Category: Grease Trap

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.

If you are a business owner in the Greater Houston Area who has a grease trap, Drane Ranger is here to ensure that your business continues to run smoothly, while remaining compliant with all local rules and regulations.

Regular Grease Trap Maintenance

Are you aware of the fact that traps within Houston city limits have to be emptied quarterly? This is not only a suggestion but necessary to comply with local regulations. This is why hiring a grease trap cleaning service to assist you in taking care of your traps the proper way is so important. We will ensure that everything is completed correctly, ensuring that you always remain compliant and your grease traps are clean. Due to the nature of grease traps, regular, comprehensive cleaning and maintenance are required. Many issues can arise if this is not done properly, which is why we always clearly document the work we do while validating compliance. You can choose how often your grease traps need to be cleaned, as some require fairly regular disposal and cleaning, while others can make do with only the quarterly maintenance minimum. Whichever you choose, a grease trap cleaning service like Drane Ranger will ensure that everything is done correctly.

Choosing the Right Grease Trap Cleaning Service

As there are rules and regulations surrounding the disposal and cleaning of grease and grit traps, it is vital that you choose the right grease trap cleaning service to work with your business. Drane Ranger offers complete grease trap cleaning and maintenance, which even includes grease trap odor control. This will ensure that your traps remain effective, while never interfering with the safe and sanitary operation of your business. When it comes to certain companies – including car washes – grit also ends up stuck inside the grease traps. This grit is often composed of dirt and sand, but many grease trap cleaning service companies are ill-equipped to deal with these solid materials. Unlike the others, Drane Ranger has the equipment and certified staff necessary to properly collect and dispose of the grit that gets built up within grease traps. We ensure that all solid waste is disposed of in a safe and correct manner while prolonging the efficiency of your grease traps.

Contact Drane Ranger Today!

Drane Ranger has been in business since 1985, focusing on our ability to deliver outstanding customer service, with an unparalleled quality of work. In addition to grease trap cleaning services, we offer wastewater services, as well as lift station and septic tank services throughout the Greater Houston Area. We are located at 13911 India Street in Houston and work within a 100-mile radius from our location. Contact us today at 281-489-1765 or at rwoods3719@aol.com to see how we can help you. Drane Ranger is committed to doing the absolute best job possible. Our team of professionals are trained, certified and obey all of the rules and regulations around the industry, and will always ensure that we do the best job possible for each of our customers.

Grease traps are often a major hassle for restaurants and commercial kitchens, but their regular cleaning and maintenance results in a much better experience with them. Grease trap cleaning is very important, as it keeps the grease traps functional, keeping fats, oils or grease (FOG) from entering the public sewer system, and also keeps your pipes flowing and prevents backups or noxious gases from leaking out.

Stopping Those Nasty Clogs

Grease traps, in general, help keep your business’s pipes flowing, but also helps the public sewers by preventing FOG from entering the system and clogging it up. When you pour FOGs down the drain, they will cool down and solidify, resulting in a mass growing on the inside of your pipes until it fully blocks the pipe. If these FOG make it to your municipal sewers, this can cause a blockage that affects entire city blocks and results in you being fined heavily to pay for the cleanup. This is why grease trap cleaning is very important. Depending on the size of your business, traps, and laws in your area, you may need to clean your traps at least once a month to keep everything flowing properly.

Cleaning Your Grease Traps

Ideally, when you need a grease trap cleaning, you should consider using a professional cleaning company like Drane Ranger. While you can do the job yourself, you need to ensure you have all the necessary equipment, such as respirators, rubber gloves, coveralls, scraper, wrench, bucket & scoop, and a shop vacuum to suck everything out. Doing it yourself is going to be very unpleasant, and while you can clean out most of the FOGs and such from your grease trap, you likely do not have the equipment and expertise to deal with the intake and outtake outlets properly, or the capability to do maintenance checks on all the parts of the system to ensure that nothing needs to be repaired or replaced.

Safety is a Concern with Grease Traps

If you don’t perform regular grease trap cleaning, or do the bare minimum required, you may be risking your staff or customer safety. While grease traps gather FOG, they also gather up food particles that make their way down your sinks. These food particles over time are going to break down and start letting off noxious sulfur fumes, which not only smell bad but can be a health hazard.

