It’s Christmas! And that means friends, family and food. If you are planning on cooking up a storm this Christmas, have you considered the damage that grease can cause to septic tanks and drainage systems?
Although it is easy to tip any unused cooking fat from your turkey down the drain, this can build up and lead to a number of drainage issues.
What foods clog up my septic tank?
When we say grease, this isn’t always just cooking oils or grease left in a roasting tray. Although these are the most commonly thought of, other fatty foods such as salad dressings, sauces and condiments, butter or gravy can be the root cause of drainage issues this Christmas.
What damage can grease cause to a septic tank?
A septic tank is built to run efficiently in accordance with a number of things, including how many people are in your home and what substances end up in your septic tank. At Christmas time, the efficiency of your septic tank could be impacted by having family or friends over to stay and the production of extra grease and fat which may be passing through your septic tank. This can all end up overloading your drainage system.
The damage comes when the ‘scum’ layer of your septic tank (the top layer of the septic tank, where grease and fats end up) becomes too thick. If too much scum builds up, this blocks the tanks ability to drain away wastewater causing a build up of scum and wastewater within your septic tank.
Not only this, but if the scum layer makes its way through the drain pipes, it can cause a blockage of the pipes and end up in your drainage field or soakaway.
How to protect your septic tank from grease
There are a few ways you can protect your septic tank from grease this Christmas.
Monitoring the amount of grease that enters your septic tank will help to ensure that your tank does not become overwhelmed with the extra substances entering the system. A grease trap can also be installed. This helps to collect fatty foods on their way into the tank to avoid a build up.
Emergency Christmas callouts
If you run into problems this Christmas time with your septic tank, we are on hand to help. In December, we are still running our emergency callout services. This is however, a more limited service than we offer normally due to the holidays and we would urge you to visit our call outs page to check opening hours before calling.