If you’ve ever watched episodes of Kitchen Nightmare with Chef Gordon Ramsay then you’ve probably seen him discover a neglected, dirty grease trap in the restaurant’s kitchen.

If these traps are not maintained properly, the consequences can be:

  • Blockages in your pipelines
  • Backup of grease in your sink drains
  • Offensive Odors

Any of these situations can be costly to a restaurant as they can cause you to close shop for a day or longer.

Bottom line is – It’s simply not worth it to put off cleaning and maintaining your grease trap.

So, How Do You Clean A Grease Trap?

We know that cleaning out a grease trap is considered to be the worst job to do in a restaurant. It’s disgusting, messy and smelly. But – it has to be done.

Following are the easy steps you should be taking to clean your grease trap.

  1. Wear Yellow Rubber Gloves to perform this task
  2. Remove the lid from the unit – usually a screwdriver can be used to pop the lid off
  3. Scoop out the top layer (which can be thick) of grease and fats and other debris with a bucket and dump this in a thick plastic garbage bag.
  4. Use a Shop Vac to drain the remaining liquid out of the grease trap unit.
  5. Discard the liquid in the Shop Vac in a thick plastic garbage bag.
  6. Once the grease trap is empty, clean it out with fresh, soapy water.
  7. After it’s been thoroughly cleaned, begin filling the grease trap with hot sanitized water (chlorine concentration).
  8. That’s it!