Pros and Cons of Chemically Treating Your Grease Trap

A grease trap is a smelly, dirty piece of equipment that collects fats, oils, and greases (“FOGs”) and prevents the FOGs from entering the city sewer system. The FOGs in the grease trap need to be cleaned and if not treated properly, can overflow, causing the FOGs to ooze all over your kitchen floor.

If you have a grease trap, you are likely hunting for the best way to treat the grease trap and prevent problems. One option is to treat a grease trap with preventative maintenance chemicals. These chemicals help control the FOGs that have collected within a grease trap.

Here at State Chemical, we sell a variety of chemicals to maintain a grease trap. In this article, we will help explain whether a chemical solution is right for you based on our immense experience working with customers across the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Our experience tells us that there are both pros and cons to chemically treating your grease trap:

Pros:

• Reduces the risk of future problems (such as overflows)
• Prevents the build-up of gases that corrode the grease trap
• Decreases the frequency that you need to clean the trap

Cons:

• Does not eliminate the need to clean the grease trap
• Involves an upfront cost
• Takes time to be effective
• Takes time and effort

What is a Grease Trap?

A grease trap, also known as a grease interceptor, is a plumbing device found in commercial kitchens. The grease trap’s job is to prevent food solids from leaving the building and entering the city’s sewage system. A simple example is bacon grease – if you pour bacon grease down the kitchen drain, that grease will collect in the grease trap so that it does not enter the city drain system and cause blockages.

A Grease Trap Works as Follows:

1. Wastewater containing FOGs enters the grease trap.
2. FOGs separate from the water in the grease trap.
3. FOGs remain in the grease trap, but water flows down the drain.

The FOGs in the grease trap solidify into a solid block, similar in look to solidified bacon grease left in a pan.

Chemicals Treat a Grease Trap as Preventative Maintenance

You can treat a grease trap by adding chemicals to the trap. The chemicals break down the FOGs in the grease trap. We recommend adding chemicals through a pump. The pump slowly dispenses chemicals into the grease trap for consistent dosing.

The other option would be to pour a large amount of chemicals into the grease trap at one time. This is not recommended because while it will have the temporary fix of improving the smell of the grease trap, it will not lead to long-term results. To see a reduction of the FOGs in the grease trap, the chemicals need to be added on a consistent drip.

The consistent dosing of a bacterial-based product allows a colony of bacteria to grow in the grease trap. Each time you dispense the bacterial-based product, you add more bacteria into the grease trap. This allows the bacteria to grow and thrive. The healthy colony of bacteria digests the FOGs in the grease trap. In other words, bacteria eat FOGs.

PRO: Chemical Preventative Maintenance Prevents Future Problems

A significant benefit of adding chemicals to a lift station is to prevent future problems. If a grease trap is untreated and not pumped out, it can overflow, causing a stinky, gross mess in your kitchen. Even if this worst-case scenario doesn’t happen, untreated grease traps emit a disgusting smell and can attract flies and cockroaches.

An Air Force base had a small grease trap in the kitchen, which they did not treat. This small grease trap had a major overflow and “started oozing grease” all over the kitchen. This led to a massive clean-up effort. The Air Force base started chemically treating their grease station after that event.

Treating a grease trap with chemicals as preventative maintenance can prevent such overflow horror stories.

PRO: Chemical Preventative Maintenance Prevents the Build-up of Corrosive Gases

Adding chemicals to a grease trap prevents hydrogen sulfide gas (H2S) from building up. H2S forms as a byproduct of the bacteria living within the grease trap and if allowed to build up, H2S will corrode the concrete and metal in the pumps and equipment within the grease trap.

Adding chemicals to the trap prevents H2S from building up in large quantities. Thus, a significant benefit of chemically treating a grease trap is that it prevents H2S from corroding the pumps and equipment within the trap.

PRO: Chemical Preventative Maintenance Reduces How Often You Need to Clean the Grease Trap

All grease traps need to be either cleaned by hand or pumped out. Small kitchen grease traps can be cleaned by hand; while large industrial grease traps and tanks must be pumped out. In pumping out a grease trap, your employees or an outside contractor must use a suction pump to remove the FOGs from the trap and then wash and scrape the grease off the trap. This is a disgusting job worthy of being featured on the TV show “Dirty Jobs” starring Mike Rowe. When someone cleans a grease trap, it causes the entire kitchen to smell. Everyone in your kitchen will smell that something is going on.

A significant benefit of chemical preventative maintenance is that it reduces the number of times per year that you need to pump out your grease trap. For example, through chemical maintenance, one of our clients reduced their grease trap cleaning schedule from monthly to quarterly.

CON: Chemical Preventative Maintenance Does Not Eliminate the Need to Clean the Grease Trap

While adding chemical preventative maintenance reduces the need to clean the grease trap, it does not eliminate that need. Some local governments require companies to pump out their grease traps and keep a log of the pump-outs. For example, as of the writing of this article on January 25, 2024, Miami-Dade County had an Environmental Protection Ordinance with pump out requirements for non-residential facilities. Thus, there is no way to eliminate the need to pump out in some locations. Even in places where the government does not require a pump out, you cannot eliminate the need to clean a grease trap. All grease traps will eventually need to be cleaned.

CON: Chemical Preventative Maintenance Involves An Upfront Cost

Adding a chemical preventative maintenance solution involves an upfront cost. Chemical drain maintenance adds an additional charge to your company every month. However, most people find that preventative drain care is cheaper than reactive drain care. Reactive drain care responds to problems, while preventative maintenance prevents problems from occurring. Most of our clients find that since chemical drain maintenance reduces the number of pump outs per year and prevents costly overflows, adding chemical drain maintenance reduces the amount of money they spend on their grease trap yearly.

CON: Chemical Preventative Maintenance Takes Time to Start Working

Chemical drain maintenance reduces the FOG build-up in a grease trap. However, this is not an overnight fix. Many companies use bacterial products to maintain their grease traps. These products work by introducing healthy bacteria into the grease trap and the bacteria digest the FOGs in the trap. The bacteria slowly eat the FOGs over time, so most kitchens see full results after treating their grease trap for three months.

CON: Chemical Preventative Maintenance Takes Time and Effort

Depending on which company you hire to provide the preventative maintenance chemicals, chemically treating a grease trap can require your time and effort. Some chemical maintenance providers send you the chemicals and equipment, but require you to maintain and fix the equipment and change out the bucket of chemicals when it is empty. However, some companies provide service as part of the treatment solution. If you do not wish to spend time and effort chemically maintaining a grease trap, we recommend hiring a company that provides service. Some companies change the bucket of chemicals and fix and replace the dispensing equipment as necessary.

Chemical Preventative Grease Trap Maintenance Has Pros and Cons

If you have a grease trap, you are likely looking for the best way to treat it. This article explained the pros and cons of using chemicals for preventative grease trap maintenance. On the positive, chemicals reduce the risk of future problems (such as overflows), prevent the build-up of corrosive gases, and reduce the frequency of pump-outs. On the negative, chemicals do not eliminate the need to pump out, involve an upfront cost, take time to be effective, and take time and effort.

If you are interested in chemically treating your grease trap, then your next step is to determine the process through which you wish to do so. Most companies provide chemical grease trap maintenance on an ad hoc basis (meaning you buy the chemicals as needed) or as part of a contract (the company agrees to provide chemicals and equipment regularly). There are pros and cons to buying chemicals through an ad hoc transactional method or on a contractual basis.