Holiday Kitchen Drain Clogs: How to Prevent Them and What to Do in the East Valley

Why the kitchen line clogs this time of year

Grease is liquid when it is hot. It cools as it moves down the pipe and sticks to the walls. Food particles catch on that layer, and the opening gets a little smaller every time. Chandler's fats, oils, and grease program says this plainly: food particles stick to grease clinging to pipe walls and speed up the blockage.

A normal week might never push that line over the edge. A holiday does. You have more pans, more people, more dishwasher loads, and more scraps going down the disposal in a few hours than the sink sees in a month. The clog has often been building for a long time, and the holiday is just the day it finally shows up.

What to do with the grease

Here is what Mesa and Chandler tell residents to do:

• Let grease cool, then pour it into a can or jar and put it in the trash. Chandler says small amounts can be frozen, covered, bagged, and thrown out.
• Wipe greasy pans with a paper towel before you wash them.
• Scrape plates into the trash, not the sink.
• Do not use hot water and soap to push grease down. Mesa notes it will harden further down in your pipes or in the sewer.
• For a lot of oil, like a turkey fryer, use your city's household hazardous waste drop-off. Mesa recycles used cooking oil at its Household Hazardous Materials facility. Chandler takes larger amounts by appointment at 480-782-3510.

Go easy on the disposal

A garbage disposal grinds food up. It does not make it disappear. Chandler's guidance is to use disposals sparingly, because ground-up food plus grease is exactly what builds a clog. Things that give disposals and drains the most trouble on a holiday:

• Potato peels, which turn into a starchy paste
• Rice and pasta, which keep swelling with water
• Turkey skin, fat trimmings, and gravy
• Coffee grounds and eggshells
• Celery, onion skins, and other stringy scraps

When in doubt, it goes in the trash.

If the sink backs up anyway

1. Stop the water. Turn off the faucet and do not start the dishwasher. It drains into the same pipe.
2. Check the disposal. If it hums but does not spin, turn it off. Most units have a reset button on the bottom and a hex socket underneath for freeing a jam. Never put a hand inside.
3. Plunge it. Use a flat cup plunger, not a toilet plunger. On a double sink, hold a wet rag tight over the other drain so the pressure goes toward the clog.
4. Skip the chemicals. On a full stop, they often sit in the sink and do not reach the clog. Now you have a basin of caustic water to deal with.
5. Watch other drains. If water comes up in a tub, a shower, or a floor drain when you run the sink, the blockage is past the kitchen line and in the main line. Stop using water in the house and call.

When to call a plumber

Call when plunging does not move it, when it keeps coming back, or when more than one drain is slow at the same time. A clog that keeps returning usually means grease buildup further down the pipe. Plunging pokes a hole through it, and it closes up again. A proper drain clearing cleans out the line, and a camera can show what is actually going on in there.

Josh has 15+ years in the industry, and the advice we give every customer is the same: find out why it clogged, not just how to clear it once.