Be Careful What You Pour Down the Drain!

Rinsing food and grease down the drain in your kitchen (or any drain in your home) is probably not a good idea. What some people may not realize is that the grease and oil does not simply dissolve or get washed away after pouring down hot water and soap. Every once in a while we may pour a bit of grease down the sink which isn’t detrimental to your plumbing system, however continuously allowing oils and grease down the drain will eventually cause your pipes to clog. This will slow drainage, can be expensive to clean or replace, and might even allow sewage to back up.

Once down your drain, the oils and greases harden as they begin to cool. Sometimes this occurs close to your drain. The fats harden to the side of the pipe making it difficult for water and soap suds to drain quickly. However, the fats often make it into the neighbourhood’s plumbing, where they mix with everyone else’s fats and oils (not very pleasant sounding, I know). Once in the sewer, the combination of greases begins to break down into smaller molecules and react with the sewage. In particular, calcium binds with the fats to create all kinds of compounds. These compounds, stick to the walls of the sewers, and given enough time, clog over the pipe openings from you and your neighbour’s homes. This can lead to blockages in your sewer and costly repairs and work to correct it.

However prevention is quite simple. The best prevention is to not put excessive oils or fats down your drain. Instead of draining your oils and fats down the sink, pour bacon grease, etc into a ceramic cup and allow it to solidify. Then throw the fat in the garbage. Use a paper towel to wipe off as much oil as you can from frying pans and any other dishware before putting in the sink or dishwasher to wash. If you are producing large amount of grease, you may want to look into a grease recycling program that turns waste fat into biofuel.

If you have a questions or happen to suspect you have a clogged pipe give us a call at 289-244-9843 or email us at info@gogreenplumbing.ca