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The Importance Of Clean Grease Traps In Restaurants

By 12 November 2019January 6th, 2023Winnipeg plumbers

Do you own a restaurant? If you do, you need a grease trap. Don’t have one? The City of Winnipeg might fine you. Having a grease trap is all well and good, but the work doesn’t stop there. A quick summary of what grease traps do before we keep going: they trap grease, fats, and oils so those things don’t enter into the City’s sewer system and wreak havoc. You need a clean grease trap and you can’t just clean it yourself – you need a professional to perform a grease trap cleaning.

 

What happens if a pro doesn’t come to clean your grease trap for you? Well, the first thing that might happen has bureaucratic consequences. The City requires you to maintain a log of how often your grease trap has been cleaned and we will help you keep that log in order. It also gives you a good idea of whether or not your grease trap is adequately sized. Should you fail to keep that log, the City can, once again, fine you.

 

The consequences for not cleaning your grease trap can be a lot more dire than that, though. Grease traps that are too full start to overflow and depending on where your grease trap is located, that could mean grease pouring into your kitchen. You’d have to shut down the restaurant to deal with that because you can’t have the employees in your kitchen sliding around on grease. Remember that the more grease you use, the more is going to pour into the kitchen. 

 

Things get even worse if the grease starts draining into the City’s sewer system. First, you’ll get fined (notice a trend here?). Then, the City will investigate the damage that’s been caused by grease from your restaurant. Do they have to clear out grease blockages? You’re footing the bill. Were your neighbors’ properties damaged by sewer back-up or other problems caused by your grease? You’d best believe you’re footing that bill, too. 

 

The flipside to all of this is that if you have a clean grease trap, you’ll avoid all of these problems. What’s more, a lot of enterprising people find a use for all that trapped grease and there are people who will buy the grease from you – I personally know of one fellow who takes grease from restaurants in order to bait bear traps. Grease doesn’t have to be a liability – it can be an asset!

 

We can handle every element of grease trapping for you, from setting up the trap to cleaning it and helping you log the maintenance schedule. We do a lot more than that, though – we can handle the installation of new fixtures, do maintenance plumbing, hot water tank repair and replacement, and much, much more. Give us a call for your commercial plumbing in Winnipeg needs and we’ll be there to help right away! 

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