations of how often you are legally required to pump out your interceptor. However, the running rule is to pump out a system that is ¼ full.

Grease Trap Service Near Me

If you are looking for a “grease trap service near me” in the Houston area, contact Drane Ranger today for a consultation and quote.

If your business uses cooking oil, fats or other types of grease, then you’ve got a commercial grease trap. Every restaurant has one, and cleaning it out is a difficult job. Why put your business or your restaurant staff through the hazards? There are service providers available to do exactly this job for you, with all the necessary equipment and training. Here are the top five advantages of hiring commercial grease trap cleaning services.

It’s easier to outsource it

Unless your grease trap is fairly small, cleaning it yourself will be time-consuming, messy, and possibly hazardous. In fact, some states require the grease trap cleaners in restaurants to have special licenses. That alone is a good reason to hire a commercial grease trap cleaning service. In addition, cleaning is not enough. The second part of the problem is disposing of the grease. When a service cleans and vacuums the trap, they also take away the grease for proper disposal.

It will happen more regularly

Commercial grease traps need emptying fairly often. Once every four to six weeks is typical in a busy restaurant, and it needs to be maintained and emptied regularly. One of the biggest advantages of hiring commercial grease trap cleaning services is that this maintenance will happen on schedule. The service that you hire will keep records and clear documentation of when it was last cleaned and when it will require cleaning again. Keeping records of the volume in the trap and the frequency that the grease trap fills up is useful information and ensures compliance with regulations.

It will be much cleaner

The trap doesn’t just need emptying; it needs emptying and cleaning. To cut down on odors, and improve hygiene throughout the restaurant. A clean trap will not cause problems. Another advantage of hiring cleaning services is that they will take the time to empty it, vacuum it out, and scrub into all the corners. The commercial grease trap cleaners can give it a good scrub and polish sometimes to get it really shining!

It will save money

Grease trap cleaning services have the right equipment to handle the large commercial grease traps found in big restaurant kitchens. They make sure that the grease trap is completely clean and empty so that drains won’t clog, sewers won’t back up and the restaurant will be clean and odor free. There won’t be plumber fees to fix clogs and backups.

The top advantage of hiring commercial grease trap cleaning services

This isn’t an easy job or a pleasant one. The service performs the job, so you don’t have to worry or put your employees to the task. The grease trap ensures that your sinks and drains are not clogged with grease, and as long as the grease trap is working right, then your pipes will not be clogged and causing problems. Give peace of mind and have it done regularly by services like Drane Ranger who have the skills and the know how to keep your traps effective and your kitchen safe and sanitary.

Did you know that you are required under Houston regulations to empty your grease traps quarterly? If you want your business to stay open, then you need to look into grease trap cleaning services to ensure you remain in compliance with your local regulations. Those regulations, however, aren’t the only reason you should want to keep those grease traps clean and well-maintained. By nature of their function, things can start going badly if your grease traps aren’t looked after.

Here are a few of the issues you can avoid by keeping those grease traps clean and clear.

1) Bad smells can turn customers away at the door

Your drains take in a lot of fats, oils, and grease from food waste, and those don’t just wash down the drain and disappear problem-free; they accumulate in your grease trap, and if they are left sitting there, they can start to accumulate an odor—one that is probably going to start costing you customers after a while. A grease trap cleaning service can help keep those odors to a minimum, so your customers are only smelling your restaurant’s deliciously appetizing cooking when they walk through your doors.

2) Sanitation issues could result in the temporary or permanent closure of your facilities

If your grease traps aren’t properly maintained, you can be deemed non-compliant by the Health Department during an inspection, and that can result in penalties, including fines, suspension of operation, and even revocation of your operating license. Finding professional grease trap cleaning services and having them regularly clean, inspect, and maintain your grease traps will minimize the chance of fats, oils, and grease overflowing into the municipal sewers from your restaurant, and that will keep the Health Department happy and your restaurant in business.

3) Expensive repairs

Cleaning and maintaining your grease traps regularly also constitute preventative maintenance, which could save you the costly repairs to your tank. As those fats, oils, and grease sit in your grease trap, they will eventually begin to break down, resulting in the buildup of hydrogen sulfur gas. Not only does this smell unpleasant, but it will also turn into sulfuric acid, which is highly toxic and corrosive. The gases could cause damage to the steel and concrete walls of the grease interceptor, leaving you in need of expensive repairs or even a completely new tank. This will cost you both time and money, and it is easily preventable if you hire grease trap cleaning services.

Of course, there are other benefits to hiring grease trap cleaning services, too.

In addition to the fact that hiring grease trap cleaning services will help you prevent a number of issues that could seriously hinder your business (and its profit margins), there are a few other benefits. For instance, hiring grease trap cleaning services to regularly clean and maintain your grease traps means you are getting consistent assurances that your grease traps are working properly. You also are putting yourself in regular contact with (and building trust with) a company that you can most likely call if anything does go wrong with your system—and that could save you critical time if you need an emergency repair.