What Not To Do With Grease Traps

Many may think of doing something to try to delay the next time they need a grease trap cleaning, but some of these things can be harmful to your grease trap, pipes, and sewers. Do not pour boiling water into the trap; this will liquefy any FOG and send it into the sewers to solidify again, causing a very expensive backup in the future. Do not put chemicals, bleach, additives, or drain cleaners into a trap. These will destroy the bacteria that is in the trap breaking down the FOG, and risks environmental damage. Do not add extra biological agents, enzymes or bugs to the system, as these may emulsify the grease and allow it to pass straight into the municipal sewer.

Hire a Professional Cleaner for Your Grease Trap Cleaning

To ensure you get a proper clean, and proper maintenance and repairs to your grease trap system, contact the professionals at Drane Ranger today to book an appointment for cleaning your grease traps.

As a business owner you are well aware of the vast amount of tasks that you need to do on a daily basis to maintain your business and keep it running smoothly to maximize profits. Sometimes certain tasks that are more important are prioritized while you forget about the basic tasks, such as cleaning out your grease traps. It is important to regularly do your restaurant grease trap cleaning no matter what else comes up, because it can cause your business problems quickly if it is not taken care of.

Tank Damage

Something that isn’t apparent right away when dealing with your restaurant grease trap cleaning is the damage that can happen to the tank if you don’t perform regular cleanings. If you don’t clean out the system regularly, food particles in your traps can start to decay, which will produce hydrogen sulfur gas resulting in sulfuric acid. Sulfuric acid is a dangerous chemical that can damage the integrity of your grease trap system.

Offensive Odors

When you start to ignore your restaurant grease trap cleaning your customers may not notice it, but rest assured your kitchen staff and guests will eventually notice the rancid odor of a clogged grease trap system when food particles start to decay. Offensive odors lead to customers turning away and a bad reputation, giving you another reason to clean your grease traps regularly.

Fines

Fines levied by the county or city can cost your business precious profits, and if you aren’t taking care of your restaurant grease trap cleaning you could have city inspectors knocking at your door. When your grease trap gets too full, it stops doing what it’s supposed to, and starts sending fats, oils and greases (FOGs) into the municipal sewer system. If too many FOGs enter the sewer system it can cause clogs and backups on a large scale causing issues for everyone. Serious damage means serious fines.

Clog Costs

You might think you are saving money by putting off a restaurant grease trap cleaning, but in the end the cost of regular maintenance is cheaper than dealing with a fully clogged system. If your grease trap system starts to build up too much too often you may start to get build up that is far more difficult to remove. This means more time and more money to clear the trap. Grease traps not properly maintained will cause clogs and backups all over your restaurant, from drains, to toilets and dishwashers.

Detect Needed Maintenance

One of the less thought of benefits of regular restaurant grease trap cleaning is the fact that when you have a company come and clean your traps they can also check on the health of your grease trap system. Having someone capable of detecting any potential issues in your system can allow you to fix the issue before it becomes a major breakdown and avoid major repairs in the future. The expertise of a professional grease trap cleaner is an invaluable investment.

If you are a restaurant owner in Houston and need a professional expert restaurant grease trap cleaning service, contact Drane Ranger today.

A clogged grease trap, and the headache that comes with it, is one of the most devastating crises a restaurant can deal with. A backed-up grease trap often requires that the restaurant be closed until the traps are properly cleaned, and the drains and grease trap are working properly again. What’s more unfortunate in this scenario is that it can be prevented by using a commercial grease trap cleaning service.

Most businesses can’t afford the loss of having to shut down for any reason and its even worse when they must pay a restoration company out of pocket to fix the damage, thus causing more financial loss. A quick solution is to hire a commercial grease trap cleaning company for regular cleaning and maintenance.

Commercial Grease Trap Cleaning and Maintenance – Purpose of a Grease Trap

Commercial grease traps are made to prevent grease, fats, and oils from entering the sewer lines or a business’s septic system. When they’re not monitored and cared for they cool and solidify. Then they stick to the inside of the plumbing, trap particles and eventually the clogging gets so bad that waste water can’t pass, and the gunk backs up into the kitchen’s drains and sinks.

Grease traps are key to stopping these wastes from getting into the plumbing. Commercial grease trap cleaning ensures that the holding tank for the flowing wastewater leaves through a pipe below the buildup of grease, fats, and oils caught by the grease trap. While these particles rise to the surface.

Caring for Grease Traps

The ideal way to stop a plumbing emergency and keep your customers happy is with a commercial grease trap cleaning company that will regularly service your grease traps. Depending on how busy your establishment is you should have your commercial grease traps cleaned every 30 to 90 days.

