Restaurant Grease Line Jetting in Phoenix

A restaurant has two grease-carrying lines, and jetting means something different on each. The line from the kitchen to the interceptor carries fresh grease and food solids toward the tank. The line downstream of the interceptor, the lateral that runs to the city sewer, is supposed to carry only treated water. When grease shows up there, the interceptor has let something through.

This page is about the second case. The kitchen-side line has its own page on commercial drain cleaning. The downstream line is where grease turns into a blockage that is yours, and sometimes the city's, to fix.

Jetting a lateral clean while the tank is still passing grease buys you a few weeks. Grease gets past an interceptor for a handful of reasons: the tank is overdue, a baffle or tee is broken, an additive is pushing grease through, a fixture bypasses the tank, or the water is too hot. Our page on grease in the sewer line after an interceptor walks through each.

So the order of work matters.

1. 1Pump the tank. A licensed hauler does it. HQ does not pump.
2. 2Check the inside. Our crew looks for the failed part, as described on grease interceptor repair.
3. 3Jet the line. Once the cause is handled, the pipe gets cleaned.
4. 4Camera the line. The pass afterward shows what is left.

Chandler says grease witnessed leaving a device means the cleaning schedule goes up. That is true when the tank is simply overdue. When a part has failed, the schedule is not the problem.

Hydro jetting uses high-pressure water through a hose and a nozzle to scour the pipe wall rather than punch a hole through the middle of the blockage. For a grease coating, that difference is everything. A cable opens a channel and leaves the coating, which is why a line cleared with a cable can back up again within weeks. See jetting versus snaking a commercial main line and what hydro jetting is.

We jet the restaurant lateral from inside the building with a small hose, and jet the main out to the city sewer when the stoppage reaches that far. Work is scheduled before opening or after close, usually one to two hours inside. We go in through the cleanouts the code puts around the tank. Mesa requires a two-way cleanout within 5 feet before and after the interceptor, and Phoenix requires one on the discharge side of a trap. If a line has no usable access, that gets sorted first. See hydro jetting without an accessible cleanout.

We camera the line after the jetting to see whether the wall is actually clean. Flow at a cleanout shows that something moved. It does not show that the coating is gone, or that the pipe is sound. The camera can also show a belly, a cracked joint or roots that the grease was hiding. A defect is a repair question, not a cleaning one, and it moves the conversation to sewer camera inspection and sewer repair. Our page on why to camera the line after jetting covers what the video can and cannot prove.

Keep the video with your records. Next time, you can see how fast the line fills.

For restaurants with a history of grease in the line, we keep jetting on a schedule and log the dates against your account. A line that needs jetting twice a year is a different problem from one that needs it twice a month, and the log tells you which you have. The Phoenix manual says keeping grease out of the pipes reduces the need for routine jetting. Practice and a healthy tank are what stretch the interval.

Jetting is the wrong answer when the cause is still active. Do not jet, and do not buy more enzymes. Phoenix prohibits chemicals and enzymes that dissolve grease for a while, and Chandler explains that they re-congeal further down the pipe. Do not jet when the pipe is fragile and a camera has not looked first, either. For old cast iron or clay, see whether hydro jetting can damage old pipe.

And if the backup is happening right now, call for a same-day visit. We start with a cable and keep a jetter on standby. A jetting proposal follows for the permanent fix.

Tell us the city, whether there is a gravity interceptor or a trap, and when grease was last seen downstream. We offer 24/7 emergency service, free estimates and an upfront price before work starts. Related: hydro jetting, grease trap service and restaurant plumbing.