In addition to the stove and grill, one of the indispensable parts of the kitchen is the kitchen exhaust hood. However, just installing a kitchen exhaust hood is not enough to ensure that the kitchen is a safe working space. The entire exhaust system must be cleaned thoroughly.
This way, your ventilation is the best, the risk of fire is minimal, and there is nothing to worry about as many people don’t believe in regular cleaning and maintenance of the exhaust system, so it may be. It is a good idea to review some basic knowledge. Today, we will discuss the most important things about exhaust systems, and why and when they need to be cleaned.
What is a kitchen exhaust system?
In all kitchens, especially commercial kitchens, there is a device called a kitchen exhaust hood. This is an amazing machine that can be installed on top of your stove, fryer, grill or any other kitchen utensils you use for cooking, grilling, or frying. Its role is to collect the fumes, grease, and odors released and trap them in the system. This is especially useful for fried fast-food restaurants. All the smoke is sucked into the ventilation shaft from the room.
Why do we need to clean the kitchen exhaust system ?
However, once taken out of the kitchen, the smoke, and greasy air will not disappear. Many things tend to stay in the system and accumulate over time. If it is ignored and left untreated, it can cause some serious problems. If the temperature is high enough, the trapped grease can easily catch fire, causing huge damage. This is where hood cleaning comes in handy.
By cleaning and maintaining the system regularly, you can ensure a healthy and fire-free working environment. In addition, all of these are subject to laws and regulations that require business owners to properly do kitchen exhaust hood cleaning and maintain the exhaust system so that accidents will never happen.
How do you know if the kitchen exhaust system needs cleaning?
One of the most common questions is how to know it is time to clean. Different facilities have standard working hours, which we will introduce later, but for now, let us focus on the basic signs. The industry standard for clean exhaust systems is bare metal. This means that there are no deposits, residues, and dirt of any kind in the vents.
Therefore, if you inspect the system and find dirt, grease, or any other deposits, you can clean it. Naturally, the bare metal state will not last for a long time, but it should be reversed every time it is cleaned. This means it has been properly cleaned and you can conduct business as usual.
How many access points of the system do you need?
In order to clean the entire system as efficiently and optimally as possible, there must be multiple access points. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, so pay attention to the process of installing the exhaust system ducts and require access to the door. The general rule of thumb is that there should be levels and at least one opening on each floor is every 4 meters. In this way, it ensures that every part of the piping system is barrier-free so that it can be cleaned properly.
Do you need documents?
For files, you do not need to perform any other operations except saving the certificates and files received from the cleaning service professionals. After cleaning, you should receive a certificate stating the name of the service company, the name of the cleaning staff, and the date of inspection and cleaning. If certain areas of the system are inaccessible and therefore cannot be cleaned, you should also receive a written report.
How often should the kitchen exhaust system be cleaned?
As we said, if you see any residue during the inspection, it means you can call in the cleaning staff as needed. However, this means cleaning the vents almost twice a week, which is ridiculous. In order to save you the trouble of checking the system every other day, we have formulated certain guidelines. By following some simple rules, you can infer how often you should call the kitchen exhaust fan cleaning service based on the food you cook.
