Large grease generators in the kitchen are the pre-rinse sinks and the pot-washing sinks. Grease comes from the food residue that is on used plates and cookware. The biggest generator of grease is the three-compartment sink, where a lot of the pots and pans are washed.

Surprisingly, very little grease comes from the dishwasher. Plates and cookware have grease and food residue scraped/rinsed off at the pre-rinse station before they go into the dishwasher. Any grease that does come out of a dishwasher is emulsified grease. Grease emulsifies due to the high concentration of detergents and high strength soaps that dishwashers utilize. Emulsified grease cannot be trapped.
 
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Traditional grease traps/interceptors must be manually cleaned. Large, in-ground traps/interceptors require a professional with a vacuum/pump truck to do the cleaning. In the case of small, passive grease trap/interceptors, an individual must do the cleaning by hand with a spoon/ladle.

A Big Dipper Automatic Grease & Oils Removal system cleans itself out on a daily basis. It does not need manual cleaning.
 
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Like a traditional grease trap/interceptor, free-floating grease and oils are trapped in a baffled chamber. Unlike traditional grease trap/interceptors, Big Dipper systems use a skimming wheel (which is controlled by a timer) to skim the grease and oils out of the baffled chamber. The grease and oils are scrubbed off of the wheel with a wiper blade and channeled out of the unit and into a collection container provided with the system.
 
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Thermaco recommends you follow the local and state plumbing codes with regard to flow controls and vented flow controls. Your local distributor of Thermaco products can help you as they are very knowledgeable in this area.
 
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In IS (Internal Strainer) Big Dipper systems, food scraps are captured in a strainer basket. This needs to be emptied into a garbage receptacle at least once a day, more often if you have a busy food preparation facility.

In AST (Automatic Solids Transfer) Big Dipper systems, incidental food scraps are trapped in a solids chamber and automatically removed.
 
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It takes about ten minutes a week to keep a Big Dipper operating properly. The wiper blades and grease trough should be cleaned at least once a week. The food scraps captured in the strainer basket included with IS systems needs emptying at least once a day. The grease collection container provided with each Big Dipper system is translucent, so you can see when it needs emptying.

Periodically, you may want to shop-vac out the bottom of your Big Dipper as very fine solids may begin to accumulate.
 
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Thermaco, Inc. has a global network of sales affiliates. To get in contact with your local sales affiliate, please contact Thermaco headquarters at 1-800-633-4204 or Contact us via our online form.

People sometimes get grease separators confused with grease receptacles (barrels or bins) where spent fryer grease and grill drippings are kept. Grease separators are part of the plumbing system and capture grease, oils and fats from kitchen drain water. You should NEVER pour grease from fryers or grill drippings into a grease separator.

Always properly dispose of fryer oil and grill drippings into a designated grease barrel or bin provided by your local cooking oil recycling company. Please visit this link for the rendering/recycling company in your area. http://nationalrenderers.org/about/directory
 
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Big Dipper sizing depends on two factors: the number of fixtures in your kitchen and the size of those fixtures in your kitchen. Please refer to our sizing guides found in the website, or contact the factory at 1-800-633-4204. You can also Contact us via our online form.
 
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The kitchen drain water typically contains free-floating fats/oils, fat/oil/detergent emulsions, dissolved sugars, cleaning chemicals such as chlorine compounds and other food related preparation/cleaning materials. Big Dipper and Trapzilla separators separate and retain the free-floating fats and oils from kitchen drain water. Any influent emulsions, dissolved sugars, small particle size food matter and cleaning chemicals will still be present in the flow discharge effluent from a Big Dipper or Trapzilla separator and will require further treatment/cleaning before reuse as outdoor irrigation or toilet flushing supply water.

In most cases, the collected grease and oils are emptied into the grease rendering barrel provided by your local rendering company. This is the barrel where you dump your deep-fryer grease. Rendering companies come by on a schedule and empty this container. The grease & oils that are removed from the Big Dipper are virtually water free, so rendering companies like it - there is less effort in recycling the grease.

