Whether you own a restaurant or manage a school cafeteria, you know the value of a clean grease trap. But how often should you clean it out? Most grease trap manufacturers recommend cleaning out your trap completely every few days, but it’s hard to find the time and energy to execute the task at this frequency. 

To prevent your grease trap from backing up, Gecko Enterprises in Waialua, HI, recommends following local regulations and making a grease trap pumping appointment once every few weeks.

Here’s how to tell if your grease trap needs to be pumped:

• Time: As mentioned above, grease traps should be cleaned out on a regular basis. The longer you wait to schedule a grease trap pumping, the more likely you will be to experience a backup—which will put a halt to food service and potentially ruin business for the day. If more than four weeks have passed and you haven’t cleaned out your trap, you’re overdue for a pumping.
• Volume: To determine whether you need a grease trap pumping now, carefully inspect it. If more than 25% of the contents are grease or some other solid, it’s time to clean it out. It won’t be enough to just clean out the solids, either: Gecko Enterprises says it’s essential to completely drain your trap and start from zero.
• Usage: The more business you do, the more often you’ll have to clean out your grease trap. When your kitchen experiences a busy season, you might even have to schedule extra grease trap pumping services to prevent backups and keep your business running smoothly.

Making a point to schedule a monthly grease trap pumping is a crucial part of maintaining a solid reputation in the foodservice industry.