How often should I pump my grease trap?

Each municipality requires the restaurants on its sewer collections system to follow different maintenance schedules. Durham and Orange County require a grease trap to be pumped out every 30 days. Carry requires every 60 days. Wake County requires grease traps to be pumped before the grease and solids build up in a grease trap acount for 25% or less of the total volume of liquid. Here is a good source of pre-treatment ordinances for various municipalities in North Carolina. A good basis would be to have a pumping frequency of every 60 days to s…

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How Do I Open A Grease Trap (man Hole) Lid With No Special Tools?

Ever want to see if the company you pay to pump out your grease trap is actually doing what they are charging you for? Pumping out grease traps creates a strong odor. So it is really in everyone’s best interest if it is done off hours. But other than the bill the company sends you, how do you know the job is getting done? Well, on the day that the trap was pumped, all you have to do is open up the manhole cover and see if the trap is empty or not. Doesn’t that require some kind of special tool? Well yes it does, but if you are a McGyver fan, th…

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How do I get rid of drain and grease trap odors?

Foul odors are bad news for restaurant business. Getting to the source of the problem can be very frustrating because the smells come and go. The first step is to make sure no floor drains have dried out. The water barrier in the bend in the floor drain keeps sewer gas from coming back into the restaurant from the grease trap. The ones that dry out are often ones that get very little use, e.g. a floor drain that is under a cabinet. Pour half a gallon of water down all your infrequently used floor drains. If this does not work, check the last ti…

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How Do I Clean Up A Grease Spill?

1.Stop the source leak. If it is coming from a leaking bucket, sloppy pours into a grease container, or any other source, stop the underlying source of the grease or oil first before starting to clean up. 2.If the spill is fresh, the oil will keep spreading so the best thing to do is create a makeshift berm to stop it from spreading. You can use a garden hose to lay around the perimeter of the spill to stop it from spreading.Do not try to hose down the spill…it will only spread! 3.Absorb the grease with some kind of dry bulking agent. Kitty lit…

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