Does a Chandler restaurant need a grease trap or interceptor?

The city's Food Service Establishments page says the code requires any food service establishment that prepares or packages food or beverages for sale or consumption to install a fats, oils and grease (FOG) treatment device. That covers grease traps and grease interceptors. The device is sized by how many fixtures drain to it, and the size comes from the chart on our Chandler sizing page.

Under Chandler City Code 51-25, the building official enforces the grease, sand and oil interceptor provisions in the plumbing code. So the device is checked at plumbing plan review and inspection, not by a separate grease permit.

It covers any Chandler business that prepares or packages food or beverages for sale or consumption, and the owner is the responsible party, including for cleaning and repairs. It does not cover residential kitchens. The enzyme rule is about additives put into a restaurant's grease device, not about what a homeowner pours down a household drain.

• Food service establishment (FSE): the city's phrase for any business that prepares or packages food or drinks for sale or to eat. The page does not list business types, so a coffee shop or bakery that prepares food or beverages fits the words as written.
• FOG treatment device: the city's term for both small grease traps and large gravity interceptors.
• Hauler: a Maricopa County Environmental Services licensed non-hazardous liquid waste hauler. When a hauler does the work, the service record must name one. The city also allows you to clean the device yourself.

A new restaurant in a shell space. The plumber gives Development Services a fixture count and plumbing plan with the permit application. The device is sized from the chart, installed and inspected. The city asks for the count with the application, not after.

A busy kitchen with grease reaching the sewer. Chandler gives no calendar interval, only the 25 percent rule and the "if grease is seen leaving" trigger. A high-volume fryer line can hit 25 percent long before a slow cafe, so the honest schedule is the one your hauler's records support.

The edge case: a disposer. A remodel adds a garbage disposer at the prep sink and drains it to the existing interceptor. The city says a disposer cannot discharge to a FOG device. The disposer needs separate drainage, or it comes out.

The additive shortcut. A manager buys an enzyme dosing system to stretch pumping intervals. Chandler treats that as prohibited, and the system must be removed at the owner's cost.

1. 1Have your plumber count the fixtures that drain to the device and prepare the plumbing plan.
2. 2Submit both to Chandler Development Services with the plumbing permit application (215 E. Buffalo St., 480-782-3000).
3. 3Install the device sized to the city chart. If a hauler will service it, use one with the Maricopa County license, or plan to do the cleaning yourself and record it.
4. 4Keep a service log on site with the fields listed above, retained for 3 years as the city advises.
5. 5Check the device against the 25 percent mark between pumpings, and shorten the interval if grease is escaping.

• "Enzymes count as maintenance." Chandler says they do not, and treats them as prohibited additives.
• "The city sets a pumping schedule like Phoenix and Gilbert." It does not. Phoenix (every 30 days for hydromechanical, every 3 months for gravity) and Gilbert (every six months) set a floor. Chandler uses the 25 percent rule and leaves the interval to you.
• "The city page's 2018 code reference is the current rule." Chandler adopted the 2024 IPC effective July 1, 2025. The page still cites the 2018 edition's Section 1003.3.2 for the disposer rule, and City Code 51-25 still names the 2012 edition. Confirm the current section number with Development Services when you file plans.