Wednesday, December 2, 2020

Poured Grease Down Your Drain? Here’s What You Need to Do

 

What do you do with the grease left on your pots and pans after cooking? Most people would simply pour it down the drain. And while that may seem more convenient and harmless, it can actually cause problems down the line. When the grease cools downs and solidifies, it can result in plumbing issues that you can notice when you see that the drain has become sluggish. There are many remedies to clear a clogged drain including using a sink drain cleaner, but we’ll also share what you need to do when there is grease buildup in your drain and pipes.

Grease is bad for your kitchen plumbing

You may have poured the grease down the drain while it was still in liquid form, but when it cools down after a few minutes, it will solidify in the pipes. This could cause a buildup that can trap other debris that could make it down your drain. The result is a massive blockage, which can only be removed by professional help or a professional-strength drain opener chemical.

By now, you must understand how bad grease is for your kitchen drain. That means you should not pour it down the toilet or your bathroom sink, too. The same effect will occur: It will harden and clog up the sewer, which could mean costly repairs for your property or worse, the entire neighborhood when fatbergs occur. A fatberg is a congealed mass that can be found in sewer systems caused by the formation of accumulating grease with other kinds of debris. It could become extremely massive and weigh hundreds of pounds. Removal could take weeks as the process is not exactly easy. A fatberg was discovered in London in 2017 and it stretched over 820 feet and weighed almost 300,000 pounds!

Did you pour that grease down the drain?

In case you’re already experiencing problems with solidified grease in your drain, you will need to take some steps with a sink drain cleaner. Choose a high-quality and fast-acting professional strength drain opener chemical that is proven to break through the toughest clogs. Avoid pouring any acid or bleach down your drain after use.

For a more natural way to clear a clogged drain, get a gallon of boiling water and pour the liquid slowly into the drain while the faucet is running on its hottest temperature setting. At the same time, squirt in some liquid dish soap. Hot water should cause solidified grease to return to its liquid state and the soapy water should help carry it down further out of your pipes.

Prevention tips

Remind yourself and other people in your household to not pour grease and leftover cooking oil in the drain. Here’s what you can do with any oil after cooking:

1. Pour any hot grease into a dedicated can or jar (i.e. a mason jar or a makeshift one using a soda can). Leave it to solidify and throw the solid grease into the garbage or the entire can with it.
2. Leave grease to solidify in the pan then wipe it off with paper towels.
3. Let cooking oils cool off. If there is less than a cup’s worth, pour it into the trash can over a few paper towels. If there is more, consider saving the oil in a container, so you can reuse it for another frying session. You could also save up some plastic jugs with screw tops, so you can collect used oil and dispose of the whole container when it is full.

At times, a regular sink drain cleaner and the hot water + dish soap method may not do the trick because the grease has already solidified with other pipe-clogging debris, like hair, non-biodegradable objects, and food particles. In that case, you will need a professional plumber to look into that, or consider TruFusion’s Powerplay Hair and Grease Clog Buster, a drain opener chemical that can treat slow flow drains, full clogs, and blockage caused by hair, grease, soap scum, and organic matter.