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Warning: I upsized a grease interceptor and it made my whole situation worse
I run maintenance for a 12 unit strip mall in Mesa and last year I swapped out a 50 gallon grease interceptor for a 100 gallon one because the tenant lineup changed from a sub shop to a full BBQ joint. Everyone in the trade kept saying size up, size up, so I did, and that decision cost me a $1,900 pump out bill in less than 3 months. Here's what nobody explained to me: a bigger tank holds the same flow longer, so the grease just sits there and cools into a brick instead of getting pushed to the outlet where my hauler can pull it easy. My pumper showed up, looked inside, and flat out said he'd rather do two small tanks than one big one any day of the week. I ended up going back to a 50 gallon unit downstream of a proper solids trap and my pump outs dropped to every 8 weeks like clockwork. The lesson for me is that interceptor sizing isn't about how much grease you make, it's about matching the fixture load and the pump out schedule to the actual flow. So what is everyone here running for a single heavy grease producer, and do you size off fixture units or just years of what has worked?
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ruby56121d ago
Buddy of mine ran a diner and did the exact same thing, went from 50 to 100 and his hauler started charging him extra because the grease caked up and took twice as long to suck out. He swears by sizing off fixture units now instead of guessing.
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