Preventing drain line backups in your kitchen

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Issues related to drain line maintenance (DLM) are one of the least glamorous parts of the business. However if you don’t have a DLM program in place to prevent black sludge in food prep areas and foul odors in dining areas, it’s time to implement one.

With multiple options for removing drain line buildup, deciding which approach to use can be overwhelming. From ready-to-use chemicals to comprehensive DLM services, there are options for every restaurant type and budget. By understanding how various DLM systems work, you can select the one that’s right for your business.

The issue with drain cleaners

For many restaurateurs, drain line maintenance is reactive—they wait until there’s a clog or slow drain to address the issue. Many use heavy-duty chemical drain cleaners to push materials through pipes. These harsh chemicals often come as pre-packaged, ready-to-use products or as concentrates that employees free pour into the drains. While these solutions may provide a quick fix, they create a series of potentially long-term problems, including serious safety and liability issues, corrosion to pipes and discharge of high effluent into municipal waste water treatment plants, resulting in high fines and surcharges from municipalities.

To avoid these issues, some restaurants opt for concentrates. Available in large drum containers, these systems require extensive employee training. While employees must be sure to wear the proper personal protective equipment to prevent chemicals from splashing into their face, they must also understand how to properly dilute chemicals for efficacy. Proper dilution requires several steps including measurement, free pouring chemicals and following necessary dwell times.

Many typical DLM products consist largely of emulsifiers, such as surfactants or added enzymes. These emulsifiers break the FOG into tiny particulate (to the naked eye, it looks as though the grease is gone, but it’s not), which allows the FOG material to pass through the restaurant grease trap system into the local wastewater treatment system. Because emulsification is always temporary, the FOG recongeals, causing a serious problem for the municipality.  

To prevent this from occurring, some municipalities place bans on particular additives. In Orange County, FL, for example, government officials have banned the use of any type of DLM, unless the product passes stringent testing to show that it has limited environmental impact. In Nashville, TN, all additives are banned except those “proven to contain 100 percent bacteria, with no other additives.” Reno, NV, prevents the introduction of “any enzyme or emulsifier which would cause or tend to cause oil and grease to pass through any grease trap or grease interceptor and into any wastewater system facilities.”