Of all the ways to protect the plumbing in your San Francisco, CA home, limiting what you put down your drains is easily the most effective. Grease, rendered fats, and certain high-fat cooking oils solidify as they cool. When they do, they’ll create thick, tacky residues in your pipes that inhibit waste flow. Although most homeowners know not to put grease down their drains, mistakes happen. If you were juggling multiple cooking projects and accidentally poured some grease down the drain, the following things you can do just might help avert disaster.
Don’t Panic But Act Fast
As soon as you realize your mistake, turn your hot water on and let the tap run. This could keep the grease or rendered fat in a liquid state until it clears your sewer line. The longer that you run hot water and the higher its temperature is, the more likely you are to avoid future plumbing problems.
Don’t Use Boiling Water
Although running hot water is an effective way to keep grease moving fluidly, pouring boiling water down your drains is a bad idea, especially if your home has PVC piping. Boiling water can soften and warp PVC pipes and damage garbage disposal impeller blades and electric components. The hot water from your tap should be hot enough to prevent serious drain issues but not so hot that it causes additional problems.
Why Running Cold Water Won’t Work
Some homeowners believe running cold water is the best way to mitigate spilled grease in their drains. According to this theory, cold water will cause grease and rendered fats to solidify instantly. This would make them less likely to adhere to pipe walls and decrease the diameter of pipe interiors. Some people believe that as a solid, grease would flow through their sewer lines and into the municipal sewer system, much like general food waste.
However, this is rarely the case. The temperature of trapped water in your sewer line and your sewer pipe won’t match the temperature of the water that flows from your tap. If you run cold water to solidify grease, it could easily melt again as it moves through your plumbing system and encounters hot surfaces. Unfortunately, this is also true of hot water. The hot water that you use to chase grease will eventually cool. As it does, the grease will solidify and cause build-ups and blockages.
Running water at any temperature to eliminate grease in your plumbing system moves the problem further along. If it doesn’t cause issues in your home or your underground sewer line, grease in your drains could cause problems in the municipal sewer main. Moreover, it invariably will complicate the municipal water treatment process. Thus, this is a mistake that’s always best avoided.
Understand the Risks of Using Chemical Drain Cleaners
As an added measure, you might be tempted to pour a chemical drain cleaner down the affected drain. These low-cost, store-bought products are either corrosive or caustic. Liquid drain cleaners are corrosive. Their chemical compositions allow them to “eat” through organic materials like soap scum, hair, and grease.
Most powdered drain cleaners are caustic. These products generate heat as soon as they’re added to standing water. This heat “burns” or dissolves organic materials to clear blockages and keep wastewater moving.
Among the biggest drawbacks of using either drain cleaner type is that they destroy organic materials indiscriminately. They don’t distinguish between blockages of grease or hair and pipe materials. In older plumbing systems, frequent use of chemical drain cleaners can cause leaky connections and pipe failure. As such, trying to correct your mistake could cause larger and far more costly plumbing issues.
Both drain cleaner types come with serious health and safety risks. These products can cause severe skin and eye burns on contact. If you use them in poorly ventilated areas, they can also cause respiratory distress.
Try a Natural, Homemade Drain Cleaner
After chasing dumped grease with hot water, try using a natural, homemade drain cleaner instead of corrosive commercial products. Simply pour one cup of baking soda down your drain and follow it with one cup of white vinegar. This will produce a rapid, foaming reaction that dissolves greasy buildups and keeps your drain and the connected pipe clean. After the foaming action is complete, you should again run your hot water for several minutes. This combination is also effective for periodically freshening drains in between annual, professional drain cleaning.
DIY Drain Snakes Pose Risks to Your Plumbing System, Too
If you wind up with a dirty, slow-moving drain after mistakenly dumping grease into your sink, a drain snake could slough off greasy build-up at the pipe interior to get things moving. However, much like using chemical drain cleaners, DIY drain snaking comes with risks. The sharp tips on these mechanical drain cleaning tools can scratch off pipe coatings, gouge pipes, abrade porcelain fixture coatings, and cause other damage. If you’re snaking the drain of a plumbing fixture that’s still under its manufacturer’s warranty, these efforts could also void your warranty’s protections.
Get Caught Up With Annual Drain Cleaning
The best way to clear a dirty, slow-moving drain is by scheduling a professional drain cleaning service. Homeowners are advised to schedule these services at least once every year. Annual drain cleaning is especially important if you live in a busy, high-traffic home. After all, even when you aren’t accidentally dumping grease or rendered fats into your drains, these things are constantly being rinsed off your dishes and entering your plumbing system in other ways.
Depending upon the type of pipes you own and their age and condition, your plumber might use mechanical drain cleaning methods like snaking, augering, or rootering, or they may use hydro-jetting or hydro-steaming. Mechanical drain cleaning methods slough off tough, tacky buildups and subject pipes to minimal pressure. Hydro-jetting and hydro-steaming use hot, high-pressure steam or water to scour pipe interiors clean. Performed at plumbing clean-outs, these treatments are highly effective. However, they may be too forceful for aging pipes and certain plumbing materials.
Have Your P-Trap Cleaned
P-traps are specialized drain fittings that prevent sewer gases and sewer gas odors from entering homes. Having P-traps cleaned is often a great way to correct sluggish, slow-moving drains and get waste and wastewater moving. As needed, your plumber can incorporate P-trap cleaning into your next drain cleaning service or provide P-trap cleaning as a standalone corrective measure.
Be on the Lookout for Signs of an Impending Whole-House Backup
Every drain in your San Francisco home converges onto your sewer line. The grease that clears the pipes and drains at the interior of the building is most likely to cool and solidify here. If your sewer line has been encroached upon by underground weeds or tree roots, hardened grease will add to these obstructions and further inhibit the movement of effluence.
When fully obstructed, sewer lines can send liquid and solid waste back into homes. Hydro-jetting and hydro-steaming are effective interventions for impending whole-house backups when homeowners have mistakenly put grease down their drains. To avoid a backup, be on the lookout for problems like:
- Bubbling and gurgling noises from drains and fixtures
- Wet, marshy spots in your yard
- Multi-drain issues at once
- Frequent and recurring clogs
Scheduling drain and sewer line cleaning before a backup occurs is far cheaper than replacing connected appliances and scheduling water damage cleanup and mold mitigation services.
We proudly serve residents of San Francisco, CA and the greater Bay Area. We offer outstanding plumbing, drain, and sewer services. We also provide kitchen and bathroom remodeling services, leak detection, and trenchless sewer line replacement. To find out about our latest specials or schedule an appointment for drain cleaning, get in touch with In & Out Plumbing & Construction today.
