For many food service business owners, the grease trap is an important part of business. It helps make sure that fats, oils and grease that come from friers, grills and other cooking implements are disposed of. You’re going to expect a lot of problems cropping up when you experience a grease trap failure in the middle of service.
Continue reading “4 Signs of A Grease Trap Failure”
Your septic tank is an important fixture in any home and business. However, this essential part of home cleanliness can end up becoming a ticking time bomb that can ruin your day and your business. Overflowing, and awful smells are the least of your worries if you leave your septic tank alone. The best way to keep this from happening is to make sure that you know what causes these disgusting septic tank problems.
Continue reading “The Main Causes of Septic Tank Problems”
Having your septic tank regularly checked for issues is an important part of being a good home or business owner. You wouldn’t want it failing on you at any time. Not just because of the awful smell and filth that will be everywhere if it does fail, but also because of the amount of trouble you’re going to need to go through if it does fail. However, your septic tank still fails despite your best efforts and there’s sewage everywhere. You might be thinking what you could have done to prevent the accident and what could have caused such a crappy disaster.
Continue reading “Common Reasons for Septic Tank Failure”A composting toilet is a great alternative to your usual septic tank toilets when there aren’t any stable places to have a septic tank or if the area is secluded. But keeping one maintained can be an arduous task and if not properly maintained can lead to your toilet being unusable for months. The best way to make sure that doesn’t happen is to know exactly what needs to be done to keep one maintained and in top condition.
Before we get into the nitty gritty of how you can keep your composting toilet in top condition, we first need to know how it works. You can’t fix something if you don’t know how it works.
Aerating Waste with Mulch
Your usual composting toilet will have a deep pit where you’d normally find mulch like sawdust or shavings. There is also usually a container near the composting toilet with more mulch that you need to toss in after you’re done answering the call of nature. The reason why sawdust and other similar materials are used instead of sand is that they create small pockets of air. These air pockets let air circulate better in the pit and making it easier for bacterial cultures to decompose the waste.
Bacterial Assistance
Most if not all composting toilets make use of bacteria to help decompose waste. There are two kinds of bacteria that you’ll find in a composting toilet pit. The bad bacteria that can cause disease and commercial bacterial cultures that you’ll introduce yourself. The bacterial cultures will eliminate bad bacteria while also decomposing the waste faster and more efficiently. It also makes sure to eliminate the smell that comes with human waste.
Now that you know how your composting toilet works, you might think that all you need to do is toss in mulch and bacterial cultures in there to keep it working. That isn’t the case as it needs other maintenance steps to keep it from smelling like an open septic tank.
Daily Cleaning
Composting toilets are known to require more cleaning than your standard flush toilets because of how a composting toilet is built. It’s literally a toilet on top of a pit. In order to trim down the pyramid of filth in the pit, make sure to have it scooped out every day.
Proper Usage of Mulch
There should be a spare bucket filled with mulch near your composting toilet. This makes it easier for a person who just recently used the toilet to reach it and throw a fresh coat of mulch on their waste. It dries out the waste and makes it much harder for bad bacteria and flies to breed and grow in the pit.
Avoid Pouring Water in the Toilet
Water might seem like a good idea to throw into your pit, but it does more harm than good. Water will turn the inside of the pit into a sloppy mess and make it much harder and more disgusting to clean it out. Not only that, the sloppy mess in your toilet’s pit is the perfect breeding ground for bad bacteria and flies to breed and grow.
Keep Other Waste Out
Human waste is the only thing that should be going down your toilet. Solid objects like glass, chunks of wood, and cloth will sit in your pit for extended periods of time and will not easily turn into compost like the human waste. This also makes it exceptionally more dangerous to clean a pit out, especially if there are any sharp objects in there. A single cut can lead to a septic infection and put your life in danger, so make sure to put foreign objects into a bin instead of the pit.
The grease trap is an important part of any restaurant. It helps keep your sewage line free of fat, oil and grease, collectively known as FOGs, and prevent any flooding incidents in your establishment and making it smell like the grease trap itself. If you’re unsure of how you should go about maintaining your grease trap then keep reading.
Maintaining your grease trap should be at the top of your priority list to make sure that your grease trap doesn’t fail and ruin dinner service.These tips will help you make the right decisions whenever you need to maintain your grease trap.
