I normally try not to put any fat down our sink and when I do, I make sure I
use plenty of detergent & hot water but I was a bit horrified when our
drains were dug up (for an extension, not for blockage) to see this.

http://www.zen31010.zen.co.uk/images/yuck.jpg

I'm going to be a *lot* more careful in the future but given that everything
is getting revamped, I was wondering about a grease trap for the drain. A
quick seach just seems to throw up catering sized traps. Are there any
smaller ones for domestic use?

Tim

On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 11:19:03 -0000, "Tim Downie"
wrote:

I normally try not to put any fat down our sink and when I do, I make sure I
use plenty of detergent & hot water but I was a bit horrified when our
drains were dug up (for an extension, not for blockage) to see this.

http://www.zen31010.zen.co.uk/images/yuck.jpg

Three or four years ago, when I visited a sewage treatment works of
our local water company, they showed me a waste pipe about 4 feet
diameter, a lot of which was fed from a potato crisp factory.
Without exaggeration, there was a layer of grey solid grease some 18
inches thick, which regularly blocked the pipe.

The difficulty the water company had was that the pipe had been
largely paid for by the above factory.

--
Frank Erskine

Tim Downie wrote:
I normally try not to put any fat down our sink and when I do, I make sure I
use plenty of detergent & hot water

Better to leave fat to cool and then bin it I would have thought. Oil
and detergent is ok though.
Oil or fat plus caustic soda equals soap with a greatly increased volume
and, being only slowly soluble, it can create more of a blockage
initially.

Stuart Noble wrote:
Tim Downie wrote:
I normally try not to put any fat down our sink and when I do, I
make sure I use plenty of detergent & hot water

Better to leave fat to cool and then bin it I would have thought.

Don't think I ever suggested to the contrary. ;-)

Oil
and detergent is ok though.
Oil or fat plus caustic soda equals soap with a greatly increased
volume and, being only slowly soluble, it can create more of a
blockage initially.

Can't see any chemical agent being any good on a pipe that size when
everything you chuck down the drain will flow through the hole at the
bottom. Although I've no intensions of chucking any quantities of fat down
the drains there's always likely to be *some* that goes down so I'd still be
interested in a domestic grease trap.

Tim

Tim Downie wrote:
I normally try not to put any fat down our sink and when I do, I make sure I
use plenty of detergent & hot water but I was a bit horrified when our
drains were dug up (for an extension, not for blockage) to see this.

http://www.zen31010.zen.co.uk/images/yuck.jpg

I'm going to be a *lot* more careful in the future but given that everything
is getting revamped, I was wondering about a grease trap for the drain. A
quick seach just seems to throw up catering sized traps. Are there any
smaller ones for domestic use?

Tim


Now you know why I tip caustic down at regular intervals.

In article ,
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Tim Downie wrote:
I normally try not to put any fat down our sink and when I do, I make
sure I use plenty of detergent & hot water but I was a bit horrified
when our drains were dug up (for an extension, not for blockage) to
see this.

http://www.zen31010.zen.co.uk/images/yuck.jpg

I'm going to be a *lot* more careful in the future but given that
everything is getting revamped, I was wondering about a grease trap
for the drain. A quick seach just seems to throw up catering sized
traps. Are there any smaller ones for domestic use?

Now you know why I tip caustic down at regular intervals.

Can't see why you'd need to. You don't have to put insoluble fat down a
drain. If you don't keep it for re-use - as our parents or grandparents
used to do - put it in a container and out with the rubbish.

--
*I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Tim Downie wrote:
I normally try not to put any fat down our sink and when I do, I make
sure I use plenty of detergent & hot water but I was a bit horrified
when our drains were dug up (for an extension, not for blockage) to
see this.

http://www.zen31010.zen.co.uk/images/yuck.jpg

I'm going to be a *lot* more careful in the future but given that
everything is getting revamped, I was wondering about a grease trap
for the drain. A quick seach just seems to throw up catering sized
traps. Are there any smaller ones for domestic use?

Now you know why I tip caustic down at regular intervals.

Can't see why you'd need to. You don't have to put insoluble fat down a
drain. If you don't keep it for re-use - as our parents or grandparents
used to do - put it in a container and out with the rubbish.

There is always some tip off that is too contaminated for reuse.

Anyway my grandmother used to keep everything and every time I ate her
'left overs' I had the squits for a week.

In article ,
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Now you know why I tip caustic down at regular intervals.

Can't see why you'd need to. You don't have to put insoluble fat down a
drain. If you don't keep it for re-use - as our parents or grandparents
used to do - put it in a container and out with the rubbish.

There is always some tip off that is too contaminated for reuse.

Of course.

Anyway my grandmother used to keep everything and every time I ate her
'left overs' I had the squits for a week.

I doubt from any fat kept. By nature it is heated to a point where nothing
survives.

--
*I'm really easy to get along with once people learn to worship me

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Jan 26, 9:14*am, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:
In article ,
* *The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Now you know why I tip caustic down at regular intervals.

Can't see why you'd need to. You don't have to put insoluble fat down a
drain. If you don't keep it for re-use - as our parents or grandparents
used to do - put it in a container and out with the rubbish.

There is always some tip off that is too contaminated for reuse.

Of course.

Anyway my grandmother used to keep everything and every time I ate her
'left overs' I had the squits for a week.

I doubt from any fat kept. By nature it is heated to a point where nothing
survives.

--
*I'm really easy to get along with once people learn to worship me

* * Dave Plowman * * * * * * * * London SW
* * * * * * * * * To e-mail, change noise into sound.

I once heard that at Bradford sewage works, they use to collect so
much lanolin and fat from the local wool-processing factories, that
it was mixed with something - paraffin? - and used to fire the steam
locos. which were used on the works railway. Nothing new about power
from waste!