Response to how do you build a grease trap in a grey water line?

Janie: We have such a system in our house. In the original design, all greywater was collected in a 450 gallon underground tank and used as lawn fertilzer when it got full. Problem was, the impeller on the pump used to water the lawn kept getting clogged up with hair, grease and small food scraps which made it through the sink traps. We installed a blue plastic drum in the line before it empties into the 450 gallon tank. You actually need two drums 'cause you cut the top off the one which gets buried in the ground and use the top 1/4 of the other one as a lid. The greywater line in diverted into the buried tank just below it's rim. The outflow line exits the the barrel at the same level. The secret to happiness is to install a 90 degree elbow on the outflow turned down toward the bottom of the barrel and put just enough pipe on the end of the elbow to install a tubular screen to keep the trash in the barrel and out of the outflow pipe. Initially I used window screen but this proved too fine. The screen clogged up and required weekly cleaning. I changed to 1/4" hardware cloth and and now clean the screen every 3-4 months. About every 6-9 months you will have to clean out the barrel (yechhhhh!) but I can't figure any other way to make the settlin's go away. A dipper made from a deep cooking pot with the handle extended with an aluminum tube works fine for this task. Good luck, John and Pat

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