Why You Should Never Pour Grease Down The Drain

When you’re in the mood for some french fries, hamburgers, or any of the greasy comfort food we have all come to love you may not know what to do with the leftover grease. Grease can be a hassle to deal with especially if you are wanting to drain your grease and continue cooking. Grease that accumulates while cooking can be a nuisance or even a safety hazard but there is a better way to dispose of grease rather than pouring it down the drain. Pouring grease down the drain is a bad idea for many reasons and there are other options that are a lot better as well as safer.

When we cook there are many different options to choose from when we need a little fried taste to the food. You have vegetable oil, butter, animal fats, lard, and shortening. If you line them all along your counter they all have different looks but once they hit the heat they are a hot liquid just the same. When you are ready to dispose of your grease it may seem like an innocent thing to do just to pour it down the drain and get rid of it fast. In reality, this grease may go down in liquid form but it turns to a solid quickly. When this hot grease gets poured down the sink and hits the cooler part of the pipes such as the U bend it can quickly solidify. When this grease turns from liquid to solid it can cause many issues including major blockages that can turn bad very quickly. Even if you buy things that say they get rid of grease in drains, it can be pushed further down the lines causing issues with other areas or even your neighbors.

There are many options to choose from to get rid of your grease and even depending on the type of grease you have there are ways to reuse it. Think of breakfast with sausage, bacon, and eggs. When you fry your sausage or bacon you have two great options to reuse this grease for cooking to make breakfast delicious. You can choose to fry your eggs or even scramble them in the grease which actually won’t make them greasy but instead absorb all the flavor of the meat. If you are a fan of gravy you can either use the grease immediately with flour and milk to make great gravy for biscuits or put it in a jar to cool and store in the refrigerator for gravy at a later time. There are many recipes that you can make using leftover grease that can pack a lot of flavors even simple dishes like a spoon of bacon grease in green bean packs a lot of flavors.

Some of us don’t really care for using grease over for new recipes and would rather throw it out. Some grease like vegetable oil can’t be reused, so what do you do? If it is a fatty grease like butter or animal fats, they will harden when cooled making it easy to simply scrape in the trash. Other grease that stays as more of a liquid should be poured into a container and disposed of in the trash. To avoid spills you can freeze this mixture and then throw it away. Always allow your grease to cool before discarding to prevent melting through trash bags or even potentially causing a fire.

Everyone makes mistakes and can have previously poured grease down the drain before knowing the dangers. If you believe you may have damage or a clog forming because of the grease it is best to call in a professional like Plumber LV. In the meantime, you can try a few at-home tips like boiling some water with dawn dish detergent and pouring the mixture down the drain. Sometimes in less severe cases, this can help get rid of the issue but a professional should always be called to truly assess the situation.

Finding a professional to help with drain and pipe issues caused by grease shouldn’t be a daunting task. Our team at Plumber Las Vegas NV offers both reliable and affordable plumbing that can help even the most disastrous grease clogs. Not only can our professionals assess your clogs but we can help you get rid of these tough clogs as well. Sometimes when grease causes clogs it isn’t just the grease but the other food particles that have become clogged as a result of the stop up that our professionals can not only find but get clean and as good as new.