Don’t leave your restaurant vulnerable to its grease traps; visit us at Drane Ranger today to get set up with professional grease trap cleaning services.

If you have ever worked in an industrial kitchen or the restaurant business, then you are probably all too familiar with grease traps. For those that aren’t, grease traps separate oils, fats, and grease from wastewater before it flows into the municipal sewer system. It’s an essential component in keeping a restaurant kitchen running smoothly. Unfortunately, restaurant grease trap cleaning isn’t a pleasant activity, but here are 4 reasons why you need to do it.

1.  Avoid Costly Repairs and Sewer Problems

As the remnants of your grease trap break down over time, they release an excessive amount of hydrogen sulfur gas. If these remnants are routinely ignored, the gas can lead to the creation of sulfuric acid. Even if your grease trap is made of concrete or steel, the acid can still damage the tank. Regular restaurant grease trap cleanings can help you avoid the possibility of having to pay a hefty replacement fee and damaging your sewer system. When the grease trap becomes too full, it can cause a blockage which results in a nasty plumbing emergency. You may even have to shut your business down while the issues are being dealt with.

2.  Starting to Smell Questionable (and Offensive) Odors?

Sulfuric acid is only one of the consequences that arises from infrequently cleaning your restaurant grease trap, the other consequence is questionable, and offensive, odors. Obviously if your business allows fat, oil, and grease to accumulate, they will naturally begin to omit a plethora of foul scents. Your kitchen employees may have already started to notice, but soon, so will your potential customers. Not only will this impact your business, but it can impact the health of you and your staff. The only way to combat these rotting aromas making their way up the pipes, which are connected to the grease trap, is to invest in frequent restaurant grease trap cleanings.

3.  The Environment Matters

Failing to schedule regular restaurant grease trap cleanings can lead to an eventual leakage. Blocks and leaks have a harmful impact on the environment because the waste stored in grease traps is extremely hard to break down. It can cause pollution and harm to animal life. If an outdoor grease trap is not covered properly, rainwater can accumulate inside and cause grease to run off into parking lots and down storm drains.

4.  Don’t Get Fined

Restaurants are legally required to ensure they are maintaining grease trap cleanings. If the problem is continuously ignored, the solid waste turns into a thick hard mass which is almost impossible to clean. Not only will this cause a blockage, but your business can get penalized if waste from your grease trap is leaked into the municipal sewer system. Why pay a fine, or even navigate a potential lawsuit, that is easily avoidable! Hire a professional to ensure the job is done in a timely and effective manner. The law varies from state to state, but on average, you must schedule a cleaning every 60 to 90 days.

When you are running a business that has a large kitchen, like a restaurant, you know that dealing with FOGS (Fats, Oils and Greases) can be a hassle if you don’t have a good trap set up, or a dependable grease trap cleaning service on hand. In 2015 the city of Houston was spending $1.5 to $2 million per year of taxpayer money on pipeline repairs according to Alvin Wright, a senior staff analyst with the City of Houston Public Works and Engineering Department. If you don’t want your business adding to those costs, and possibly getting fined in the process, then you are going to want to find a good grease trap cleaning service that is convenient, affordable and dependable. Most grease trap cleaning companies will offer regularly scheduled maintenance services so that you don’t have to think twice about how long it has been since your last cleaning (the City of Houston requires traps to be cleaned regularly, no more than 90 days between cleanings.) So, how do you reach a dependable grease trap cleaning service? Start by following these easy tips.

Referrals and Web Searches

The easiest way you can find a dependable grease trap cleaning service is to ask business owners around you that are in the same service as you, and within the same municipality. By asking for referrals from business owners you can ask directly if they are happy with the service they have received and how long they have been with that cleaning service company. You can follow that up by searching the web for any of the referrals you got, or to expand your list of choices further by searching for keywords that include your municipality, or city, to ensure you find companies that service your area.

Browse Websites

Once you have a list of prospective grease trap cleaning companies, it’s time to browse their website and social media. This allows you to get a quick overview of the services that they offer, but by also including social media you can get an idea of customer satisfaction by looking through reviews, and how they present themselves to the public.

Visit the Company Office

You can get a lot of information about a grease trap cleaning company by visiting their main office, and talking with a manager to get full details about everything they offer, as well as their response times, scheduling process, employee training, certifications, credentials, etc. They may have various awards of recognition on display, or may even have notice boards that include signs from their major clientele.

Have Them Visit Your Business

If you are satisfied with everything so far from the grease trap cleaning company you have selected, then it’s time for you to schedule them to visit your business so that they can inspect your system and give you a proper estimate based on your business type and customer volume. They’ll want to know how much, and of what types of foods you prepare so that they can properly estimate the amount of FOGs you’ll be generating and give you a price and cleaning frequency estimate. You can do visits with multiple companies before choosing one, that way you can compare rates and estimates before making a final choice.

Dependable Grease Trap Cleaning Service in Houston

If you are looking for a dependable grease trap cleaning service in the Houston area, then visit the website of Drane Ranger and call us today for a free estimate.