Grease clogs the pipes in your home

Our kitchen sinks see such use in a day that we aren’t always aware of behaviors that cause blockages in the connected pipework beneath. This short post will examine what causes slow and blocked drains and how to prevent the occurrences in the first instance. 

Grease Clogs Drains In Your Home

The biggest culprit for slow or clogged drains is grease. When we wash dirty pots or pour unwanted animal fat down the sink, we are essentially aiding in blocking the pipes.

Fat, when heated, goes into a liquid state and stays that way until it cools where it becomes a solid. When you dispose of fat down a sink in a liquid state, it coats the inside of the pipes. When it cools the fat solidifies. That’s when the build-up of grease clogs the pipes in your home.

The first sign of a blockage in your pipes or drains is a reduction in the level of water going down the drain in the sink. Another sign of a suspected blockage is rising water levels in the outside drain, usually situated outside the back door or kitchen.

When you do have a blockage – an accumulation of grease preventing water flow through the pipes – no water will exit through the drain at all, usually the outdoor drain. This can cause flooding around the drain of, particularly foul-smelling water.

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How To Prevent Clogged Drains

There are a number of steps you can take to prevent grease clogging your drains before it happens.

Disposal Of Animal Fat

The first thing to prevent grease clogging your drains is to change some habits you’ve formed. Instead of pouring fat down the kitchen sink, pour it into a sealable takeaway container and allow it to cool before throwing it in the bin. If you don’t have a takeaway container, allow the fat to solidify in the item used then scrape out as much as you can into the bin. This applies to oils as well as oil sits on the top of the water and can also cause or aid blockages.

Flush Pipes

Once a day, particularly after washing up, run the hot top for five to ten minutes to heat up any grease lurking in the pipes. Once the grease has entered a liquid state through running the hot tap, the water flow flushes the grease out of the pipes and into the sewers. This helps prevent clogging of house drains and pipes.

Something else to help prevent the accumulation of grease in household drains is to pour half a standard cup of baking soda down the drain followed by the same amount of vinegar – any vinegar will do – and follow through by running the hot tap again for five to ten minutes. Repeat this cycle once a week and your pipes will stay blockage-free for longer.

Grease clogs pipes in your home mostly through discarded animal fat poured down the kitchen sink. If a blockage gets so bad as to cause flooding, a plumber may have to be called out. With these tips, you can save yourself the expense by maintaining the pipes easily with habit change and daily maintenance.

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