A thorough and proper commercial grease trap cleaning includes pumping out the contents of your trap and not just skimming the oils, grease and fats off the surface. The wastewater and corrosive food solids must be completely cleared away.

Save Money with a Commercial Grease Trap Cleaning Service

Below are the top 3 ways you save money hiring a professional cleaning and maintenance service.

1. When you schedule regular cleaning, the potential clogs can be stopped before they become issues. This way you can focus on the important parts of your business such as your customers, your employee’s safety and your products and service. A commercial grease trap cleaning company also hauls the mess away.

2. Better efficiency. When you maintain important areas of your business with a commercial grease trap cleaning company your business will run smoother. You won’t have any financial surprises you can’t afford.

3. Safety issues are thwarted when a commercial grease trap cleaning company takes care of the build up of oils and fats. When they clog you run the risk of harming other businesses near you.

If you’re looking for commercial grease trap cleaning in Houston, we can help. At Drane Ranger we offer regular cleaning and maintenance for your business’s traps. We can also suggest ways to care for it between our service calls. For more information or to book an appointment you can visit our website.

Everyone knows that restaurants, no matter what kind of food they serve or what prices they are charging, operate on razor-thin margins. In fact, some restaurants have items that simply lose them money once you factor in the labor and time, but it makes sense just to get people in the door. No matter the restaurant, however, there are simple practices they can employ to ensure that they keep their bottom line low, and their profits high, including restaurant grease trap cleaning. Here are a few ways regular grease trap cleanings can help your profits soar.

1. Efficiency

Many new restaurant owners can be simply astounded by the amount of money they spend per month on things like water, gas and electricity. Some of these costs are simply unavoidable but others can be cut with proper care, like keeping on top of grease traps and other parts of the kitchen. Without regular restaurant grease trap cleaning, your kitchen can end up costing you more money on everything from water to electricity.

It’s important to note that regular restaurant grease trap cleaning keeps your pipes and appliances, like dishwashers, running smoothly. Grease traps can actually slow down your dishwasher’s draining cycle, cause it to back up, or even instigate a flood. This means more power to run a clean cycle, more time and possibly costly clean ups. Inconveniences like this can add up quite quickly.

2. Avoid Health Code Issues

Grease traps usually require regular restaurant grease trap cleaning, not simply because it’s a good idea but because it is required by regulations. This depends on the city, county and state, but almost everywhere requires regular grease trap cleanings. Unfortunately, many health codes do not require the frequency that they should, but you will need proof that your grease traps have been cleaned when the inspector comes around.

3. Preventative Maintenance

At the end of the day, the real savings in regular restaurant grease trap cleaning is in the mess that you can avoid when your traps get clogged or grease becomes an issue in your kitchen. It is no secret that excess grease can be dangerous and completely clog up a kitchen, causing everything from delays to safety issues to potential damage to expensive kitchen equipment. Without regular cleanings by professionals, you could find yourself with very high repair bills, having to close your restaurant for repairs or being faced with a lawsuit, all of which cut into your profits. Rather than risk your restaurant and livelihood, it makes much more sense to practice preventative maintenance with regular cleanings.

If you own a restaurant and require regular restaurant grease trap cleaning, then be sure to contact Drane Ranger. Our efficient and professional grease trap services will help your kitchen run at its best, all while saving you the money and effort of trying to do the cleaning yourself. With Drane Ranger’s professional services, you can help your bottom line and ensure that every dollar of profit is the most it can be, and help you deliver a better experience for your guests.

A grease trap acts as a reservoir for the wastewater and food solids that drain from your restaurant’s dishwashers and sinks. As the wastewater cools the grease, oils, and fats harden and become solid in the trap. Wastewater is forced through the grease trap and out into a sanitary sewer, separating from the grease. The grease and food solids remain and accumulate in the trap daily. The main purpose of grease traps is to keep debris out of the sewer systems and prevent pipes from clogging. As an essential part of a restaurant’s plumbing system, grease traps require frequent cleaning services to continue working efficiently. Here are the benefits of regular grease trap cleaning services:

1. Unpleasant Odors

If there is a substantial amount of time between when you scheduled grease trap cleaning services, then the debris and grease that have built up in the trap will start to emit a foul odor. If this mess is left to rot, then the stench can become so pungent that it can foul the air throughout your kitchen. You will begin to notice it even if the grease trap is outside or underground. This smell will negatively impact staff and deter customers from coming to your business.

