Reasons You Should Avoid Pouring Grease In Your Drains

When you're in the kitchen and cooking with hot oil or grease, you may be tempted to simply pour it down the drain when you're done. Once it is out of sight, you'll likely think that you did nothing wrong and there's no issue to worry about. Unfortunately, drains have to handle quite a lot on a daily basis and what you pour down it, has an impact. Pouring oil or grease into your drain can cause a lot of damage over time. Be sure to continue reading so you can understand what happens.

Danger To The Drain

When grease or oil is poured down the drain, it disappears and everything seems fine. However, when the grease actually cools down, it will turn into a solid which is quite harmful to your pipes. When the grease or oil becomes a solid, it blocks the drain which means that other things won't be able to pass. This blockage will get bigger with time and soon your pipes would become fully clogged. It can even lead to backups of your sewer, flooding, contamination, and more. These are all very costly issues to fix and deal with.

Damage To Your Sewer System

In the event that the grease doesn't turn solid and goes into the sewer, you will have to deal with another huge problem. Keep in mind that sewers will collect grease and oil from all the surrounding buildings, homes, businesses, restaurants, etc. After some time, fatbergs will develop in the sewer. These consist of waste that is non-biodegradable. Unfortunately, over time, this damages the sewer a great deal and negatively impacts the entire sewer system in the city.

Have You Already Poured Oil Or Grease Down Your Pipes?

If this is the case, then there are a couple of things you can do to reduce the damage:

Boil water and then pour it down your drain. If you have a hot water system, adjust your faucet so that the hot water can flow down your drain and pour dish soap into it. This will help the grease to turn back into a liquid and pass through the pipes. Now, if this does not solve your problem, you may need to hire a licensed plumbing expert like the team at VP Plumbing & Heating.

The next time that you use oil or grease, allow it to completely cool until it is hard. Then, use a spoon to scrape it out of the pot and place it in your bin. Be sure to keep the above tips in mind so that your sewer system can remain healthy and ensure you don't have to deal with stressful and expensive issues.