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Soda Fountain drain, Ugh!

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GotRocks

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If you want something done right, just do it yourself!

My FOH people have a closing list, and on that list is to take 1 gallon of hot water to flush the drain line for the soda fountain.
When I got in this morning and found our service counter under water, I realized it was not getting done regularly.
Not only was the drain tube clogged, but my plumbing was plugged too, I pulled the P-Trap to snake the lines, and that opened up a gateway to hell that I was unaware existed.
I really should have taken pictures of the ectoplasm that I snaked out, but I was too busy gagging from the smell coming from the rest of the sewer system
 
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I’ve been fighting that ectoplasm gunk buildup for years. Even the coke guys say it just happens. We always flush our system daily and it helps, but it still seems to build up eventually to the point of being plugged completely. Every time I clean it out, it makes me never to want to drink a soda!
 
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noreason said:
I’ve been fighting that ectoplasm gunk buildup for years. Even the coke guys say it just happens. We always flush our system daily and it helps, but it still seems to build up eventually to the point of being plugged completely. Every time I clean it out, it makes me never to want to drink a soda!
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It was some disgusting gelatinous mung that came out, thats for sure. I had to use a long handled teaspoon to scoop it out because the drain snake wouldn’t grab onto it.

The fountain line drains into an air-gap drain, so of course when that overflowed, my carbonator ended up getting this spooge all over it too and its is nicely hidden behind some cabinet doors right at the front counter.
Is there any chemical treatment that a guy could use to try to eat away at that stuff before the build up stops the main 1.5" drain. Maybe some of that granulated enzyme additive for septic systems will work…
Murphy’s law is always in effect, this kind of stuff doesn’t happen until the worst possible time.
I’m just happy there was a clean out plug at the junction where it collected.
 
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About twice a year i have to clean my drain out under the fountain machine. I just use latex gloves and hold my breath.
 
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Is there any chemical treatment that a guy could use to try to eat away at that stuff before the build up stops the main 1.5" drain. Maybe some of that granulated enzyme additive for septic systems will work…
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The Pepsi guy told us to add a cap full of bleach to the gallon of warm water used to rinse it each night. Since we’ve been doing that it hasn’t been an issue.
 
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stpaullee said:
The Pepsi guy told us to add a cap full of bleach to the gallon of warm water used to rinse it each night. Since we’ve been doing that it hasn’t been an issue.
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No kidding? Just a 200 PPM bleach concentration?

You know, that may just make sense, I’m betting the gelatinous spooge may be a bacterial or algae bloom feeding on the sugar that is causing the blockage,

Thank you, I’ll start doing that and see if it helps.
 
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@stpaullee

Since December 23rd, we have been dumping a 1-gallon bucket of bleach water (200 ppm concentration) down our fountain soda drain every single day at close.
Our funky ectoplasm clog problem that plagued us for a year is now non-existent!
Thank you for sharing.
This leads me to believe that the problem was a funky bacteria that loved sugar was growing in the pipes and clogging our plumbing, the bleach is not allowing it to propagate anymore.
We were dumping a gallon of very hot plain water daily before, and it did not help at all, the disinfectant properties of the bleach cured it. So it was more than sugar.
 
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:eek: This thread has most certainly cured my desire for fountain beverages. Glad you found a solution to it!
 
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we do pull the nozzles every night and soak in sanitizer , if you knew how many places do not do that, you may be sickened by it.
 
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Im a beverage service tech and i have seen some godawful stuff com. From the drain hoses and piping. Easiest and fastest way to clear up a clog drain ,i use a co2 tank . I carry a small 10 lb. Tank in my van and just run a line from the tank to drain ,wrap a towel around the line and hold that pressed hard against drain tray and with other hand slowly open the tank. Tbe pressure will push all the crap out your drain, then run hot water and repeat one more time and you should be good to go. If you got more than one drain opening on your tray you must plug it first or you will get a crap shower! Or have another person hold a towel pplugging it .
Have fun cleaning up all the stuff out your fllor drain.
(Use a wet dry vac to suck it all up)
 
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We used to use our CO2 tank to do just that. Just got tired of the blowback and waisting of the CO2. I have found a snake works well to break off the big stuff, then hot water will clear out all the small stuff.

Since we started doing bleach water every night tho, seems to have cleared up the problem. Time will tell for sure tho.
 
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GotRocks said:
we do pull the nozzles every night and soak in sanitizer , if you knew how many places do not do that, you may be sickened by it.
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My brief foray into becoming a manager at a Subway, I found out the 2nd day that they didn’t take off the nozzles and soak them. They just replaced the parts once a month when they got bad. I couldn’t believe it and made it my first call of duty. Most didn’t even know how to take the pieces off. It was weird because cleanliness on everything else was great. But for some reason, that was the one thing they didn’t do. I did the whole wiping it with a rag and showing them what they were drinking thing. I left shortly thereafter to come back here. I hope they are still heeding my rule.
 
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