2. Avoiding Costly Damage

Prolonged storage can cause costly damage to your grease traps and establishment. The food scraps and liquids that are stored inside of your restaurant’s grease trap contain chemical compounds. When these compounds break down, they form hydrogen Sulphur gas which leads to the release of sulfuric acid, which is highly toxic and corrosive. Sulfuric acid can potentially damage the steel and concrete walls of your grease trap. Avoid wasting time and money on future repairs by ensuring you invest in frequent grease trap cleaning services.

3. Legal Requirements

Legal codes require random or regularly scheduled tests to analyze the outflow of your restaurant’s drain and grease trap system. When grease traps are allowed to overflow between cleaning services, high levels of grease are permitted to pass through the municipal sewer. Your restaurant can be penalized for not using regularly scheduled grease trap cleaning services. The penalty can range from fines to suspension of operation.

4. Reduce Clogging and Drain Problems

Keeping your restaurant’s grease trap clean and free of obstructions will allow the whole drain to flow smoothly. As part of the system that takes water from your kitchen sinks and dishwashers, out to the main sewer drainage, the grease trap impacts the flow of drains if it is overfull or plugged. If the drains do become plugged, they will overflow and spill back into your kitchen. This can cause a lot of damage to your restaurant, which is why grease trap cleaning services are critical to the overall function of your business.

5. Make Cleaning Easier

It only takes a few uses before you can notice food sediments beginning to pile up at the bottom of your grease trap. If you ignore this, a thick hard mass of food waste and solid grease will form. This is not easy to remove, but can easily become a barrier that will cause your trap to become smelly and inefficient. Avoid dealing with this altogether with frequent grease trap cleaning services.

When working in the food service industry you will inevitably have to deal with grease traps for your business. The issue with not maintaining your grease traps is it can lead to a disaster, resulting in drains backing up, sewer blockages, and the resulting fines from such occurrences. Avoiding issues is easy though, as grease trap cleaning in regular intervals can solve most potential problems, and hiring a professional makes sure the process is completed properly.

Do: Train Staff to Remove Solids and Debris

A major cause of clogs is solid food waste and large debris getting into your grease traps. You should train your staff to remove those things before any grease it poured down your kitchen’s traps, otherwise they can cause a blockage and you will have to schedule a professional cleaning (ahead of schedule) to clear your grease trap.

Don’t: Use Chemicals and Other Enzymes to Clean Your Grease Trap

Grease traps already contain enzymes required for breaking down fats, oils and greases that are deposited into them. If you pour in other chemicals or enzymes in an attempt to clear your own grease trap, you may damage the existing enzymes which will ruin the trap and potentially harm the environment in the process. Many products will not actually break down grease, resulting in it being separated from the water and then traveling into the wastewater systems to cause clogs further down the line.

Do: Install Your Grease Trap Properly

It’s important to make sure you have a properly installed and appropriately sized grease trap for it to function properly. If your grease trap is too slow to drain, or you find little to no fats, oils and grease in your grease trap when you check it, immediately contact your installer to assess the situation.

Don’t: Pour Boiling Water into the Grease Trap

Never pour boiling water into your grease trap as a replacement for great trap cleaning, or for any other reason, as it will liquefy the fats, oils and grease within your grease trap and release them into the sewers where they will congeal again and cause blockages over time.

Do: Schedule Regular Maintenance

The best method for keeping your grease trap in tip-top shape it to schedule regular maintenances for it. In addition to that, you should regularly inspect your grease trap to ensure it doesn’t need more frequent cleaning and that it is properly functioning. You should also keep a clear written record of all maintenance done on your grease traps, including cleanings.

Don’t: Link Grease Trap to Garbage Disposal

Do not link your grease trap to any garbage disposal as garbage disposals are not designed to handle grease in large volumes. Not only that, grease traps are not designed to handle garbage in general, even if it has been pulverized and shredded. If any garbage has made its way into the grease trap, schedule a grease trap cleaning as soon as possible.

Do: Hire Professionals for Grease Trap Cleaning

To avoid any issues that could arise when you attempt to clean your own grease traps and to ensure proper safe disposal of your grease, you should hire professionals for your grease trap cleaning needs. For efficient and clean grease trap cleaning services contact Drane Ranger today.