How To Clean A Grease Trap In A Commercial Kitchen In 2026

Key Moments

Click any timestamp to jump to that moment in the video.

• ► 0:36 — “anything that’s a fat, oil, or grease is going to rise to the top… any solids is going to sink down to the bottom… any water, it’s going to let it escape through here”
• ► 2:25 — “record keeping is really important when you’re pumping grease traps because every restaurant is mandated to have their grease trap pumped before the health inspection”
• ► 3:10 — “since it’s been sitting here for so long, weeks at a time without getting pumped, you can smell it”
• ► 6:01 — “instead of running 150 200 ft of hose, we can just bring this barrel right up to the grease trap”
• ► 10:17 — “Cleaning grease traps can be really lucrative because it isn’t easy and in my opinion it smells a lot worse than cleaning porta potties”

How Grease Trap Pumping Actually Works: A Live Service Route Walkthrough

What Grease Traps Are and Why Every Restaurant Has One

Good morning everyone. It’s 5:00 a.m. on Saturday and today we are pumping some grease traps.

Grease traps can be found in almost any commercial kitchen or restaurant. The purpose of them is to catch any FOG – which is fats, oils, and grease – from entering the sewer system after washing dishes.

Here we have the restaurant’s dishwashing area. They’re going to wash everything here, and a bunch of food and stuff is going to enter into the drains. It’s all going to drain down in these tubes here, and then it’s going to drain into our grease trap right here.

How Gravity Separates Fats, Oils, and Solids Inside the Trap

It’s going to work based on gravity. Anything that’s a fat, oil, or grease is going to rise to the top. And then any solids are going to sink down to the bottom. And then any water, it’s going to let it escape through here.

Any of the fats, oil, grease, or solids are going to stay in the trap, which is what we don’t want entering the sewer system. Over time, these particles are going to build up and it’s going to start getting more and more full of fats and oils and grease, and that’s when they need to get pumped out.

The more grease that your restaurant makes, the more often you’re going to need to get it pumped out.

How Often Your Restaurant Needs Its Grease Trap Pumped

We have some customers that get it serviced every week, like a Chinese restaurant or a taqueria. If you don’t create that much grease, you can do maybe every 3 or 6 months.

Tool: Extra Pair of Gloves

Always get an extra pair of gloves just in case, because if you have to take them off when you’re in there doing the service, you don’t want to be left without gloves.

Tool: Freshwater Hose

We’re going to bring our freshwater hose to connect to the customer’s water supply and get the grease trap clean.

Tool: Spatula for Scraping and Opening

Our spatula. This is going to scrape off any of the food bits that are on the sides. And you can also use it to open it up.

Tool: Crescent Wrench, Allen Wrench, or Drill

To open the grease trap, sometimes you need either a crescent wrench, an Allen wrench, or a drill. It just depends on how the grease trap opens up.

Tool: Adapter for the Sink Connection

For this stop, we have an adapter to connect our freshwater line to their sink because it’s a different size.

Why Record Keeping Is Legally Mandated for Every Service

Record keeping is really important when you’re pumping grease traps because every restaurant is mandated to have their grease trap pumped before the health inspection.

We always take a picture before and after every cleaning to let the customer know that we were there and it was pumped.

Pumping the Top Layer of Fats, Oils, and Grease

We’re going to pump up everything on the top first, the top layer. See, it’s sucking up all the hard fat, oil, and grease. Take a look at that.

Over time, all of that is going to rise to the top of the grease trap, and then if you don’t get it pumped out, it’s going to end up getting clogged, and then your kitchen sink’s going to back up. You’re not going to be able to do any dishes.

What Happens When a Trap Goes Weeks Without Service

Since it’s been sitting here for so long, weeks at a time without getting pumped, you can smell it. Almost pumped empty.

Flushing Out the Solid Food Particles at the Bottom

At the bottom are all the solid food particles because that’s all going to sink down. We’re going to take water to get the rest of it nice and cleaned out.

You want to be careful because anything that sprays back up at you is going to stain your clothes and it’s going to stink.

Take a look at the spatula. And then take a look at the line — you can see all that we’re cleaning out. You want to get all that stuff cleaned out so it doesn’t clog up.

Using the Bazooka to Let Water Do the Work

We can put the bazooka right in the corner and then the water does all the work. You can see we’re running the sink to rinse some stuff out and more stuff is coming out of the pipe that we just cleaned.

Putting Everything Back Exactly as You Found It

We’re going to put everything back exactly the way that we found it. You don’t want to forget to put any filters or anything back because then the grease trap isn’t going to work like it’s supposed to for the customer.

Trap is all clean. We’re going to close the valve. We’re going to take a picture of how we left it for the manifest. Send to the customer. Boom. Nice and squeaky clean. Now we can close it up and we’re good to go.

Using a Barrel on Wheels for Hard-to-Reach Grease Traps

Some grease traps are in hard-to-reach locations. That’s when we bust out the barrel on wheels and then we go into the restaurant right next to the grease trap. We can pump it out into this barrel. We bring it out back to the truck and then we can empty it.

