The Complete Guide to Grease Trap Pumping

If you run a restaurant, bakery, grocery store deli, or other commercial kitchen, one of the most important maintenance tasks is cleaning your grease trap or grease interceptor. As you wash your pans and dishes, fats, oils, grease, and food solids go down your drain, and are collected by your grease trap or interceptor before they reach the sewer system.

However, if they are not cleaned or pumped regularly, they can overflow. This can cause odors, backups, slow drains, emergency plumbing costs, and possible service interruptions.

In this guide, we will walk you through how often grease traps should be pumped, what affects the cost, and what happens during a service visit from Baker Commodities.

What Is Grease Trap Pumping?

Grease trap pumping is the process of removing built-up fats, oils, grease, food solids, and wastewater from a grease trap or grease interceptor. A Baker Commodities technician pumps out the contents, cleans the accessible areas of the unit, checks for issues, and transports the waste for recycling.

Grease traps are generally for smaller restaurants and cafes. They are housed inside, usually under sinks or near prep areas. Larger establishments will have an outdoor grease interceptor. These are larger units, often buried outside the building.

Both need regular maintenance to keep grease and food solids from overflowing and getting into the plumbing system.

Why Commercial Kitchens Need Regular Grease Trap Pumping

While it may operate in the background, your grease trap or interceptor has major implications on your day-to-day operations, as well as potential financial and regulatory impacts.

Cleaning your grease trap on a regular basis helps on a number of levels:

• Helps prevent slow drains and backups
• Reduces odors from grease and food waste
• Reduces the need for emergency plumbing calls
• Helps you maintain local FOG compliance
• Helps protect your city’s sewer system

If you run a busy kitchen, but wait too long between grease trap service, you could eventually notice sinks draining slower, leading to backups, a grease trap that overflows and causes odors, and issues during your health inspection.

How Often Should a Grease Trap Be Pumped?

In general, a commercial kitchen should schedule grease trap pumping every 30 to 90 days. However, your specific schedule depends on your usage, trap size, local regulations, and the amount of grease and solids produced.

In many municipalities, the health and FOG inspectors use the 25% rule. This means that your grease trap or interceptor should be cleaned when fats, oils, grease, and food solids take up about 25% of the unit’s capacity.

Restaurants

Full-service restaurants, fast casual restaurants, cafeterias, and high-volume foodservice operations may need frequent grease trap pumping, especially if they fry foods, cook meats, use heavy sauces, or wash a large amount of cookware.

Bakeries

Bakeries can produce grease from butter, oils, icings, fillings, dairy-based ingredients, and washdown water. How often you have your grease trap serviced depends on production volume and cleanup practices.

Grocery Stores

Grocery stores often have delis, bakeries, meat departments, prepared foods, and even hot bars. These may need regular interceptor service because multiple departments can feed into the same system.

Commercial Kitchens and Food Prep Facilities

Catering kitchens, commissaries, hotels, schools, hospitals, and other commercial kitchens may need a custom schedule based on daily volume and hours of operation.

Signs Your Grease Trap Needs Pumping

If you haven’t been able to maintain a regular grease trap pumping schedule, you might start to notice signs that it needs to be serviced.

• Slow-draining sinks or floor drains
• Grease odors near sinks, drains, or outside interceptor areas
• Gurgling sounds
• Grease or solids visible in the trap
• Water backing up into sinks or drains
• Pest activity
• Grease trap fills faster than expected

Waiting for these symptoms to appear is a risk. A set schedule allows you to avoid these issues and plumbing emergencies that may come with them.

What Affects Grease Trap Pumping Frequency?

How often you schedule grease trap or interceptor pumping depends on several factors related to what foods you prepare and how your kitchen operates.

• Size and capacity of the grease trap or interceptor
• Number of meals prepared per day
• Type of food prepared
• Use of fryers, grills, rotisseries, meat prep, sauces, dairy products, and baked goods
• Dishwashing and prep sink volume
• Staff habits, including scraping plates and pans before washing
• Local city or municipal requirements

For example, a bakery with steady production and heavy butter use may need more frequent service than a small cafe with limited food prep.

What to Expect During a Professional Grease Trap Pumping Service

Baker Commodities’ grease trap pumping technicians use specialized equipment to service commercial grease traps and interceptors while helping your kitchen maintain reliable drainage to meet local FOG requirements.

Access and Inspection

Our technician locates the grease trap or interceptor and checks the condition of the contents and components.

Pumping and Removal

Grease, solids, and wastewater are pumped out using professional, specialized equipment.

Cleaning the Trap or Interceptor

Our technician removes any remaining buildup from the accessible areas using a metal scraper. We also look for any signs of damage, missing parts, or unusual buildup.

Transport and Handling

The grease, waste water and food solids are transported for recycling and rendering.

Documentation

We provide your kitchen with service records which you can use for inspections via email and access to our customer portal.

How to Reduce Grease Trap Problems Between Services

There are a number of simple habits your staff can practice to reduce the amount of grease that heads down your drain.

Staff habits:

• Scrape plates, pans, trays, and other cookware before washing
• Do not pour fryer oil, grease, sauces, or dairy-heavy liquids down drains
• Use a drain screen

Operational habits:

• Locate your grease trap in an area where it does not interfere with normal operations
• Keep records of pumping dates and inspection notes
• Do not use chemical cleaners as a substitute for pumping

Choosing the Right Grease Trap Pumping Provider

Baker Commodities has served restaurants, bakeries, cafeterias, and other commercial kitchens since 1937. We understand commercial kitchens, offer recurring schedules that are convenient for your service hours, provide clear documentation, and know local FOG compliance requirements.

Our team has the equipment and expertise to service your location reliably, and handle the collected material responsibly.

Grease Trap Pumping: Keep Your Kitchen Running and Inspection Ready

The frequency of grease trap pumping depends on the volume, trap size, food type, and local rules. When your grease trap is being serviced, our technicians remove grease, food solids, and wastewater from your grease trap system, while also cleaning the unit and checking for issues.