Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving, and a big day for Christmas shopping. But have you heard of “Brown Friday?”
Plumbers sure have. (Let that sink in.)
Brown Friday is catch-all phrase plumbers use to describe the days just before and after Thanksgiving when kitchen sinks, bathroom commodes and sewer lines clog, mostly from heavy use during the holiday and into the weekend.
Food prep and cleanup are the biggest causes of Brown Friday emergency calls.
“Yep, that’s a true statement,” said Tim McHale, proprietor of family-owned McHale’s Plumbing in Levittown.
McHale’s should know. Their plumbers have been responding to Brown Friday emergency calls for nearly 75 years in Bucks County.
“We get a lot of kitchen sink blocks in the days before (Thanksgiving), as people are prepping food and jamming stuff down their kitchen sinks,” he said. “It’s an increase in business every year right around that time.”
There are occasional toilet and sewer blocks.
“Yeah, it’s heavy use. But even with kids, you know, things get thrown down there that should not be thrown down there,” he said.
As a host, a full-drain backup just before a houseful of guests arrive can be a stress-inducing catastrophe. It usually begins when the homeowner mistakes their ¼ horsepower garbage disposal for a full-sized mini wood-chipper that will devour and pulverize anything shoved into the hopper.
“People think you can throw anything down them and they’ll grind it all up and flush it out,” McHale said.
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Wrong: Those disposals have limits, something people who don’t read the instructions will learn the hard way.
One Lower Bucks plumbing business employee recalled responding to a Thanksgiving Day clog in which the homeowner had shoved a whole potato down the drain, believing the disposal would take care of it, no sweat. Nope, even the most powerful automatic disposals can’t handle big stuff such as potatoes, bones and stuffing.
“The Badger 5 (garbage disposal) is really the most popular — it’s like half a horsepower,” McHale said. “And the upgrade is three-quarter horsepower and there’s an occasional 1-horsepower, which is pretty powerful.”
Even with that kind of grind, food and grease gums up your pipes.
Regarding grease, McHale said: “Soak it up best you can. Newspapers, paper towels. Lots of them. Or just let it dry, let it harden, then scrape it out the next day” — into a trash can, but never into the drain.
“Putting grease down the sink is really a terrible idea,” he said.
For those with garbage disposals, he said: “Again, they’re only there for scraps. Don’t keep jamming everything down there.”
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Because when a plumber is dealing with a clogged sink with a garbage disposal, it can become pricey. This is why he also recommends having a clean-out access installed beneath your garbage disposal.
“It’s a mechanical plug that unscrews so the plumber can snake the drain and clear it out properly. Otherwise, you’re taking apart the entire garbage disposal, and then you’re trying to put it all back together,” he said. “Sometimes 30-, 40- or 50-year-old sinks don’t go back together and you wind up replacing some parts.”
Follow these professional tips for Brown Friday so you can avoid a blue Monday.
JD Mullane can be reached at [email protected].