Conduct Regular Maintenance and Inspections
Regularly checking your grease trap for any issues is the first step to proper maintenance. Inspecting and cleaning your grease trap should be done once every 2 to 3 months to make sure that it stays in top condition and doesn’t have any underlying issues that could end up breaking your grease trap or even your sewage line. Missing these can mean you have to spend a large amount of money on repairs that could have been avoided.
Be Prepared with The Right Tools
“Avoid using a sledgehammer when trying to open a nut”
Sure, you can use that sledgehammer, but you’ll end up with a broken nut. The same applies to grease trap maintenance as using the wrong tool for the job can end up breaking your grease trap. Having the right tools on hand can definitely make a difference when it comes to making it easier to maintain. Some tools you can use to make grease trap maintenance easier include:
Check The Installation of Your Grease Trap
Proper maintenance can start as soon as a grease trap is installed. During installation, check if your grease trap is properly installed as improper installation could mean that FOGs will still be getting in your sewage line. A good sign that your grease trap isn’t properly installed is if there is little to no grease in your grease trap after several months of installation.
Get Professional Help
If you aren’t sure of how to go about maintaining your grease trap, then calling a professional in to help with it can be a good idea. They come equipped with the knowledge and tools to be able to fix and clean your grease trap without risking it being damaged. They can even help you properly reinstall a grease trap that was mishandled and improperly installed.
Use Specially Formulated Bacterial Cultures
Certain bacterial cultures sold by companies like MicrobiaLogic’s GTB 800 Grease Trap Treatment breakdown FOGs blocking your grease trap. With the FOGs broken down and unable to clog the drain, wastewater can safely move to your sewage line without risking it blocking it.
Bacteria are small but powerful organisms that we have lived with for centuries. They have been used to make bread rise and make alcoholic beverages in days of old. Today however, bacteria is not only used to make your pastries and beer but also help the environment clean up our waste products.
If you’re curious about how you’re helping yourself by using bacterial cultures then read on.
Why Use Bacterial Cultures?
The environment can easily handle small amounts of waste products. However, dumping billions of gallons/tons of waste without treating it will overwhelm our environment and put the ecosystem in jeopardy. This is where bacterial cultures come in. It ensures that there is less waste floating around, fewer diseases, less odor, and make sure that the environment we live in can cope with the waste we dump every day.
Less Waste
Bacterial cultures are used to help eliminate solid waste from wastewater. This process is called Biodegradation.The use of bacterial cultures ensures that waste products are removed quickly and efficiently when compared to just dumping it into the environment and hoping that nature will take care of it. Nature is too slow to handle all the waste we output every single day so using it on our waste ensures that we give nature a helping hand in handling our waste.
Odor Removal
You would think that bacteria would create a terrible odor while eating away at the waste however, there are specific bacterial cultures that can eliminate up to 75% of the odor from waste. This bacteria is lactobacillus which is commonly found in yoghurt and cheeses. It works by producing lactic acid which prevents the growth of other more odorous bacteria.
These bacterial cultures will definitely be able to handle the odor that will be billowing out of your outhouse after burrito night.
Disease Prevention
Untreated sewage is also a carrier of disease. Without treatment, diseases such as leptospirosis, diarrhea and hepatitis could contaminate sources of drinking water. Your drinking water. It would also infect fish that you would commonly find on your dinner plate. This can cause stomach problems and illness when eaten.
Better thank bacteria for making sure that your next Salmon Mignon and cold glass of water is as pristine as a crystal clear river and tastes just as good as it looks.
Environmental Preservation
Solid waste absorbs oxygen from the water around it which means there is less oxygen that can be used by fish and other forms of aquatic life. If there isn’t enough oxygen in the water, aquatic life will find it difficult to thrive, let alone survive. Rivers formerly teeming with life will slowly be left barren and dirty due to all the waste floating around.
Bacterial cultures are the heart and soul of waste disposal and we would literally be in deep sh*t if we weren’t using them.
At home you can also use bacterial cultures to help get rid of waste in your own outhouse or septic tank. The RTB760 and RTB780 bacterial cultures that you can get from MicrobiaLogic will help break down waste and get rid of any unwanted odors. Get yours today!
Composting toilets have long been known to be green and environment-friendly. Though these toilets are more commonly used in mobile homes, boats, and RVs, they can also be used at home. These are called self-contained composting toilets. Continue reading “Can You Use Composting Toilets at Home?”
