(KTLA) — While shoppers across the U.S. consider the Friday after Thanksgiving Black Friday, plumbers know it by a different name. Ever heard of “Brown Friday?”
Sounds gross, right? Well, it is, but not for the reasons you would expect.
For plumbers, the day after Thanksgiving is one of their busiest days of the year due to the increased amount of house calls regarding clogged drains and broken garbage disposals — and, despite its moniker, not clogged toilets.
More food cooked on Thanksgiving means more waste, which guests don’t always depose of correctly.
Here are a few tips for Thanksgiving hosts this year to help you avoid calling a plumber on Brown Friday.
Don’t throw all waste down garbage disposals
Some guests can treat a garbage disposal as an extra trash can. Experts warn against throwing waste down a drain that can’t be liquified. Doing so can overheat the blades or cause them to die.
Hosts should remind their guests to throw extra food peelings into the trash can, not the garbage disposal, or have more trash cans available.
Certain liquids shouldn’t be tossed down the drain
No one should pour fatty oils and grease down the drain. It’s a common misconception that pouring grease and oil down the drain, followed by water, will fix the problem, but experts say that’s not the case.
“Grease might be okay when you pour it down the drain but as soon as the cold water hits it, it solidifies,” Duane Nielsen with Any Hour Services in Utah explains to Nexstar’s KTVX. “And can that can happen anywhere along the pipeline.”
Instead of pouring the liquids down the drain, people should store the liquid in a container or throw it away.
Toilets aren’t a second trash can
Like garbage disposals, certain items can’t go down a toilet. Experts say that toilets are only suitable to get rid of human waste and toilet paper – nothing else.
Thanksgiving hosts can set out extra trash cans in the bathrooms so guests can quickly get rid of their trash.