When indoor grease traps aren’t readily accessible for pumping with a large vacuum truck, technicians at Greenway Waste Solutions in Charlotte, North Carolina, go small instead with a Conde ProVac portable vacuum unit from Westmoor.

The ProVac serves as a miniature vacuum truck that can easily maneuver through doorways and cramped restaurant kitchens. It also works with minimal business disruption and eliminates the need for long hoses snaking through restaurant work areas, says Reese Blackwell, co-owner of Greenway Waste Solutions.

Made from aluminum, the 52-gallon-capacity ProVac is 24 inches wide, a little more than 4 feet long and 45 inches tall. It weighs about 250 pounds.

A 1.5 hp, 115-volt/13.4-amp electric motor powers the unit, which can be plugged into a standard 110-volt electrical outlet without blowing circuit breakers. A Conde pump produces vacuum power of 35 cfm. The unit can pump up to 120 gpm at 5 psi of pressure, and it switches from vacuum to pressure mode for off-loading.

Other features include a built-in charcoal exhaust deodorizer; an automatic lubrication system; a 20-foot retractable power cord; an electronic automatic float shut-off; and a 2-inch-diameter, 10-foot-long Plastiflex suction hose.

“The ProVac is great for places where you can’t reach the tank with a hose,” Blackwell says. “On the other hand, it also pumps slower than a vacuum truck. If we can pull one, two or three hoses, we try to do that — we let our guys make the call.

“Our goal is to someday have exclusive routes for just using ProVac — customers who are willing to work with us on that because it takes longer to pump out a grease trap,” he says. "Most grease traps located inside businesses hold less than 100 gallons of waste, which is a good fit for the ProVac’s capacity.”