Range Hood Cleaning: What to Expect

INTRODUCTION TO RESTAURANT KITCHEN HOOD CLEANING

Restaurant kitchen range hood cleaning plays a vital role in maintaining and protecting your kitchen facility and staff. It is a crucial process of cleaning kitchen hoods, ductwork, and other surfaces that are prone to grease buildup. All the debris and grease that accumulate on your restaurant hoods and filters increase the risk of a potentially deadly fire. 

Being a responsible BOH manager, protecting your restaurant and staff against the hazardous effects of grease and debris buildup needs to be a top priority. NFPA 96 hood cleaning requirements dictate a schedule for regular and thorough commercial kitchen hood cleaning. Cleaning should include all the hood surfaces, filters, exhaust ductwork, and roof fan in order to maintain a regular hood cleaning service report.

WHEN SHOULD YOUR RANGE HOOD CLEANING BE PERFORMED?

The majority of the restaurant kitchens require range hood cleaning four times per year.  Regular inspection and cleaning of your exhaust system are essential in remaining compliant with your health department,  insurance company, and fire inspectors. The cleaning and inspection cycle critically depend upon the workload on your restaurant kitchen. 

Generally speaking, your kitchen hood should follow your outline below.  Of course, ask your certified hood cleaning professional to inspect and recommend a cleaning schedule according to NFPA 96 hood requirements.  

• High throughput steak, burger, BBQ smokers and solid-fuel cooking restaurants should be cleaned and serviced EVERY MONTH.   
• Many Asian restaurants require hood system cleaning every TWO MONTHS due to the high temperature and types of oil used in wok cooking.
• Most restaurants that serve moderate to  high-volume operations need to be cleaned every THREE MONTHS. 
• For kitchen hoods serving low volume, cleaning every SIX MONTHS is recommended. 
• If your kitchen hoods are over non-greasy surfaces or infrequent cooking like church or lodges a cleaning once a year is often adequate.  

HOW TO CLEAN A RANGE HOOD DUCT

The kitchen staff should be tasked with cleaning the hood filters every week.  A simple degreaser overnight soak followed by a hot water rinse will significantly improve the functions of the filters and hood.  This is not a certified cleaning and does not meet NFPA 96 hood requirements for cleaning. A thorough restaurant kitchen hood cleaning must be performed by licensed, insured and certified professionals to meet NFPA 96.  

The following outlines the minimum to standard and steps your kitchen hood vent cleaner should perform.  

• The first thing a competent cleaning crew will do is take pictures of work before they start.  This documents the amount of grease laden vapors, carbon and junk that needs to be removed and can be attached to the hood cleaning service report.  
• The hood will be enclosed in plastic and the equipment covered with plastic.  This helps funnel the wash chemicals and water into trash cans and keeps food prep surfaces clean.
• Degreaser and other cleaning chemicals are liberally sprayed onto all greasy and dirty surfaces. 
• Soak removable grease cups, grease troughs, hood filter tracts, and filters in a hot degreaser solution.  Follow soaking with a high pressure wet steam wash down. High pressure wet steam is 3000 psi 220 degree fahrenheit water.
• Open the roof fan and access panels.  If your hood doesn’t have a roof fan hinge kit, have one installed.  Proper cleaning can not be performed without a hinge kit. Once opened high pressure wet steam is used with a degreaser to clean all grease laden surfaces.  
• An inspection of the fan belt, blades and grease box is important.  Maintaining these items in proper working order helps keep your kitchen exhaust system fully functional.  If anything is worn or needs to be replaced, your hood cleaner should note that on the hood cleaning service report.    
• Makeup air filters should be removed and cleaned.
• High pressure wet steam should be used to clean the roof fan, duct, access panel areas, and the inside surfaces of the hood and fire suppression system.
• The exterior of the hood should be cleaned and left shiny and polished.   
• Once the kitchen hood cleaning is done, a detailed hood cleaning job service report should be provided this will detail the work performed, problems in your system, and the areas not cleaned.  
• Finally, the certifying sticker with the company name, date of range hood cleaning, and the initials of the lead cleaning tech needs to be attached to every hood.  This certifying sticker is what the fire and insurance inspector will look at to ensure your kitchen vent is compliant.  

Although not required, a reputable hood cleaning company will take before and after photos to demonstrate the completeness of the work. This also serves as a record for the insurance company in the event of a fire or loss. We also check the pilot lights, mop the floor and lock up before we leave but the NFPA doesn’t include those common sense items.