If you look, we had to park all the way over there. But instead of running 150 to 200 feet of hose, we can just bring this barrel right up to the grease trap.

Servicing Above-Ground Traps with a Portable Power Source

Sometimes the grease traps can be in the ground or sometimes they’re above ground. This one’s above ground right here. We just need a power source and then we’re going to go in and get it all pumped up.

See, that’s much easier than running 200 feet of hose to get all the way back there. Now we just need to pump the barrel empty into our tank and then we can get it loaded up and head to the next stop.

Why Cleaning Schedules Are Strict and Waiting Is Built In

Our schedules for cleaning can also be really strict. Since the traps smell so bad when we’re cleaning them, lots of restaurants want us to come before they open and before their customers are there eating.

Usually, we make an appointment for when the workers first get there in the morning, so then they can open up. We can come out and clean it before anybody shows up to eat.

Unfortunately, this means during the route, some waiting can be built in. We got to this stop at about 8:15 and the workers aren’t going to get here until 9:00.

Other times, we have to set up an appointment with the owner and we just have to be on time. You can’t come and go as you please. And lots of places won’t give us a key because they don’t want us coming in and out of the restaurant when nobody’s there. Waiting is just part of the route.

Always Bring Enough Hose for Any Location

When you’re pumping grease traps, you need to make sure that you bring a lot of hose. Lots of times you park far away from the entrance to the restaurant, or the grease trap is in the very back of the restaurant. You need to make sure that you’re able to get there.

Why Grease Trap Cleaning Is More Lucrative Than Porta Potties

Cleaning grease traps can be really lucrative because it isn’t easy and in my opinion it smells a lot worse than cleaning porta potties. They can go months at a time without getting service sometimes and that’s what makes them smell bad.

How Porta Potty Routes Compare in Time and Access

With porta potties, we can create our own schedule, come and go as we please, and everything is mostly serviced weekly. If not weekly, then twice a week. We can build our own routes and usually access is pretty easy to get to.

Most toilets are within 10 to 15 feet of where you can park and usually a stop will take less than 10 minutes. I would probably say 7 or 8 minutes for a good service.

Whereas a proper cleaning for a grease trap usually takes about 30 minutes. As you’ve seen, sometimes you can’t park that close. You’ve got to extend 100 to 150 feet of hose or more. And we have to work around the customer’s schedule.

Pricing a Grease Trap Service and What Makes a Profitable Day

We usually set 1-hour time slots for each customer so they know an approximate time when their appointment is, but considering those time restrictions, we can charge a lot more for a grease trap service.

Usually, the amount being pumped is 50 gallons or less, but you can charge upwards of $150 per cleaning. I would say for porta potties, getting $50 for a single cleaning would be considered excellent.

Since we can charge so much more for a grease trap cleaning, you don’t have to pack as many in in a single day in order for the route to be profitable. I would say six or seven stops at $150 each and you have a pretty solid day.

Why Routes Are Less Dense and Driving Time Is Higher

Since we can’t pack the routes as densely, there’s a lot more driving involved. In between stops, sometimes we can be driving 20 to 30 minutes or more.

Sometimes you can get lucky and stops are lined up next to each other, but the service schedule of every restaurant is so erratic that it’s hard to predict and you just have to accommodate what the customer needs. Our schedule is always different.

Lower Startup Costs Compared to Porta Potty Rentals

If you’re comparing starting a business between the two, porta potties and grease traps, it costs a lot less money to get started doing grease traps. They use very similar truck equipment — you’re going to need a vacuum tank and a truck, but you don’t need to buy the hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of plastic in order to start generating revenue. All you need is your truck and some customers and you can start generating revenue.

Also, talking about rent, it’s a lot cheaper just to park one single truck than it is to store your truck plus all of your porta potties.

Mixed Loads, State Restrictions, and When to Add This Service

If you’re really lucky, your wastewater treatment plant will let you take mixed loads of FOG and septic waste and dump them at the same time. If that’s the case, you should definitely add this service to your offerings if you own a porta potty rental business already because you already have the specialized backing equipment that you need.

But if you’re in California like us, they don’t allow us to take mixed loads. So, we need a separate truck for porta potties and grease traps. So, it doesn’t really make sense to offer the services side by side. You need a different truck anyways.

Expanding Into a Full Restaurant Services Company

Every single restaurant has a grease trap, so the demand is there. It just depends on whether you can handle the work and the smell.

If you want to start offering this service or start a grease trap pumping company, you can also offer services such as commercial hood cleaning, drain line hydrojetting, and cooking oil recycling. Restaurants usually need all of these services. So, you can become an all-in-one restaurant services company by offering all of the above.

I hope you enjoyed this video about pumping grease traps, and I appreciate you watching. As for me, I’m going to keep my day job pumping porta potties because that smell has nothing on this.