Thanksgiving Kitchen: Keep Your Dallas Sink and Disposal Running

Dallas asks every kitchen to Cease the Grease

Dallas Water Utilities (DWU) runs Defend Your Drains, a citywide program asking homes and businesses to "Cease the Grease." Fat hardens in pipes, and the blockages lead to sewer overflows, foul odors and property damage. In a holiday kitchen, that means:

• Drippings, bacon fat and gravy: cool them, pour them into a lidded container, freeze it and trash it when full.
• Greasy pans and plates: wipe them with a paper towel before washing.
• Used cooking oil, even a fryer's worth: seal it in a container and take it to a DWU drop-off site. The Defend Your Drains locator finds the closest one.

DWU sends the oil to the Southside Wastewater Treatment Plant, where it becomes biogas that helps power the plant. In the 2025-26 season the City of Dallas also joined the regional Holiday Grease Roundup, which collected home cooking grease from November 1 to January 31. Commercial kitchens answer to the city's grease trap rules instead (grease trap service).

Holiday leftovers that are hard on a drain

Keep these out of the sink:

• Potato peels turn into a starchy paste that coats the trap.
• Rice, stuffing and rolls keep soaking up water and swell into a plug.
• Turkey bones are hard on the grinding parts and can stall the motor.
• Celery, onion skins and green bean ends wind their fibers around the spinning parts.

Running the disposal while the kitchen is busy

DWU asks Dallas homes to put food scraps in the trash, not the sink or disposal, so save grinding for the small bits left after you scrape plates. Run cold water before, during and a few seconds after grinding to carry them through the trap and into the line, and let the unit go quiet before you start the dishwasher, whose drain hose usually empties into the disposal. Skip chemical drain openers: they rarely clear a packed food clog, and a basin of caustic water makes the repair hazardous.

If the motor hums but won't turn, switch it off, rock the socket on the bottom back and forth using the hex key that usually comes with the unit (a 1/4-inch Allen wrench fits most), then press reset. Keep hands out of the chamber. For repeated jams or a leak underneath, see garbage disposal replacement and our guide to preventing clogged drains.

Houseguests, extra showers and the water heater

• Space out showers so a tank heater can recover; with a tankless unit, don't run a shower, the dishwasher and the washer together.
• Put a small trash can in every bathroom. Defend Your Drains says wipes always go in the trash, even ones labeled flushable.
• Leave a plunger by each toilet and show guests the shutoff valve behind it.

If the water heater rumbles, leaks or runs short, book water heater repair before company comes. See also no hot water, toilet overflowing and our freeze prep checklist for Dallas homes.

Older Oak Cliff and East Dallas homes, and condo towers

Many houses in Oak Cliff, Kessler Park, Lakewood and South Dallas date from the 1920s to the 1950s and still drain through cast-iron pipe and clay sewer laterals. Aging cast iron roughens inside and catches grease, clay joints let roots in, and shifting Blackland Prairie clay can leave low spots where scraps collect. If your sink is already slow or gurgling, book drain cleaning early in November, not on the holiday. A line that clogs again soon after calls for a video camera inspection and possibly sewer line repair.

In downtown and Uptown high-rises, kitchen drains from several floors share a stack, and a grease plug there backs water into the units just above it. If your sink fills with water nobody at home ran, call building management.

If the kitchen sink backs up during dinner

1. Stop the water: faucet off, dishwasher paused.
2. Check the rest of the house. If the tub gurgles or the toilet bowl climbs while the sink empties, the clog is in the main line, so hold off on all water use.
3. If only the disposal side holds water, run the disposal with cold water; if it hums or won't start, use the hex-key and reset steps above.
4. Plunge with a flat cup plunger, the other basin sealed with a stopper or wet towel and water over the cup.
5. Call if it won't clear. For sewage in a tub, shower or toilet, call (844) 313-1397 at any hour and we send our on-call plumber right away. If the sink won't drain at all, or drains only slowly, call us and we book a visit at a time that suits you.

If the house next door backs up too, or a street manhole spills, the city's wastewater main may be the cause; DWU takes those reports around the clock through 311. More help: our 24/7 emergency service page and sewage backing up in the tub.

Thanksgiving kitchen drain FAQ

Book a kitchen drain check before the 26th

Call (844) 313-1397 to set up a drain check or disposal repair ahead of the holiday, or use our contact page. Dallas 24 PLUMBER works under Texas plumbing license # M-27587 and serves homes across Dallas, from the Cedars to Pleasant Grove.

First-time customers take $50 off. Seniors, first responders and members of the military get 10% off. The dispatch fee drops to $0 when we make a repair, and a new water heater is $150 off. See our coupons for terms.

Office hours 8 AM–11 PM daily · 24/7 emergency service