- Use your drain smartly on Thanksgiving or you’ll get to participate in plumbers’ favorite holiday tradition.
You know the drill around the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend. First, you pig out on turkey, pumpkin pie, and all the other delicious Thanksgiving treats to build up your strength to go shopping on the following Black Friday.
Plumbers across the U.S. are also busy preparing for an annual Thanksgiving tradition. This one, however, is noticeably less sanitary than your usual celebrations.
To those who keep America’s drains clog-free, the day after Thanksgiving has become known as Brown Friday. You can probably guess why.
In case you’ve been blessed with a pure imagination and are at a loss, we’ll spell it out for you. On Thanksgiving, people eat and drink too much — and all that stuff has to come out the next day.
Cases of clogged drains skyrocket every single year after Thanksgiving. And it’s not just toilets. Kitchen sinks, showers, and virtually any drains that can get clogged in your home are more likely to do so following the celebrations.
That means plumbers generally have to clock in after Thanksgiving Day — but most don’t mind. For plumber Pompano FL professionals and others across the country, the post-feast plumbing problems keep business flowing.
The Murky Origins
We couldn’t blame you for thinking we’re making this all up, but Brown Friday is a real thing. Plumbing firm Roto-Rooter, for instance, says the number of service calls jumps by 50% on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
The holiday is bad even compared to other similar occasions. Roto-Rooter says the call numbers are 21% higher this coming weekend than during similar four-day holidays.
Curiously enough, though, most plumbers insist that they didn’t come up with the name Brown Friday. Although the name makes sense in the context, there are other events called that.
For example, the delivery service company UPS holds a large annual hiring even after Thanksgiving, which is also called Brown Friday. The name stems from the brown color of the UPS delivery driver’s uniform.
We can’t help but wonder if UPS might want to consider renaming their event, despite its long-running history. Or maybe they need new uniforms.
Why Is the Friday Brown?
Alright, so Brown Friday is an actual thing, even though plumbers may not have been responsible for naming it. But why does Thanksgiving lead to this unofficial event?
The problem is three-fold. The first issue is the big Thanksgiving feast.
We all eat and drink until we can eat and drink no more, and then we’ll eat and drink some more. Stuffing your face and stomach to the breaking point can shock your system and result in predictable results once you seat yourself on the porcelain throne.
But that was just point number one. The second issue is the huge amount of food residue and leftovers that get washed down the sink. In many cases, it doesn’t matter if you run the stuff through the garbage disposal or not.
“Virtually every traditional Thanksgiving dish is a drain-clogging culprit,” summarized Roto-Rooter spokesman Paul Abrams.
Fat and grease solidify in drains, rice and pasta swell and dissolve into a viscous goo, and overloaded garbage disposals can’t chew through all those potato peels. Soon enough, the kitchen drain is clogged.
The third and final issue is the number of guests. Sure, it’s great to get together with your entire extended family, but having 50 people suddenly strain your home’s plumbing can push it over the breaking points.
People go to the bathroom constantly, relatives staying will want to shower in the morning, and they may do a few loads of laundry. Your already partially clogged drains fill up and boom.
A flood of brown sludge floods up from the kitchen sink. Time to call a plumber and participate in the Brown Friday tradition.
How to Avoid Brown Friday
It’s easy to participate in Brown Friday. Just dump all your leftovers down the sink and you’ll be solid (as solid as the grease in your drains).
If you’d like to not participate and deprive a plumber of their extra income, here are a few pointers on how to avoid Brown Friday:
- Never pour oil or grease down into a drain on Thanksgiving or any other day. Wipe pots and pans with paper towels or pour excessive amounts of oil into containers or sturdy bags for disposal.
- Don’t put starchy and fibrous food waste — like potato skins, turkey skin, or rice — into your garbage disposal. They won’t break down properly and will form a delightfully sticky mass.
- Run your garbage disposal as you drop food waste into it. If you clog the blades before turning the disposal on, it can’t run and you risk blowing the motor.
- Remind your guests not to flush cotton balls, wet wipes, hair, or other non-dissolvable matter down the toilet — and don’t do it yourself, either.
- Ask people to wait 10-15 minutes between showers. It takes time for all the bodily filth to properly move through your piping into the general sewage system.
- If your sinks are draining a bit slowly or you notice any other small plumbing issues before the big meal, get them fixed immediately. The added strain from having your family over surely won’t make the problem any better.