The Problem Is Not Caused By One Big Mistake
Let's start with a clear point: most homeowners instinctively know not to pour a pan of hot grease or oil down their kitchen sink. They know it will cause problems further down the pipes. But knowing this can also create a false sense of security, as grease buildup in a kitchen drain does not always occur because of one incident. More often than not it actually accumulates over time (possibly years) from small amounts of fat entering the drain during normal cleaning.
This is not a difficult thing to have happen. A little oil runs off of a plate, or some butter melts off of a dish and goes down the drain. The same thing can happen with left over sauce, fat from cooking meat in a pan, salad dressing at the bottom of a bowl, or myriad other things. Hot water will melt these and it might well carry that residue along down the pipe for a bit. But then the water cools down further downstream and, as the temperature drops, the fats and oils thicken and cling to the walls of the pipe.
A tiny amount of fat like this won't block a sink. Instead, over time the drain becomes less smooth on the inside as additional food particles, soap, coffee grounds and other debris stick to the fat and build up. The homeowner only sees or smells the final result when the water starts backing up in the kitchen sink or a nasty odor begins to come out of it.
Why Kitchen Drains End Up Blocked Even When You're Careful About Grease
Being careful about not letting grease down a drain reduces the problem, but it does not prevent all grease from going down a drain. Inevitably dishwashers send warm water into the pipes along with residue, while pans get wiped down in the sink but not perfectly cleaned. When plates and utensils are rinsed small bits of oil and food will also go down the sink over time, no matter how careful you try to be.
Garbage disposal units can add to the issue too if you tend to use them in ways that results in more food particles being put into the drain. A disposal unit will grind down food, but it does not make grease disappear. Instead the ground down material will combine with fat and soap scum inside the pipe and turn into something that blocks it eventually.
The problem, as the above explains, is gradual. A kitchen drain can operate perfectly fine for years, but a coating of fat is slowly building up in the pipe. And once the interior diameter of the pipe narrows, the whole unit becomes less forgiving when a lot of water is running through it, such as during holidays or after a dinner party.
Why Woodstock Kitchen Lines Can Be Sensitive
Woodstock has many busy family homes and commuter households where kitchen sinks and units are in regular use at specific times of the day. This can include everything from cleaning up after dinner to running the laundry machine intensively on weekends. The more water running through your drains, the greater the chance for the pipes to become blocked.
A partially restricted drain leading from a kitchen might not get blocked with light use, but water might start to back up when warm water and food residue run through it in large volumes. In cases like this, the sink drains fine first thing in the morning, but it slows after dinner when the dishwasher has been on or when several people go for showers at night.
What Does Grease Look Like Inside a Drain?
Inside a pipe, grease is not always a dramatic blockage. Instead it will usually appear more like a coating along the wall of the pipe that narrows the channel that water can actually move through. The opening through the center of the pipe may still allow water to pass through, but only until such time as enough residue has collected that it causes a larger obstruction.
This explains why a kitchen sink can shift from working in a normal way to draining out slowly without any major incident to suddenly cause the blockage. The line was becoming less tolerant and more blocked over time and then one period when a lot of water and debris went through compounded the restriction.
Grease can also trap other debris such as rice, pasta starch, vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, eggshell fragments and soap scum; basically anything that is light enough for the grease to catch it and hold onto it as it moves through the pipe. As this happens, the clog slowly becomes a mix of things instead of a single substance.
Why Hot Water Is Not a Full Solution
Hot water can often help to move grease like this further into the system, but it does not guarantee that the grease will remain in liquid form until it reaches the end of the main sewer. Rather, once the water cools, the residue can still continue to cling to the wall of the pipe, meaning that the problem has simply been moved downstream instead of being eliminated.
Using boiling water to try and clear a blockage like this can also be risky depending on the health of the pipe itself. It can, for instance, crack an old pipe that has become fragile.
Enzyme treatments and maintenance products may be useful to try and fix the problem in some homes, but they are not the right answer for every active clog, and if the pipe has already been significantly narrowed, the immediate issue may need to be solved mechanically with an auger or by hydro jetting.
Why Snaking May Only Help for a Short Time
Using an auger or drain snake can open up a path through a clog like this, especially when the issue is a soft blockage or a reachable obstruction, however there is a limitation in so far as a snake may not clean the grease coating off of the pipe wall entirely.
If the wall remains coated with grease and the snake has only punched a hole through the clog then the drain can start to slow again pretty quickly as new bits of residue and grease pass through the same area and find something to adhere to. The homeowner may then think that a new clog has formed, but the more accurate description is that the pipe was never fully cleaned out to begin with.
Hydro jetting is often an excellent solution in these instances, because it uses high-pressure water to scour the inside of the pipe and clean it out fully. Plumb N Plumber's hydro jetting service is specifically designed to cut through grease-based blockages like this.
When a Slowly Draining Kitchen Sink Points Towards a Bigger Issue
A kitchen sink that starts off draining slowly often seems like an isolated problem. Then a toilet in a nearby bathroom starts making a strange sound. If this starts happening, the issue may involve more than just the kitchen unit.
A very bad odor can also point to trapped residue or a broader drain issue and is something worth mentioning to your plumber. If the kitchen drain keeps clogging after clearing it, a camera inspection is probably recommended to determine whether grease is the main issue or if there are roots after encroaching into the pipe.
Habits That Can Prevent and Reduce Grease From Going Into a Drain
In order to reduce the amount of grease going into a drain, the best daily habit is to keep as much fat and food residue out of the drain as possible. Wipe pans down as much as possible before washing them and scrape plates thoroughly before putting them into the washer. Avoid treating the disposal as a trash can. These choices will reduce the amount of debris entering the pipes.
Be cautious with using chemical drain cleaners as well, especially when a pipe is already backed up. These often don't solve the problem and instead can create a safety issue for the plumber as there is now harsh chemicals sitting in the water.
When to Schedule Drain Cleaning in Woodstock, Georgia
You should schedule a servicing of your pipes when the kitchen sink starts to drain slowly after normal use or if there is a bad odor coming from it that persists. Those patterns suggest the pipe needs more than the “hope it goes away” approach!
A plumber can evaluate for you whether the problem is being caused by a simple obstruction of the pipe, if grease has coated the inside of the pipe, or if there is a more serious problem line a main-line blockage. If hydro jetting is a good fit for a more sustainable solution then the aim will be to clean the pipe entirely rather than simply opening up a narrow path, which is only a temporary fix.
Plumb N Plumber provides drain cleaning and hydro jetting services, as well as camera inspection of sewers, and related plumbing service for homeowners and businesses in Woodstock, Cherokee County and the greater north Atlanta area. If you have a slow draining kitchen sink or a recurring clog, schedule a service or give us a call today on (678) 725-0042.
