Drain Cleaning

 

All year round, build-up of grease and fat in kitchen drainlines, blockages and overflowing smelly grease traps are common problems faced by restaurants,hotels, malls and any food and beverage outlet with commercial or industrial scale food preparation operations.

 

Filed under
Specialised Cleaning
 
June 21, 2018
 
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Drain Cleaning
 

In a climate where budgets are constantly being squeezed, these types of businesses are increasingly looking for affordable maintenance solutions. One such solution that has become increasingly relevant with the advancements in the F&B sector of Dubai is an effective Grease Eradication System (GES).

Whilst the general economy has hit a flat period, in the F&B market in the UAE you don’t have to look far to find a new concept opening soon. It seems that as one outlet closes two new ones open. This has increased the competition between companies performing drainline cleaning services. Whilst some companies have looked at reducing their costs in order to reduce the rates on offer and keep the profit margins, companies specializing in niche cleaning operations, such as Tetra Axis have looked at providing more and more value through the packages they offer and still remain competitive commercially.

The crux

There are numerous reasons that a kitchen drain line can block, grease and fat build ups, incorrect drainage layouts or staff negligence with stewards sweeping rubbish into the floor traps. These overflows can be costly to remove. A big challenge involved in the drain line service is the diversified range of foods that are on offer within Dubai’s vast F&B industry. This causes havoc for the drainage network as the different foods react to cause long chains of fatty acids along the bottom of the drain lines eventually causing blockages that can stretch over a considerable distance resulting in a challenging and costly jetting, or even replacement of drain lines.

To avoid the food and general plastic waste entering the drains we try to educate our clients staff in disposing of these items without it going into the drainage network. When this does occur, it can stop on bends in the network and cause build ups resulting in drainage overflows. The time put into this stage can easily be linked to a reduction in money spent on emergency call outs. In a climate where budgets are constantly being squeezed, most businesses are increasingly looking for affordable maintenance solutions. The Grease Eradication System when supplied at an effective strength and mix is a great way for purchasing departments to control their budget as it allows for a steady expense without any costly and unexpected reactive works.

Technology & best practice

A GES is a 24/7 unit designed to solve the problem of grease accumulation in drainage networks. Generally speaking, they work by using adosing pump to inject a set amount of solution directly into drainlines, preventing grease accumulation at source. We have carefully calculated and tested our systems to work strategically as the kitchens are busy and to pump enough bacteria into the drainage system to deal with the amounts of waste entering the network. The most effective GESs use biological dosing to break down Fat, Oil and Grease (FOGs) and then begin digesting the remains to leave a biproduct of CO2 and water.

Drain-life - a microbial grease digester - is a powerful waste degrader, containing 100 million grease-eating bacteria per ml. Certified by Emirates Authority for Standardization and Metrology, it has proven to be a complete solution to the problem of fat, oil and grease in drainage systems. The aim of the product is to provide the customer with a true Planned Preventative Maintenance (PPM) so that they can carry on with what they do best, providing their customers with a 5-star service.

Colony counts (counting the amount of active microbes per batch) are an important aspect of our quality control procedures and batch tests are conducted regularly, allowing us to confirm that Bacillus concentrations in Drain- LifeTM are high enough to effectively digest built up Fats, Oils and Greases in drain lines and grease traps.

In the unlikely event of a blockage occurring the reactive response is key to the continued operation of the kitchen. For this we provide a 24/7 service for emergency response, which will usually be a high pressure drainline jetting. It is key that this is completed by a trained team of technicians in order to completely clear the lines, by using backward facing nozzles to remove the waste from the drain via the floor trap rather than pushing the waste further down the drain line where it will collect and block once more. This is however only reactive works. A fully preventative solution will involve removing the grease as it enters the drainlines, hence Drainlife.

We have other versions of the product made with different strengths that can be used to shock dose larger drainlines or periodically dose into large grease/sump tanks. This tackles grease and fat accumulation on a larger scale and can considerably reduce the costs involved in cleaning and maintenance.

About the Author: Robin Gibbs is the Group Managing Director at Tetra Axis. A British National, he has been working in the energy and water conservation and liquid waste management industry in the UAE for the past 9 years. During this time, he has developed various products and services to aid his clients in water and energy saving and the biological remediation of liquid organic waste. Robin is a keen environmentalist and supports environmental policies that are developed and orchestrated by the government.