6 Ways to Keep Your Restaurant’s Drains Healthy

Between the grease, cooking oils and food bits, restaurant drains take a lot of abuse. It’s important to take care of your restaurant’s drains to prevent clogs and backups, which are health hazards.

Here are six ways to keep your restaurant’s drains healthy.

1. Clean Your Grease Traps Regularly

The simplest way to keep your restaurant’s drains healthy is to clean your grease traps regularly. Grease traps catch and contain residue that is flushed into the system from cooking and cleaning materials. The goal is to catch the oils and fats before they clog the plumbing system.

If your grease disposal is on the lighter side, a monthly cleaning may be all that’s needed. But most restaurants will need to clean their grease traps more often.

2. Hire a Professional

Along with cleaning your grease traps regularly, consider developing a working relationship with a local plumber to have your drains cleaned regularly.

Many plumbers use hydro-jetting to clean drains and pipes. Highly-pressurized water is pushed through the pipes to remove debris and grease build-up. Think of it as pressure washing your pipes.

Having your pipes professionally cleaned can help prevent serious clogs and build-up that can be costly to fix.

3. Install a Drain Cover or Grate

Large debris can cause serious clogs and make it more difficult to clean your pipes and grease traps. Install a drain cover or grate to keep large debris out of your sink drains and plumbing fixtures.

Drain covers and grates are a small expense that can help prevent costly clogs in the future.

4. Invest in Your Own Drain Snake

If clogs are becoming a regular problem, consider investing in your own drain snake, or drain auger. Drain augers are what professional plumbers use to break apart clogs in the pipes.

Having your own drain snake will make it easier to get rid of clogs early on and without having to call a plumber. Of course, more serious clogs should be handled by a professional, but a drain snake will help keep many small clogs from becoming a big problem.

5. Use Baking Soda and Vinegar to Break Down Build-Up

Rather than reaching for chemical drain cleaners when you have a clog, reach for a natural solution: baking soda and vinegar. Chemical-based cleaners can cause bigger problems if used regularly.

A mixture of baking soda and vinegar will help break down the build-up in your pipes. Baking soda and vinegar react with one another because of an acid-based reaction. They work together to break down grime, grease and build-up.

6. Scrape Plates and Put Scraps in the Trash

Another simple way to keep your restaurant’s pipes clean is to have employees scrape the plates and put food scraps in the trash. Even if the scraps seem small, always have employees scrape the plates and put the scraps in the garbage.

If you have the option, consider composting the scraps instead of sending it to the landfill. The world wastes $400 billion in food every year, so composting food scraps will help prevent waste.

Adam Richards

About Adam Richards

Adam Richards is a semi-retired business professional originally from Bangor, Maine. He spent the majority of his career in sales and marketing where he rose to the marketing lead of a Fortune 1000 company. He then moved on to helping people as a career counselor that specifically helped bring families to self-sufficiency through finding them rewarding careers. He has now returned to Bangor for his retirement and spends his free time writing. This blog will be about everything he learned throughout his career. He'll write on career, workplace, education and technology issues as well as on trends, changes, and advice for the Maine job market and its employers.