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Plumber Tips: Is It Really So Bad To Dump Grease Down The Drain? | Denton, TX

Plumber Tips: Is It Really So Bad To Dump Grease Down The Drain? | Denton, TX

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You’ve just finished making bacon for BLTs and can smell the toast ready to go. It’s time for a great summer dinner and you can’t wait. So you grab the griddle and tip it over the sink. Every plumber in Denton, TX is grimacing a little right now because allowing the grease to drip down the drain is one of the worst things that you can do for your plumbing system. It is basically begging for an issue to happen because there are no circumstances in which grease and piping should go together. However, you might be wondering what’s so bad about a little grease?

Well to start with, it’s rarely ever just a little grease. Most people who will dump a little bacon grease down the drain will dump a little more bacon grease the next time they cook. It may be some butter and oil from frying vegetables the next time or fat leftover from sausage, but a little bit is probably going down the drain each time. This means that you are regularly dumping grease down your drain which means it is only a matter of time before you will need a plumber to come to help you get out of this mess.

Your Drain Is Just a Valve

Think of your drains like the heart and cholesterol. Most people know that you want to watch your diet because if you eat too much cholesterol it will start to stick to the sides of your arteries and valves. Eventually, when too much plaque forms a heart attack occurs. The same thing happens with grease and your pipes. For a while, you may be able to get away with dumping grease down, but eventually, it will pile up until your entire drain is clogged and you will need to call an emergency plumber. The better choice is simply to find a safer way to dispose of your grease so you can skip the Denton, TX plumber.

Why Does Grease Cause Clogs?

Given most grease is a liquid when you dump it out of a pan it may boggle your mind why plumbing professionals advise against doing so. The problem is that while grease may easily run out of a pan, it won’t stay that way. As the grease cools it turns into a solid sludge. This actually only takes a few minutes to occur and once it does it will stick to the sides of your pipes.

At this point, not only is the grease starting to constrict the waterway, but the slide is sticky and will attract more debris and gunk that falls down your kitchen sink. This allows a blockage to form even quicker and basically guarantees you will need a plumbing professional to help you get your pipes cleaned out again. Your one warning sign might be if your sink starts to drain slower than usual. Don’t ignore this sign, because if you act quick enough you may be able to save yourself from an emergency plumbing professional by calling out your regular plumber on your terms.

Believe it or not, grease is not only bad for the plumbing pipes in your home. Large amounts of grease over time have also been known to ruin local septic sewer systems and even ruin a septic tank. When you think about the costs of a septic tank, saving some time while cleaning up dinner is just not worth it, because it’s not that hard to properly dispose of grease instead of dumping it down the drain. In some remarkable stories, we have heard of instances when a neighborhood sewer system was clogged because of too much grease from neighboring homes.

So What Should I Do With Leftover Grease?

With that in mind, there are much safer ways to dispose of grease that don’t take that much time and will have a better ending for your drain system. For instance, you can save an old jar or can from cooking and pour the grease straight into it. Wait about five minutes and it will cool down and set up at which point you can simply toss it in the trash can. Some people take old containers like coffee cans and pour grease in them a little at a time until they are completely full at which point they dispose of them.

Alternatively, if you don’t want to mess with pouring the grease into anything you can just leave it in the pan, and once it is set up grab a paper towel and wipe it out. Either way, the important thing to your home and plumber is that you don’t put it down the drain. Bacon grease, lard, duck fat, sausage fat, anything that is grease needs to be properly disposed of so that you don’t end up on the phone with a plumber in the middle of the night because your sewage is coming out of the sink.

By the way, a lot of people don’t realize it but cooking oil is also an issue that will build up over time in your drains. Therefore, if you saute vegetables or meats in oil and can see the clear shine after you remove the veggies, you need to properly dispose of it the same way you would dispose of grease. Of course, you need to wait for the cooking oil to cool off first but then you can toss it into a container and dispose of it once the container is full. Plastic jugs can be a great way to collect cooking oils if you use them to deep fry on a regular basis. This extra step is worth it so you don’t have to call a plumbing professional out.

Is it too late? Have you been pouring grease and oils down your drain because you didn’t know better? The best thing you can do is call a local Denton, TX plumber and let them do a proactive drain cleaning to remove the buildup. There is no reason to wait until the drain clogs when you can have it cleaned now. bluefrog Plumbing + Drain of North Dallas is happy to help, give us a call today to schedule a cleaning with a plumber.

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