01 Jul #1 WORST THING TO POUR DOWN YOUR KITCHEN SINK!
Best Solano Plumber Tips | Always Affordable Plumbing Solano
Want to Avoid a Major Drain Clog? Then Be Sure to NEVER Pour This Down Your Kitchen Sink!
One of the most common plumbing calls we get is for a backed up or slow drain. When your main drain clogs up and you need drain cleaning service, it can effect all parts of the house. That can look like mysterious water/gunk backed up into your tub. A slow draining sink. Slow flushes or frequent clogs. While you might see the problem in various parts of your house, the likely problem might be way down your main drain, out in your yard. Overtime, gunk can build up in your pipes from all the various stuff that goes down your drains. As gunk builds up, the space inside the pipe is smaller, which makes it easier to clog up with debris (like food particles, or things that shouldn’t be flushed). In this edition of our Best Solano Plumber Tips we tell you the #1 worst thing you can pour down your kitchen sink. Hopefully this information helps you avoid a service call for a clogged drain!
Worst Thing You Can Pour Down Your Sink
When it comes to your main drain getting clogged up it usually happens from one of two things:
- Flushing things that should not be flushed
- Putting things down your kitchen sink that you shouldn’t
When it comes to our kitchen sinks, we tend to think of it as more “all-purpose” than it really is. Especially when we use the garbage disposal. There are so many things we think are safe to run through the disposal and down the drain. The truth is that a lot of these things just end up contributing to building up that gunk in our pipes and causing clogs. However, there is one common thing people put down their kitchen sink that is the #1 culprit of clogging your pipes: FOG.
What is FOG?
FOG is a plumber’s term for “fats, oil, and grease”. This is the #1 thing (or things) to NOT put down your sink if you want to avoid needing drain cleaning service! Most commonly this occurs after we cook up something delicious and need to clean up. It includes:
- butter
- canola oil
- shortening
- cooking oil
- bacon grease
- heavy sauces
FOG is usually in liquid form at that point, and looks pretty harmless. After all, liquids should move through the drain easily right? When it comes to FOG, that is wrong. Just think of that pan of bacon grease. Even when it is in liquid form and still hot you can see how it coats everything that it touches. FOG very easily coats the inside of your pipes as it runs down towards the main drain. Even if you have water running with it this stuff just sticks, and as soon as the water is turned off, it starts to congeal and harden. Over time, this builds up a sticky, pasty layer inside your pipes that not only makes the inside of your pipes smaller, but traps particles of food and debris that are trying to pass through from all drains in your home. This results in a major mess of your pipes.
How to Properly Dispose of FOG
The best thing to do with FOG is to let it cool and congeal, then throw it out in the garbage. You can transfer it into a disposable waste container first if you need somewhere for it to cool other than in the pan. Please just be EXTREMELY careful if you do this. FOG, when it is still hot and in liquid form can cause serious burns and even fires! Be careful to use an appropriate container that can handle the high temperature of liquid FOG. In the most simple cases, like when cleaning a pan after cooking up some eggs and bacon, simply wipe the pan out with a paper towel before washing the pan. This will remove a majority of the grease and oil instead of putting it down the drain. If you have a lot of cooking grease, like from deep frying a turkey, you can actually reuse it or recycle it. A quick Google search may reveal local places that would love to take your FOG and use it for things like biodiesel or soap making.
Avoid Drain Cleaning Service!
Want to avoid this common plumbing service call? Then be smart about what goes down your drains and toilets. However, if you think your pipes have already started to clog up with gunk from years of FOG going down the sink, then you can still fix the problem before it cause a major backup in your main drain. Always Affordable Plumbing Fairfield and Sacramento specializes in drain cleaning services that can include hydro jetting. Hydro jetting is a service that scrubs out the entire inside of your pipes, all the way down to the main sewer line in your street, and is the best way to restore the insides of your pipes to new. This will help you avoid clogs and back ups that will cost you time and money down the road, and that could cause major ruptures and damage to your pipes. For the best Solano County drain cleaning service and the most affordable plumbing CALL AAP TODAY!!!
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Find out more about Always Affordable Plumbing (Lic. #1003782) by calling:
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Best Solano Plumber Tips | Always Affordable Plumbing Solano