In some areas, it is all right to dump the collected grease into the landfill, but be sure to look into this before doing it. It is becoming illegal to do this in a lot of areas.
 
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The SuperCeptor is designed for extremely high volume sites like correctional facilities, casinos, and hospitals. Instead of being an "in-line" grease trap (which handles direct kitchen flows), it services an existing in-ground grease trap. Think of it as an on-site pump truck. A SuperCeptor pumps effluent from the grease trap, separates and collects coarse solids using Big Flipper® technology, then removes and collects free-floating grease and oils using a Big Dipper system. The "cleaned" effluent flows back into the grease trap, where it empties into the sewer line. Again, the SuperCeptor is designed for extremely high-flow installations.

There are over 18,000 Big Dipper units installed all over the world, from the small sandwich counters to the largest casinos.
 
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A point of use grease separator is usually not required for a three (3) compartment pot washing sink when there is a central grease removal system receiving the flows from the entire kitchen.
 
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No. The inlet and outlet ends of the Big Dipper unit are permanent. However, the Big Dipper unit can be easily reversed by simply lifting the center module section of the Big Dipper unit and rotating it 180 degrees to the opposite orientation.

*ALWAYS UNPLUG UNIT BEFORE REMOVING LID.
*SYSTEM WILL NOT OPERATE UNLESS CENTER MODULE IS IN PLACE.
1) Unlatch the lid. Pull the side wings outward.
2) Lift the center module up off of the unit, ensuring clearance for the heater.
3) Rotate the center module 180 degrees.
4) Lower the center module back down on top of the unit. Move the two side wings back into place & fasten all latches.
 
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Yes. Ice cream production plants utilize milk and cream products containing homogenized and non-homogenized (free-floating) butterfat. The homogenized fats cannot be separated. Free-floating (non-homogenized) butterfat can be separated by grease separators having sufficient retention times. Most of the butterfat at ice cream production facilities is homogenized product. Because of the inability to separate homogenized butterfat, production process spill and waste prevention is usually the best practice for ensuring an ice cream production facility meets community fats and oils discharge limits.

Big Dipper models W-200-IS, W-250-IS and W-350-IS are certified by the Plumbing and Drainage Institute to the PDI-G101 Standard and they are also certified to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers ASME A112.14.3 and ASME A112.14.4 standards.

Note: The ASME A112.14.3 standard pertains to testing a separator's grease separation efficiency and grease retention capacity. The ASME A112.14.4 standard pertains to testing a separator's automatic grease removal, i.e. self-cleaning aspect.
 
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We suggest initially setting the timer to operate one (1) hour per day. After operating the Big Dipper for one week with a one hour per day setting, check to see if the grease collector accumulates water. If water is accumulated, reduce the timer to 45 minutes and observe again for water accumulation.

After operating the Big Dipper for two weeks, remove the top cover and stir the water and grease layer. If the grease layer is more than one inch (25mm) thick, set the timer to operate for 30 minutes longer. Food service establishments are able to determine their optimal timer setting by following these steps.
 
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Please contact Thermaco, Inc. @ 336-629-4651

We have parts for all Big Dipper products. Please call us at 1-800-633-4204 or email us at info@thermaco.com .

You can connect a wok range and pre-wash sink together as one flow going to a Big Dipper unit. We suggest installing a FS-1 Flat Strainer beneath the pre-wash sink to capture the rice, lettuce and other food scraps.
 
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You can download them from our website or you can contact us at 1-800-633-4204

Generally, it is good practice to size a Big Dipper unit to the next larger size increment when used in a basement installation. The reason is because of the higher water velocity created by the vertical height.
 
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Please call us during our business hours or provide us with your telephone number for our technical support staff to talk with you. It sounds like there may be an installation problem creating siphonage. Siphonage causes the internal water level to abnormally go down which, could cause the heater element to heat the grease/air interface leading to a grease smoking issue.
 
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A Big Dipper unit into the floor until it matches the sink outlet height parameter. The maximum recess depth for a Big Dipper W-350-IS unit is 7.25 inches (180 mm).

