What to do If You Pour Oil Down the Drain
Whether you were deep-frying meat, chicken, fish, bacon, french fries, doughnuts, onion rings, or hushpuppies… (OMG I’m hungry already. I’ll be back in a second). As I was saying, this deep-frying cooking will result in leftover oil. And accidentally, you may have poured oil down the drain. So, today, we’ll answer this question: what to do if you pour oil down the drain?
What to Do if You Pour Oil Down the Drain?
- Pour Hot Water Down the Drain
- Pour Vinegar and Baking Soda Down the Clogged Drain
After pouring the mixture, cover the drainage to keep the fizzing effect for at least 10 minutes. Then, you can add one kettle of boiling water to flush the drainage.
- Use a Snake Down the Drain (If It’s Super Clogged)
What Are the Dangers of Pouring Oil Down the Drain?
Some people don’t know the damage oil or grease can do when poured down your kitchen sink.
So, what happens if you dump oil down the drain?
It creates severe problems in the plumbing system. If you pour grease or oil down the kitchen sink, you could clog and damage your drainage system.
The viscosity of cooking oil will coat your pipe walls. Then, the oil will start collecting food crumbs, coffee grounds (if by accident you poured some), and other residues, which lead to clogs.
When cooking oil hardens within the plumbing pipes or sewer lines, it can cause standing water in the sink or even worse; it can result in backing up of sewer waste into your home.
These problems can be prevented, and it’s the best way to deal with them because resolving such draining issues can be quite expensive.
If the common sewerage line in your neighborhood has oil and grease clogs, this can cause serious sewer backups into the waterways and streets. Such a scenario would create major environmental and public-health risks. And all because neighbors were pouring oil in the sink.
So, beware of this!
What to Do if You Pour Oil Down the Drain?
If you pour oil or grease down the drain, act immediately.
So, here we give you some tips to get rid of the oil down the sink.
1. Pour Hot Water Down the Drain
Start of by boiling a kettle of water on your stove. Then, start to pour the water slowly down your drain. This will make the grease become hot and turn into a softer form, avoiding the formation of clogs.
2. Pour a Mixture of Vinegar and Baking Soda Down the Clogged Drain
Take half a cup of baking soda and pour it down the drainage. Then, pour a half cup of white vinegar into the drainage.
This mixture will produce bubbles within the drainage and make a hissing sound (fizzing).
After pouring the mixture, cover the drainage to keep the fizzing effect for at least 10 minutes. Then, you can add one kettle of boiling water to flush the drainage.
Vinegar and baking soda can dissolve fatty acids to form glycerin and soap. In simpler words, they work wonderfully at preventing clogs.
But, to avoid injury and burns on your eyes or face, don’t use this method after a commercial drainage opener has been used or where there’s standing water.
Using these natural and noncorrosive cleaners (vinegar and baking soda) to remove oil clogs is the best option. You’ll clear the oil clog without harming the drain.
Avoid using liquid toilet clog crushers as much as possible and for emergency use only as they are harmful to the drain.
3. Use a Snake Down the Drain (If It’s Super Clogged)
If the drain is super clogged and the first two tips didn’t work, try putting a snake down the drain.
Do you know how to use a snake or drum auger?
If you don’t know, we decided to pick one of the most informative and trusted videos we could find on the Internet.
We don’t want to kill you of boredom with more boring text. So, here’s a fantastic video from BrassCraft. This will teach you how to use the BrassCraft drum auger, and it will help you out with unclogging your sink!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJdV5XQ0Xgo&feature=emb_title
If you want to learn more useful tips to unclog your kitchen sink, and make wastewater flow smoothly through the drains, read our blog post entitled:
“Learn How to Unclog a Sink: This is the Complete Guide”
How to Dispose of Cooking Oil? What’s the Best/Safest Way?
If you want to know the best way to prevent oil from clogging your sink, here is our simple answer. The fireproof way is to never pour frying oil in the kitchen sink (not even a small amount of oil). If you accidentally poured some oil in the sink, you need to follow the three steps we mentioned above.
Also, it would be best if you don’t throw out oil on the ground outside since it can cause problems for wildlife. And also, you shouldn’t pour oil, even when cool into your garbage disposal.
Why not? Well, oil or grease leaks in your trash can attract pests and cause problems for garbage trucks.
So, when disposing of cooking oil, you need to put it into a sealed, non-breakable container before you toss it in the trash.
You may pour a small amount of oil into your garbage, but make sure it’s not more than a tablespoon.
So, you might be asking yourself: What is the easiest and safe way to dispose of cooking oil?
When the Oil Cools Down, Put It in a Sealable Container and Freeze It
You can use an empty coffee can, an old plastic bottle, or another sealable plastic container and pour it when the oil cools down.
You can continue cooking, and you using the leftover oil until you finally fill the can/container. Now, tighten the container lid and freeze it.
Once the oil solidifies, you can safely dispose of the container in a trash bin.
Alternatively, you can take the frozen cooking oil and drop it off in a local recycling center. This oil can be used for making alternative fuel for diesel engines. In that way, you contribute to the planet by recycling.
When researching to write about this topic, we came across a video. This is a fun, informative, and down to the point video. Please take a look at it.
What Should You Do with Leftover Cooking Grease? – 41 Action
Where Can I Dispose of Used Cooking Oil?
Nice question!
You can dispose of used cooking oil or grease properly at specialized sites. We advise you to get rid of your kitchen grease this way since it will keep your waste oil away from the landfills, and it will be recycled into biodiesel, for example.
You can use the tool recycling locator of Earth911.
In the “Search for” section, type in “cooking oil,” add your zip code, and then click search. You’ll get a useful list of local recycling solutions.
Keep in mind these when taking oil to a recycling center:
- Strain the oil to remove food particles.
- Store in a sealable container.
- Deliver to your local collection site.
Conclusion
You have to handle kitchen oil properly. Pouring grease down the drain pipes can even clog/damage the main sewer line of your neighborhood. So, the best way in this case is to avoid throwing oil down the sink because this can evolve into an expensive and bothersome problem.
Now that you know how dispose of cooking oil properly, you can go ahead and eat your eggs and bacon having the peace of mind that everything will be ok!
Bon appetite!