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Exhaust systems must be inspected regularly, at intervals consistent with usage, to determine whether cleaning is needed before a dangerous amount of grease has accumulated. Kitchen exhaust is a ventilation system that extracts smoke, heat, and odor from cooking surfaces. If you are a restaurant manager, this device can come in handy for your restaurants. Large-scale cooking is bound to get messy at some point, and if commercial owners do not take precautions, a fire outburst will occur. The kitchen exhaust protects the restaurant from hazards, but more importantly, clients and staff. The kitchen exhaust is great, no doubt, but over time depending on the cooking scale, grease does build up in parts of the system.

Restaurant managers are often clueless about what a properly cleaned exhaust system looks like and might find it difficult to choose the right equipment or the right professional cleaning service for the job. Complete kitchen exhaust is fitted with a hood, hood filters, exhaust fan, and horizontal and vertical ductwork; this is necessary to keep in compliance with certain standards for protection. Commercial facility owners should always have a guideline from a standard association on the safety requirements for public and private cooking operations. A great guideline is the NFPA-96 Standard (National Fire Protection Association Standard for Ventilation Control and Fire Protection of Commercial Cooking Operations 2021 edition). Understanding the requirements for proper equipment and cleaning procedures provides a foundational guideline for owners of commercial cooking establishments to ensure compliance with kitchen exhaust cleaning standards.

What is Kitchen Exhaust Cleaning?

Kitchen exhaust cleaning (often referred to as hood cleaning) is the process of removing grease that has accumulated inside the ducts, hoods, fans, and vents of exhaust systems of commercial kitchens. Left uncleaned, kitchen exhaust systems eventually accumulate enough grease to become extreme fire hazards.

Exhaust systems must be inspected regularly, at intervals consistent with usage, to determine whether cleaning is needed before a dangerous amount of grease has accumulated.

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How often should you clean the exhaust system?

While many kitchen exhaust cleaning contractors tell their customers that a kitchen exhaust system must be CLEANED at specific periods of time, you must understand that there is no requirement within NFPA 96 identifying “scheduled cleaning.” Table 11.4 does, however, illustrate the Schedule for Inspection for Grease Buildup within a commercial ventilation
system:
  • Monthly: Solid Fuel Cooking Operation such as Wood or Charcoal
  • Quarterly: High-Volume cooking such as 24-hour, char-broil, oriential.
  • Semi-annual: High-Volume cooking such as Schools, independent restaurants (Mom & Pop's)
  • Annually: Low-Volume cooking such as Churches, day camps, senior centers.

Cleaning a commercial kitchen exhaust system would have to depend on how frequently the kitchen is used and what type of system that has been installed. The kitchen exhaust system is composed with hood, vent filters, ductwork, and exhaust fan to remove smoke from kitchens, but some of the exhaust gases have a residual impact on the ductwork.

Generally, it is advisable to clean every three months, but if the restaurant uses wood-burning or charcoal-burning stoves, you should clean as often as two weeks, the type of fuel and how much food you cook can also be a determining factors.

For solid fuel cooking, you should clean the exhaust systems on a monthly basis. Clean exhaust systems in kitchens that cook meals moderately on a semi-annual basis and kitchens that cook a lot of food every 24-hours. Open cooking, Chinese cooking that involves cooking on the wok should quarterly cleaning. Clean exhaust systems in restaurants that use low volume cooking, for instance, seasonal restaurants even less frequently. These are baseline requirements for cleaning, but local fire codes and the type and quantity of food might require different cleaning frequencies.

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Table 11.4 Schedule of Inspection for Grease Buildup

While many kitchen exhaust cleaning contractors tell their customers that a kitchen exhaust system must be CLEANED at specific periods of time, you must understand that there is no requirement within NFPA 96 identifying “scheduled cleaning.” Table 11.4 does, however, illustrate the Schedule for Inspection for Grease Buildup within a commercial ventilation
system:
  • Monthly: Solid Fuel Cooking Operation such as Wood or Charcoal
  • Quarterly: High-Volume cooking such as 24-hour, char-broil, oriential.
  • Semi-annual: High-Volume cooking such as Schools, independent restaurants (Mom & Pop's)
  • Annually: Low-Volume cooking such as Churches, day camps, senior centers.

How do you decide a hood cleaning is needed?

Carry out frequent inspections to check for grease buildup on the ductwork surfaces. If any grease is found, the hood system will need to be cleaned. Another way to determine how clean your exhaust surface is by using a Grease Gauge; this provides an accurate measurement by determining the fuel buildup on the surface of the exhaust system.
NFPA 96 2021 EDITION
12.6.1* If, upon inspection, the exhaust system is found to be contaminated with deposits from grease-laden vapors, the contaminated portions of the exhaust system shall be cleaned by a properly trained, qualified, and certified person(s) acceptable to the authority having jurisdiction.

12.6.1.1.1 Hoods, grease removal devices, fans, ducts, and other appurtenances shall be cleaned to remove combustible contaminants to a minimum of 0.002 in
Grease Gauge Comb
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hood duct dirty
The above Picture from years of Grease Build-up with poorly cleaning from other companies.
hood duct clean
The above Picture after Elite Hood Service, LLC team Clean & Service the hood system the first time. Reducing by 99% fire hazard. Our team can clean your restaurant or commercial hood system on just the first visit.

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401 N Kinston Blvd, Ste B, Pink Hill, NC 28572
(919) 229-9599

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