This is an illustrative walkthrough of a typical visit, not a specific customer’s job.
Picture a 1,000-gallon interceptor behind a busy restaurant, under two manhole covers in the back lot. Here’s what a proper pump-out looks like, and what you should see happen.
1. Arrive and set up
The truck parks as close as access allows, and hoses run to the lids. The kitchen is asked to hold off on dishwashers and sinks for the duration, so the crew isn’t pumping fresh water.
2. Open and measure
Before anything is pumped, the crew measures the floating grease cap and the settled solids at the outlet side. That number shows whether the current schedule is working:
- Under the limit? The schedule holds.
- At or over 25% (20% in Pasco, or 6 inches of grease or 8 inches of solids in Pinellas County)? The interval needs to shorten.
3. Pump to empty
Everything comes out: the grease cap, the gray water and the bottom solids. Nothing is returned to the tank. Florida has banned that since 2022, and Tampa’s ordinance defines a pump-out as complete removal of all contents.
4. Scrape and check
With the tank empty, the walls, baffles and piping are scraped. The crew checks the inlet and outlet tees, the baffle wall and the lids. Anything broken is written up. Tampa’s ordinance requires the hauler to tell you in writing if the interceptor isn’t working properly.
5. Close up and clean up
Lids are seated and checked, hoses are pulled, and any drips around the lids are cleaned up. The kitchen can run water again.
6. The manifest
You sign the service manifest together. It shows your kitchen, the hauler and the disposal facility, the unit’s condition, confirmation that it was cleaned and nothing was returned, the volume removed, and later the disposal facility’s ticket number. Keep it at least a year, and three years in Pinellas, Pasco or Temple Terrace.
7. The next date
The visit ends with a recommended next pump-out, set by your rule and by what the measurement in step 2 showed. See grease interceptor pumping.