Commercial Kitchen Exhaust Cleaning Tips for Owners

Grease fires, explosions, and smoke damage are among a few common hazards associated with kitchen hoods and exhausts not receiving regular cleaning and attention. This is unfortunately why commercial kitchen fires are more common than one would like to think. According to the NFPA, more than 11,000 kitchen fires are reported every year.

Regular cleaning and maintenance of commercial kitchen exhaust is imperative to reducing these statistics. To be sure this doesn’t happen to you at your cafe or restaurant, learn how to care for your hood and exhaust equipment, and what to do when your commercial kitchen exhaust is too hard to clean in its entirety. Failure to do this well can lead to a fire, voided insurance and other potential maintenance issues.

Recommended Maintenance, Standards, Insurance and Fire Codes

Your country’s national standards and insurance policies determine the requirements and frequency for kitchen exhaust cleaning. In Australia and New Zealand, AS/NZ1851 outlines both monthly and yearly tasks:

• Monthly kitchen grease filters, hoods, and plenums must be inspected for grease accumulation & cleaned (note more frequent than this can be subject to assessment)
• Yearly to monthly tasks must have all been completed and the ducts to fan checked and cleaned (note again more frequently can be subject to assessment).

Every kitchen has varying hours of operation with different styles of cooking generating different levels of grease. This is where understanding what is needed is prudent.

The USA and UK has implemented much more stringent definitions of what is required and who the works should be performed by and who should be checking for the compliance of these works.

Insurance policies may require more frequent kitchen exhaust cleaning activities to take place (i.e. 6 or even 1-4 monthly regular cleans). In addition, policies may also require the insured to mitigate as much risk as possible if they could be reasonably aware of such risk.

The NFPA Fire Code mandates that all commercial kitchens be inspected by a qualified company. Be sure to hire a professional inspection service that retains the proper technologies, training, and knowledge to responsibly and reliably detect any dangerous issues or complications with your kitchen exhaust hood’s setup.

The Solution

Ultimately, keeping kitchen exhaust systems free from grease build-up is not only a fire prevention measure but also ensures that high HVAC hygiene standards are maintained.

This is important in food preparation areas and required by food safety standards and local council regulations.

Shepherd Filters capture up to 98% of airborne grease before it has the chance to enter the kitchen exhaust system: