Why You Should Never Pour Hot Oil Down The Drain Of Your Sink
Once your veggies are sautéed or your pancetta’s pan-crisped to perfection, it’s understandably tempting to dump the excess cooking oil or grease down the drain and dig in. After all, the sink is right there and the oil’s liquid anyway, so what could it hurt?
Pouring hot oil down the drain might not seem like a big deal in the moment, but even the occasional grease disposal shortcut can add up over time and result in a whopping plumbing bill.
Most hot oils don’t stay in liquid form once they’ve cooled.
Many oils, including butter, coconut oil or bacon fat are in a liquid state when warm, but in a solid state at room temperature.
“When you pour hot grease down the sink, it’s still in a liquid state,” said Joel Frederick, president of Quarter Moon Plumbing. But once it cools, the grease hardens and sticks to the walls of the pipes.
The oil, plus any food particles and debris that get washed down the drain, will congeal and stick around (pun intended) ― typically just behind where the pipe makes a U-bend ― the trap ― under the sink.
“Anything heavier than water gets caught here,” said Shane Mahaffey, CEO and master plumber at Towne Plumber. The lingering oil and food bits can cause funky smells to radiate from your kitchen drain in the short term, and a full-on blockage as time goes on.
Perma-liquid cooking oils can still wreck your pipes.
Oils like olive oil and canola oil may not solidify at room temperature, but plumbers still advise against pouring them down the sink. That’s because these oils are hydrophobic, meaning they don’t mix with water very easily, so they end up coating your pipes instead.
“As they move through your pipes, they’ll fuse with the bits of food particles, fats from table scraps, hair and other debris hanging out in your drain,” Mahaffey said. “The blockage created will eventually send the water in your sewer back up into your pipes.”
Chasing the oils with hot water or dish soap doesn’t help.
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