Have you ever wondered how a hood would be cleaned from start to finish? You, as a restaurant owner or kitchen manager, know that a certified and insured restaurant hood cleaning company should be hired on a regular basis to clean and maintain your kitchen exhaust system in order to reduce the risk of fire.
A professional service will clean your commercial kitchen’s vent hood, exhaust fan, baffle filters, and duct system down to the metal. This procedure not only satisfies the NFPA 96 standard but also ensures the safety of your kitchen and dining area for your staff and guests.
The hood may appear clean on the exterior, but only a trained kitchen exhaust expert can correctly identify and remove harmful buildups that can spread from the hood and filters to the vents, fans, ducts, and eventually to the roof grease containment system.
Here’s a step-by-step process of restaurant hood cleaning for the owners!
1. Exhaust System Inspection
Before beginning the cleansing, the professionals should inspect the exhaust system to identify any anomalies that require attention. During this inspection, the professional may identify system components that require repair or replacement, such as the baffle filters.
2. Shut Off the Exhaust Fan
Noting that exhaust systems vary from restaurant to restaurant, it is crucial that technicians ensure the entire system is turned off to prevent any damage to it or their cleaning equipment and tools.
3. Get the Kitchen Ready for the Hood Cleaning
It is not uncommon for messes to be made while cleaning a vent hood. Firstly, have your technicians remove the baffle filters, set up the funnels to collect the grease and debris, and cover the nearby appliances and floor in case the funnel fails or grease splatters during removal.
4. Turn off the Gas Supply and the Pilot Lights on All Appliances
All pilot lights and gas valves on nearby kitchen appliances must be turned off before tarps can be put over them. Your technicians will be using hot water and combustible cleaning chemicals, so eliminating fire hazards is crucial.
5. Start Cleaning the Vent Hood
It is common practice for technicians to work in pairs, with one person manning the kitchen and the other the roof. Using a degreaser and hot water, the technician will clean the kitchen exhaust system and ducts from above.
The kitchen technician’s responsibility at this stage is to watch the funnel through which the grease and debris are channeled and ensure everything works properly. In addition, the kitchen technician cleans the baffle filters with degreaser and hot water.
6. Scrape the Problem Areas Manually
Professionals sometimes turn to hand-scraping extremely grimy sections to remove oil and debris. After scraping away the oil and grime, the parts are sprayed with a chemical degreaser and rinsed with hot water.
7. After Cleaning the Grease Off the Roof, the Professionals Head Into the Kitchen to Begin Their Work
Once things on the roof are complete, the technician joins the kitchen professional, and they work in tandem to clean the exhaust hood from the bottom up. Again, a chemical degreaser is sprayed on the hood and rinsed with hot water, repeating as necessary until clean.
8. Hood Polishing
The plastic covering the hood is taken off once it is determined that all grease has been cleaned off, and the hood is then dried and polished on the inside and outside of the canopy.
9. Reinstall the filters and examine the system
After ensuring that every component has been thoroughly cleaned, the baffle filters need to be reinstalled inside the hood. In addition to this, the technicians will check to see if the ventilation fan is operating correctly.
10. Certification Sticker Application on the Hood
On the Hood, the technicians are going to affix a sticker that is mandated by the law. Always maintain this on the hood, as it will show fire inspectors, health department officials, and even your insurance agent the date that the hood was last cleaned and when it is due for its next cleaning.
11. Get the Mess Out of the Kitchen!
After everything else has been cleaned, the floor and any grease-splattered areas will be cleaned by professionals. All vent fans and gas pilots/valves can be reactivated now. The professionals are tasked with leaving your kitchen in better shape than they found it.
12. Post-Cleaning Inspection
The technician will provide the restaurant owner or kitchen manager a written report and let them see the system cleaning and equipment. If no representative is present, the report is left at the restaurant or forwarded to the proper contact.
Although TruShine Services highly advise against cleaning your kitchen exhaust system yourself, it’s useful to know how your service provider will restore it after a complete cleaning.
