Grease trap emergency

[allanb]

My house had some fairly major renovation work done about 25 years ago, and ended up with not one but two fosses septiques.   One is apparently the main one; the other is smaller and receives the output from (1) one loo in a shower room, not used very much, and (2) all other non-loo waste water including what comes out of the kitchen (is this what is called "grey water"?)  The grey water, if that's the right term, passes through a grease trap just outside the house. 

Incidentally we have had our SAUR inspection, with no adverse comments.

Now we are suffering from occasional unpleasant smells in the house, and I fear that the source could be the grease trap, which hasn't been emptied for about two years (because in my ignorance I didn't think about it).  It won't be possible to do this during the next three weeks.  Is there a product I can safely put down the drains - not the loos, of course - as a temporary measure, just to kill the smell? 

Bleach, maybe?

[osie]

I seem to remember reading(after some googling) that you put down hot water and then the next day some bleach.  I did this and it worked fine.

I think the problem was grease and hair getting stuck in the pipes and decaying.

We have a grease trap and a septic but have not yet needed to learn that side of things... until now it seems to work.

[Clair]

I have used Destop liquide to dissolve hairy and/or greasy blockages.

I found it in Gamm Vert and it is safe to use with septic tanks, but do read the handling instructions.

[Val_2]

What about the little grease trap being opened up and being cleaned out by hand. We had a f.septique originally until the mains and every year we had to literally degunge the smaller tank as the congealed fat had turned into rather a lot and our friend had a huge block build up which he had to cut out with a bread knife andthen bury cos it stank so much, all this was the result of using cooking fat and the natural fats turning solid and no product on earth would have got rid of them.

[Gardian]

I suspect that Val has identified the problem.  Exactly the same problem here when we first moved in - horrible job to clear it out, but once done (and from then on, no fat / grease down the sink), no further odour / blockage.

None if this helps much if you can't deal with it over the next x wks, but at least you have an idea of what probably awaits you!  [blink]

[osie]

I opened our grease trap... From the little I know, if it is liquidy on the top then it is all working fine.

If you did have an inspection I presume they would have checked to see if the grease trap was working okay or not.

btw: I was told to pour some serious drain deblocking liquid down the pipes periodically, to keep them from blocking up.  Ours did block up and so a karcher with a long hose was needed to bring all the hardeded fat back up... not a nice site.  It may be an idea to pour some water down the sink and make sure it does flow down to the septic tank.  We have an exposed bit of pipe in the garden(between the sink and tank) to do this.

[BIG MAC]

A biological grease and fat digester may be helpful...normally used in commercial kitchens and introduced to the grease trap via a dosing pump. Smells coming up through the trap could mean a compromised water seal...Is the sink trap blocked / scaled up?