Most commercial kitchens land between 30 and 90 days. Where you fall in that range depends on how much grease your kitchen actually produces, not on the size of the trap or how long it has been since the last visit.
What a grease trap does
A grease trap is a tank sitting between your kitchen drains and the sewer or septic line. It slows water down enough that fats, oils and grease float and separate out instead of carrying on into the system.
Once the trap fills, it stops separating. Grease passes straight through and starts coating the line downstream, and it keeps coating it until something blocks.
What actually sets your interval
- Fryer volume. The single biggest factor. A kitchen running fryers all day fills a trap far faster than one that does not.
- Covers per day. More plates means more grease, straightforwardly.
- Menu. Heavy prep, breakfast service and anything wok-based all produce more than a sandwich counter.
- Trap size relative to the kitchen. An undersized trap on a busy kitchen will need clearing constantly. That is a sizing problem, not a cleaning problem.
- Seasonality. Which most people do not plan for.
Seasonal swings are what catch kitchens out
An interval that works in July is often wrong by October. We see this most clearly in Commerce, where the university calendar can double covers at the same address between summer and term time. Setting two intervals is better than averaging them into one that suits neither.
Around Quitman it is the opposite pattern: Lake Fork brings tournament traffic in spring, and the end-of-season pump-out matters more than the ones during it. Grease left sitting through a quiet autumn hardens, and next spring’s routine job becomes a much harder one.
Sewer or septic changes what a failure costs
This is the part worth understanding, because it changes the maths on skipping a cleaning.
On municipal sewer, a failed trap gives you a blocked line, a shut kitchen and a bill you did not budget for.
On septic, the grease reaches your own tank and then your own drain field. A grease-fouled field is a replacement, not a cleaning. In rural counties like Rains, around Emory, commercial kitchens on septic are the common case rather than the rare one.
Keep your records
Whatever your interval, keep the paperwork. You should be able to show an inspector when the trap was last pumped and by whom. In our experience that documentation is the thing most kitchens are missing when somebody asks for it.
We haul under TCEQ Transporter Registration 23977, and the waste goes to our own compost facility in Pickton.
Installation, cleaning and maintenance
We install grease traps, clean them, and keep them on a maintenance schedule. One company for the whole life of the trap, rather than three.
Most kitchens prefer a pump-out before opening or after close, and someone answers our phone any hour, so if a trap backs up mid-service we will come.
Tell us your covers per day and what you are running in the kitchen and we will work out an interval that keeps you ahead of it. Call (903) 885-4946, or see grease trap service.
Common questions
How often should a commercial grease trap be cleaned?
Most commercial kitchens fall between 30 and 90 days. High-volume fryers and heavy prep push it toward 30, while a small cafe with limited cooking can often run longer. Your local health inspector may set a minimum.
What happens if a grease trap is not cleaned?
Grease carries past the trap and coats the line downstream. On municipal sewer that becomes a blockage and a bill. On septic it reaches the tank and then the drain field, which turns a cleaning job into a replacement job.
Do you install grease traps as well as clean them?
Yes. We install grease traps, clean them and keep them on a maintenance schedule. If a kitchen is opening or the current trap is undersized for what is actually cooked, we can size and fit the right one.
Need someone to look at it?
We look before we quote. Nothing gets priced over the phone that we have not seen.
Someone answers any hour, any day