Every kitchen in the world generates grease. From grilling burgers to cooking steaks to frying vegetables in oil, each chef and kitchen staff member has to contend with their grease trap on a daily basis. After months of scraping, spraying, and rinsing, it can become easy to forget just how important this menial task is to the success of your restaurant. With that in mind, here are a few reminders about the importance of grease trap cleaning. Drainage Clogging At its core, the trap simply catches grease before it reaches the normal drainage system. Because of its consistency, the fats and oils do not drain properly in a liquid drainage system. Grease trap cleaning is essential, because if the contents overflow, they will enter the standard drain. If this happens, there are a few issues that can occur. Firstly, the drain can clog. If this happens, it makes all kitchen cleaning impossible until the drain is cleared. This not only slows down business, but makes for a very unpleasant working condition. Fats and oils are very difficult to clean out of a pipe, and it will take a plumber a long time to fix a major clog. The larger concern is if the contents do manage to get through the kitchen drain and enter the sewage system. If this occurs, the grease can clog up public septic tanks and other waste disposal systems, causing major problems for a large group of people. If a septic tank in a commercial area were to back up, human waste could bubble up to the surface, causing odors and major damage to the ground where the tank is buried. Kitchen Safety Grease trap cleaning is absolutely essential to avoiding the most dangerous type of kitchen fire. A grease fire burns extremely hot, and is very difficult to extinguish. Pouring water on this type of flame will do nothing but spread the fire further throughout the kitchen, eventually getting too large to contain. Avoiding these types of fires is simple when there is only a small amount of oil to deal with. If one pot or pan catches fire, it is easy to simply smother the flame and deprive it of oxygen. However, when fats and oils are not properly cleaned, they spread to areas you wouldn't even think to check. All it takes is one stovetop burner left unattended, or a few moments where the grill gets too hot, and suddenly the kitchen can become a raging inferno. In the event of a large fire, there are really only two options. Either you can contain the fire quickly with a chemical fire extinguisher, or you can't. If you cannot, then the only other safe plan is to evacuate immediately and call the fire department. Proper grease trap cleaning should be a regular part of the upkeep of your restaurant. How frequently it needs to happen depends entirely on the amount of cooking that is done each day. At bare minimum, the trap should be cleaned once every 90 days, but should be checked much more frequently. Take the time to do things the right way, and avoid catastrophic issues down the road. Portland, OR business owners in need of grease trap cleaning turn to Oregon Oils, Inc. Learn more at http://www.oregonoilsinc.com/grease-maintenance/.
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