Installing your grease trap is crucial, but then you will have to clean it out on schedule. For most people, the question is how often they should have their trap cleaned.
If you do not clean the grease interceptor on time, you could be fined by the city authorities. To avoid this, you could just hire a professional company so that they can maintain it on schedule.
But just what is this schedule and what determines it? Well, there are a few important things to know. Keep reading!
How busy the kitchen is
This is one of the biggest determinants of how often we should clean the FOG trap. Commercial kitchens can get really busy and generate many pounds of FOG a day.
In such cases, they should have a big FOG trap installed. However, it will eventually get full. For big commercial kitchens, a good cleaning schedule is from once a month to once every three months, again depending on the size of the trap.
If you have just opened a small food business, you might not know how often to clean the trap. Therefore, you need to test a few things out. One of them is to find out how much grease the kitchen is churning out daily.
Before installing the grease interceptor, you should consult to know the size you need for your kitchen. The bigger the better so that you don’t have to pump it out too often.
The one ¼ trap cleaning time
If you are going to follow this simple rule, it states that if the grease receptor has grease reaching to 25 percent of its capacity, you should clean it immediately. Actually, this is an internationally recognized rule for cleaning FOG receptors.
The reason for this is that when the level of grease in the trap is 25 percent or a quarter of the tank, it means the trap is not very effective, so you need to reclaim it, by pumping out the FOG.
If possible, do not let the grease level rise to more than a quarter because it will start leaking into the municipal sewer channels.
Reconsider if you’re cleaning a FOG interceptor once a month
While we have said that the once in a month to once in three months is a good frequency for grease trap cleaning, well, it is costly.
If you installed the right trap by size, you should be able to clean it once every two to three months. If it is filling up every month, check whether there is a clog in the outlet.
The water needs to escape and if it is not going, it is probably contributing to making the trap so full.
Reconsider installing a bigger size of your trap so that you do not have to empty it too often. If the size of your restaurant grows, the size of the trap should grow too.
Conclusion
Knowing when to clean the grease interceptor in your food business can save you from paying hefty penalties or from closing your business.
Besides, it is good for the environment because FOG causes clogging in the sewer channels, causing spill-overs. The frequency of cleaning will depend on the size of your business and your FOG trap.
