Andersonville Commercial Kitchen Hood Cleaning
Andersonville Restaurant hood cleaning is vital to keeping the efficiency of your exhaust system high. I would like to talk about the hoods themselves in this article. The hood is designed to do two things:
- Act as a fire protection device by removing the grease
- Remove smoke and heat from cooking area below
The kitchen exhaust system is designed to pull grease laden smoke up into the hood and to the filters where it is filtered, turned back into grease then emptied into a catch tray. The three basic hood designs are the canopy, the galley and the downdraft. The closer the hood is to the cooking surface, the more efficient it is.
The most common type of hoods seen in restaurants today are canopy style. They are a simple design, do a good job and are easy to maintain. Restaurant hood cleaning is normally a simple task with these hoods. Just make sure that your hood cleaning company is cleaning the entire exhaust system and not the hood only.
Andersonville Restaurant Hood Cleaning
There are plenty of shows on "do-it-yourself" techniques for everything from retiling a bathroom to installing a new kitchen sink.
But when it comes to commercial kitchens, there is no substitute for professional hood, fan and duct cleaning services
The International Kitchen Exhaust Hood Cleaning Association is a Maryland-based trade association dedicated to educating its members about safety and cleaning techniques. The association has established stringent standards and practices for contractors engaged in kitchen exhaust cleaning, conducted a variety of educational programs and worked with influential code setting bodies such as the National Fire Protection Association to improve existing codes and regulations.
Even something that sounds as simple as cleaning a filter is not a job for a novice, as filters capture grease and other debris and when cleaning them, proper disposal of the effluent washed from the filter is an important consideration.
Federal law states that none of that wastewater can be put into a public sewer. But city and state guidelines also must be taken into consideration so the application of that law can vary from state to state for this reason.
Recommended cleaning schedules vary according to the type of equipment, cooking methods and volume of food cooked. However, there are recommendations that restaurant managers and owners can follow to determine how often to have kitchen hoods, ducts and fans professionally cleaned.
Restaurants should be cleaned every six months at a minimum. Restaurants that use deep fat fryers and/or charbroilers should clean these systems every three months at a minimum.
Eating establishments that use smokehouses or wood fires should undergo monthly cleanings at a minimum.
Restaurants that use large amounts of vegetable oils in their cooking processes should go no longer than three months between cleanings. When vegetable oil grease is left to build up, it becomes "glue-like" and removing it is a difficult task.
Restaurant Cleaning Service - The Importance of Kitchen Hood Cleaning
Kitchen exhaust cleaning is indeed a vital part of maintenance for restaurants around the country. Kitchen exhaust cleaning is a term describing the process of removing grease build-up from the exhaust fan, duct, and vent hood. NFPA 96 sets specific standards for cleaning and maintenance, but also gives the kitchen exhaust cleaning company a standard for cleaning which is known as cleaning down to "bare metal". Kitchen exhaust vent cleaning involves the use of different equipment and skills to accomplish the cleaning. In addition, lack of proper maintenance of vent hoods, exhaust ducts, and fans can result in quick and hot burning fires that can result in costly damage.
NFPA 96 states schedules for grease buildup inspections, which can be quarterly for high volume restaurants to semi-annually for medium volume cooking restaurants. The restaurant owner should schedule cleanings as such to prevent fire hazards and costly damage. The NFPA 96 also gives cooking equipment safety requirements, fire suppression system types, and hood types. In the statement I wrote earlier about cleaning down to "bare metal" I would like to explain the term a little more in depth. So the term cleaning down to "bare metal" means that the grease must be removed down to a specific thickness when cleaned to reduce the chance of the grease igniting resulting in fire. The kitchen exhaust cleaning company will use specific grade degreasers for the job. For example, when cleaning a Chinese restaurant a vent hood cleaning company most often will use a higher grade degreaser which would be much more potent in strength. For these types of restaurants kitchen exhaust cleaning prices will run higher than other restaurants that don't use oils of that nature.
Proper maintenance is very important when it comes to vent hood cleaning because of the fire factor and for such reason municipals have set rules and strict standards for the maintenance of the kitchen exhaust system. In some cases if these rules and standards are not followed the violator will be fined. Routine maintenance must be done by a qualified company with the equipment and skill level to achieve the desired results. Fires have all it's needs within a non-maintained exhaust system and will burn fast if one starts, so proper inspection and maintenance of fire suppression systems, exhaust fans, ducts, hoods, and access panels is vital as recommended by NFPA 96.
