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7 Tips to Prevent Clogged Pipes

7 Tips to Prevent Clogged Pipes

With Holidays Around the Corner, Don’t Clog Your Pipes with Grease and Gunk

The holidays are the perfect time to enjoy family, friends and lots of food. Whether it’s a family get-together or big holiday blowout, Thanksgiving and the winter holidays bring good times but can also bring drain clogs. We see lots of drain problems, clogs, and backups this time of year. Trust Complete Trenchless to get your pipes back in shape. Beware grease and other clog-worthy foods as you get ready for the holidays.

7 Tips to Prevent Clogged Pipes

#1 Grease is a clog creator

Pouring grease down your drain is a clog waiting to happen. Fat, oil and grease from your turkey or other foods will settle in your pipes and when it cools down, it becomes nearly solid. It’s like shoving clumps of Crisco down your pipes. Grease in the pipes can also wreck your disposal. Don’t put it down your sink!

#2 Watch out for bones in the grease

Small bones can eat up your disposal and larger chunks of bones can settle in your pipes for good.In addition to grease itself, other small particles can join forces to make a big clog. A mesh screen can save your sink, pipes and disposal from items that can wreak havoc on your plumbing.

#3 Don’t put in the skin

Poultry is big at the holidays. Cornish game hens, chicken and turkey all come with skin but raw or cooked meat skin can wreck your pipes. Never put poultry skins down your sink – they get stuck in the disposal blades and pipes and can rot and stink up your kitchen as they decompose.

#4 Peels are not appealing

Potatoes are common fare on most tables in the holidays and so are carrots and deviled eggs. All of these come with outer skins that can wreck your plumbing. Potato and carrot peels can wrap around your disposal blades or stop up pipes. Egg shells are sticky and fibrous and can do the same.

7 Tips to Prevent Clogged Pipes

#5 Scrap the scraps

Trash cans are always overflowing around the holidays so it might seem easier to put table scraps down the disposal, but it’s not a secondary trash can. Instead, scrape plates into your trash or compost can to keep your pipes clear and your disposal from dying of exhaustion.

#6 Don’t forget your toilet!

With visits from friends and family comes extra activity for your toilet and no one wants a stopped-up bathroom or septic problem in the holidays. Consider swapping to single-ply toilet tissue, ditch the flushable wipes (they should NOT be flushed), and post a reminder note to guests to only flush TP.

#7 Use your disposal properly

You will use your disposal for many things during the holidays, but you should use it properly to prevent clogs. Turn the water on before you start the disposal and let it keep chopping with water running for 30-60 seconds after you put down the last bit to keep stuff from getting left in the blades or pipes.

With lots of residual grease on plates, be sure to wipe pots, pans and plates with a paper towel before you put them into the dishwasher or rinse them in the sink. Residual oil can add up and cause a clog. Rinse plates and pans in very hot water and grease-cutting soap like Dawn to prevent build-up.

Gather your holiday grease and oil in a lidded container to drop off at Whole Foods or other collection sites over the holidays. Your sanitation service may accept grease in a container at the curb with a tight lid. Click here to access a list of Seattle drop-off sites for cooking oil so it can be recycled into bio-diesel.

Call Complete Trenchless this holiday if you’ve got pipe or sewer problems. Our trenchless technology allows us to fix your pipes without wrecking your yard. Call us in Seattle at (206) 259-0415 or click here to request a quote.

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