Many facilities set their Big Dipper timer to operate the skimming removal cycle after hours.

Commercial waste disposers can flow to a Trapzilla TZ series grease separator.

We discourage commercial waste disposer output (flow) to a Big Dipper unit. Commercial food disposers (garbage grinders) produce fine (small diameter), ground-up solids that may interfere with the Big Dipper's automatic grease skimming action.

The timer operates the Big Dipper skimmer system when the timer tabs are pressed inward towards the center of the dial. Please push all tabs outward. This turns off the Big Dipper unit. For 24 hour timers, each tab is 15 minutes. A typical Big Dipper only needs to run its self cleaning removal cycle for 30 minutes each day. Thus, only two tabs need to be pressed inward to provide 30 minutes of daily operation.

The Trapzilla super capacity grease separator is designed to efficiently separate and retain free-floating grease found in the drain water of food service establishments. It is designed to be easily pumped out by grease trap service companies. The frequency of when a Trapzilla needs to be pumped out depends on the type of restaurant, menu and how much greasy waste enters into the facility's drains. The Trapzilla grease separator does not require enzyme or bacteria treatments.

The Big Dipper has high recyclable content as it manufactured with considerable stainless steel content, has copper in the motor windings and recyclable plastic materials. We suggest dropping the Big Dipper off at your local recycling center or taking it to your local landfill . Most municipal landfill operations have a drop-off area for appliances to be recycled.

In some sites, the fine solids may build up on the bottom of the Big Dipper unit over a three to six month period. We suggest you fill up the sink and release the water all at once while stirring the bottom of the Big Dipper with a long spoon. The high flow rate combined with stirring sweeps the fine/small solids out of the unit. An alternative method is to use a wet vacuum to suck out the contents. After cleaning out a Big Dipper with a wet vacuum, please remember to re-fill with water. This will ensure the Big Dipper's integral gas trap has a water seal and the heating element is covered with water. The Big Dipper installation and operation manual provides information on servicing and cleaning.
 
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The Trapzilla separator may be cleaned by a service company using a vacuum truck. For sites not accessible by a vacuum truck, such as a restaurant installation on the top floor of a multi-story building, the Trapzilla unit may be serviced by a professional service having a portable vacuum tank system.

One year

Devices that discharge high levels of finely divided solids such as food disposals and food pulpers can cause maintenance issues with Big Dipper grease separators. The extremely fine solids pass through the strainer basket leading to the floating solids becoming entrained in the separated grease, which can interfere with the grease skimming operation. The fiber and glue paste fractions from macerated corrugated materials (cardboard boxes) run through a pulper can also mix with the separated grease and interfere with the grease skimming mode.

Trapzilla and Big Dipper separators are designed to capture grease and oil products found in everyday flows from pot washing sinks, pre-rinse sinks at dishwashing and other water drain points within a commercial kitchen. We strongly discourage pouring quantities of pure fats/oils from fryer equipment into grease separators. For example, the pouring of large quantities of oils from a fryer vat could lead to an illegal discharge should the grease separator's capacity be exceeded which would result in grease, fats and oils illegally being put into the sewer system.

The electrical connection to Big Dipper point source units (W-150-IS through W-500-IS) is at the top rear of the system and is a flexible power cord 2.46 meters long (8 feet) with a standard male plug electrical connector.

Outlet venting is important to ensure the internal sewer gas trap water seal depth is not lost to siphonage. This is necessary for installations where the outlet pipe directly connects to the facility drainage system such as a pipe into the wall installation. Big Dipper installations where the flow is discharged into an open floor sink (air gap type discharge) are not directly connected to the facility's drainage system and thus are not subject to sewer gas issues.

If you have concerns about venting problems, we would like to assist you. Please call us at 1-800-633-4204 or by email at info@thermaco.com.

YES

This is a good question and one that has several different answers as explained below:
1. Many state and local plumbing codes require dishwasher flows to be routed through a Big Dipper. However, there are probably just as many state and local plumbing codes that do not require a dishwasher flow to be routed through a grease separator.

