If you own a restaurant, work in a restaurant, or if your family is just big, and you feel like you do… this blog is for you. In a kitchen with high-volume production, there is a greater likelihood your kitchen sink will get clogged. Garbage disposals can handle a lot, but they are not made to withstand all of the scraps the average person puts down their disposal, let alone that amount multiplied by ten, or one hundred.

Grease traps can help alleviate the stress put on a kitchen garbage disposal, by catching and removing grease, oils, fats, and solid scraps, before they damage your plumbing. A grease trap successfully disposes of waste by pulling water through its trap, collecting solids, grease, fats, and oils. The collected solids then sink to the bottom of the trap, and the grease, fats, and oils rise to the top of the trap. This waste is then discharged into your sewer line.

Rid your garbage disposal of clog causing culprits by installing a grease trap in your commercial kitchen or busy home. Just remember to keep the common cloggers out of your sink. Don’t know what the common cloggers are? Well, we, here at Hildebrant’s Plumbing Repair, have made a list of foods for you, so you know which items to refrain from washing down your disposal.

Disposal Don’ts

Coffee Grounds

When wet, coffee grounds stick together, forming clumps. When this happens inside of your kitchen plumbing, a severe clog can form.

Starches

When you’re cooking rice, what happens? It expands. When starches, such as rice and pasta, end up in your pipes, they soak up standing water and swell. This blocks water from flowing freely within the pipe.

Chicken, Fish, and Meat Bones

These are major disposal enemies. Shoving chicken, fish, and meat bones down your disposal will cause the blades to get stuck or break, or cause the motor to breakdown completely.

Seafood Shells

Your garbage disposal cannot grind dense foods, and shells on seafood such as crab, lobster, and oysters are extremely dense. It’s best to drop all of your seafood shells into your kitchen trash to avoid damaging your disposal.

Egg Shells

It is not the shell itself that causes kitchen drain clogs, but rather the thin membrane that lives beneath the shell that will wreak havoc on your plumbing. This thin membrane acts as a small bag floating through your pipes, collecting food scraps, until it is filled to the brim, and blocking your pipe. This can cause serious backflow problems.

Fibrous Vegetables

The stringy strands found on corn and celery are great pipe-blockers. They form into clumps and slow your drainage.

Nuts

Think about how peanut butter is made. Nuts are ground up and spun until a paste is formed. Well, when you put nuts down your disposal, they undergo a similar process, forming a paste that will stick to your pipes, collecting food. A severe clog will form and you will have to call a professional plumber to remove it.

For Grease Trap installation and drain repair, call Hildebrant’s Plumbing Repair, at (817) 668-3665.