2. If your flows go to a septic field or other on-site wastewater treatment arrangement, we suggest not routing the dishwasher discharge to the Big Dipper. Dishwasher effluent is rich in detergents and sanitizing chemicals which, when coupled with hot water, readily emulsify fats, oils and grease components. This means the separated and trapped grease within a grease separator is lost to emulsification. The emulsified detergent/grease material is later broken down by septic field bacteria with the bacteria usually having a preference for eating the detergent fraction which releases the grease fraction free to bond with the soil surface where it subsequently interferes with the septic field's aerobic digestion capability/capacity.

Summary: If your plumbing code requires the flow from a dishwasher be routed to the Big Dipper and you are on a municipal sewer system, you must comply. Otherwise, we suggest not routing the dishwasher's hot, soapy effluent to the Big Dipper. In all cases, we recommend routing the pre-rinse sink's discharge to the Big Dipper because of its high loadings of salad dressings and fats, butter, oils from plate rinsing prior to dishwashing/sanitizing.

The Big Dipper has the following aspects built into its design:
1. Integral sewer gas trap built into the outlet.
2. A natural backflow spill out point via the grease discharge port and also via a design feature built into the top of the separator tank.

The Big Dipper is certified to UL and CSA standards for electrical safety. There is a standard test requirement where the outlet of the Big Dipper is intentionally blocked while receiving a ten gallon per minute (37.85 liters per minute). The flow must not enter the electrical works or the unit fails the test. The Big Dipper's electrical works are located on top of the tank and successfully pass the test because of the backflow prevention (natural spill out) design aspects built into the Big Dipper.

An air gap is the unobstructed vertical distance through the free air between the outlet of the discharging pipe and the flood rim of the receptacle receiving the flow. Some code areas require a 50 mm (2") air gap above the receptor, whereas other code areas call for the distance to be a minimum of 25 mm (1"). There are also some code authorities that specify air gap distance to a minimum of 2X the internal diameter of the discharging pipe. Please check your local code requirements on this question.

This is a good question deserving a larger explanation than a simple yes or no answer. Dishwashing machines and especially a machine with a discharge flow of 40 GPM are located within a ware washing station area in a full-service type restaurant's kitchen. The ware washing station is a grease generating site but the dishwasher is not the optimal point within the ware washing area for capturing and removing food solids and grease/oils. Rather, it is the pre-rinse sink area within the ware washing station where 98% of the grease/oils and food solids enter the drainage system. The dishwashing machine's function is to wash and sanitize the flat ware, glass ware and dish ware. The preceding pre-rinse station is where the wares are rinsed and racked into the dishwasher and it is at that source point where the materials can best be separated and removed by a Big Dipper automatic grease separator and a Big Dipper FS-1 Flat Strainer system.

The 2% or less remaining grease/oil film left on the plate ware is subsequently chemically stripped off by the powerful detergents of the dishwashing process. The resultant fat/detergent emulsion is not separable and usually remains a chemical emulsion until it is biologically broken down at a treatment plant. Therefore, the pre-rinse sink is the optimal place to capture and remove grease, oils and food solids before they can enter the drainage system.

Full service restaurants can remove their free-floating (not emulsified) fats and oils by installing two (2) Big Dipper units and one (1) Big Dipper Flat Strainer unit. One Big Dipper to service the three compartment pot washing sink. One Big Dipper and one Flat Strainer to service the pre-rinse sink area within the dishwashing station. Normally, this is all that is needed for a full-service restaurant to meet and comply with their sewer district's effluent discharge quality limits.

The Big Dipper heating element is normally set to operate only when the skimming cycle occurs.

For rare sites with congealing grease, the Big Dipper has an optional operating setting that enables the heater to keep the tank warm. For those special situations, please consult the owner's manual for instructions on how to activate this special heater setting.

Sanitary riser diagrams are site, local plumbing code and Big Dipper model specific and are generally created by the architects or plumbing engineers responsible for the installation. The link below shows generic installations where elevation changes are involved.
 
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