During this pandemic, a lot of dining places and eateries, we have seen, have closed but a lot of new ones have opened. If you have just opened a new restaurant or are in the process of doing so, we know what kind of a frenzy you must be in. Amidst the government approvals to get your business started, building contractors and potential-staff interviews, there is hardly a minute left in the day. In between all this, kitchen exhaust hood system cleaning could be the last thing on your mind. Getting your business started and beginning to build that loyal base of customers is your priority. However, that also does not mean that your kitchen’s exhaust system cleaning can be passed on indefinitely. Effective cleaning of your kitchen’s filters, exhaust fan, canopy, and exhaust system is important and a must for the safe operation of your business. And left unattended the consequences can be dire.

Why does a kitchen’s exhaust hood system maintenance matter?

Your kitchen filters and exhaust system work back-to-back to extract grease, steam, dust and particulates from your cook-line. When they’re operating effectively, they remove a wide range of contaminants from your kitchen, leaving you, your staff, and your customers only clean, fresh air to breath. Over time however, these contaminants start to build-up inside your filters, exhaust fan and even inside the duct system. This build up is mainly caused by the oil produced from the meat and the oil that we use to cook. These build-ups not only block the hot greasy air from going out but also lowers the efficacy of the entire kitchen exhaust system. In some cases, this blockage can even stop the kitchen’s exhaust system from functioning completely.

What you can do to prevent fires from happening?

The only way to ensure that the kitchen’s exhaust system is working properly is with regular cleaning carried out by a professional exhaust system cleaning company. Therefore, the best way to keep your exhaust systems in order is by arranging a maintenance schedule, which will ensure the regular cleaning of your systems.

Many restaurant owners don’t know this but a regular exhaust system cleaning schedule should include the following:

• Kitchen Filter Cleaning or exchange when required
• Exhaust Fan Cleaning
• Duct Cleaning
• Hood Cleaning

What to look for before hiring a company to clean your kitchen’s exhaust hood?

Finding the right cleaning company can be tricky. However once settled upon, a chosen cleaning company can usually provide you with years of service. To avoid the amateurs and to find a company, which will deliver effective and reliable cleaning year after year, insist upon the following:

• • International Kitchen Exhaust Cleaning Association (IKECA) or Malaysian Fire Protection Association (MFPA) membership
  • A solid knowledge of Malaysian kitchen cleaning standards
  • Written testimonials from previous customers
  • Proven experience working with Australian business & industry

Upon completion of any exhaust system cleaning work, your cleaning company should present you with a written certificate with details regarding the cleaning provided.

Can I or my staff clean my kitchen’s exhaust hood system?

The short and direct answer to this question is no. It is so because cleaning an exhaust system is a complex job, which requires work in high places, unreachable nooks and corners and potentially dangerous areas like those places that are directly above the cooking equipment. A lot of Malaysian workers end up getting injured, whilst attempting to clean their exhaust systems associated with self-cleaning. You may ask your kitchen workers to clean the benches, equipment, walls, and floors, however, anything above eye-level, is advised to be left for a trained and experienced professional. In addition to that, a non-professional cleaner can damage your filters and other parts, which means expensive replacement costs.

Would you like to know more?

To find out more about exhaust system cleaning and other services that Grease Busters offer related to your kitchen hood exhaust system, visit our blog section. Or to get more information about any of your kitchen’s exhaust system concerns, you can reach out to us at 03-673-47538 or send us your query and we shall get back to you soonest possible.

Getting “cheated” by errant retailers can be a frightening experience. Those who are willing to commit fraud do not discriminate. It can happen in large or small companies in any industry and any country. Lying to the public or one’s clients about the licenses or the methods and solutions used; all are considered an occupational fraud that could result in huge financial loss, legal costs, and ruined reputation that can ultimately lead to the downfall of any organization. We at Grease Busters, know that hence why, we follow through with the policies and enforce the noted steps. The cost of preventing fraudulent companies with their fake licenses would be less expensive to your valuable business than the cost of the fraud that gets committed. Grease Busters has been working in the business world for years and we know the importance of being ethical. We understand that when a company builds an ethical business, it gains the respect of the public, avoid bad press, and establish goodwill with its customers.

However, in one outrageous case, one such company took advantage of their customers in a way that was so blatant, you can barely believe they tried it. According to our client, the other Kitchen Hood Exhaust System Cleaning company claimed to have a license with NFPA. Whereas NFPA is just a nonprofit international organization with about 50,000 members that simply offers memberships, but no licenses or proof of authenticity of any sort. NFPA focuses and works hard on issuing guidelines and safety measures for the kitchens, industries and people dealing with fire services or businesses. The association does not give any licenses to give any authentication for any kitchen exhaust cleaning system. Unfortunately, since our clients and population in general are not aware about this information, certain companies take advantage and claim to be professionals and showing their clients fake licenses. However, still not every bad experience with an errant retailer gives rise to a prosecutable offence of “cheating” within the meaning of Penal Code. It is not always easy to be patient and prove fraudulent and dishonest intention on the part of the seller. Hence, at Grease Busters, we believe that the court of public opinion may be the most influential of all. If you tell your friends about a negative experience and they tell their friends, then before long, the wrath of a company’s customers will be brought to bear on an ethically challenged company.

What should you do before hire a company for their services?

Before buying or hiring a company’s certain service, make sure you ask them everything that you need to know in black and white. Look for the reviews, check their social media posts daily and know what services you are buying from them and why you should go hire them. Our team at Grease Busters know our job in detail, we train our technicians regularly and inform them about any new laws being enforced and even introduce new machines to use for best performance and thorough cleanliness. We Do not Cheat Our Clients with Fake Licenses. Our friendly customer service will also answer any query that you may have as our client. We educate all our employees about our services and machines and products that we use and how we do it. We also provide our proposal and guide about our work and our company via email to our new clients. We know that a necessity for running an ethical business is not to be deceitful towards our customers. We make sure that our solutions and the equipment we use is of top-quality grade. This is the reason why most of our clients are all referral based. Just like you refer a great movie or book to your friends and family members. If our clients want us to keep their information, pictures, and name confidential, we do so too because we understand that confidentiality is a necessary measure for some companies, and we respect that.

What Would you Expect from Grease Busters?

Everyone has certain expectations when they are looking for someone who sells what they are looking for. Put yourself in the shoes of the person who is visiting your website for the first time or walking into your store and deciding what they think about what they see or can’t see. If you were your customer, would you be impressed? Would you need more information? Time and time again, one of the best ways to optimize your business is to learn, intimately, how it is to be your own customer. You can use this perspective to understand what your customer’s experience feels like, and whether you are transparent enough.

Valuable lessons that Grease Busters learnt from its Clients

We have learnt best from our clients. We all know that a restaurant is one of the stark models for business. Their customers are unforgiving, competition is fierce, and there is no hiding behind marketing tactics—the food, ambiance, location, cleanliness, and other factors make it either good, or not. They do not even try to hide anything because they understand this, which is why you see things like detailed descriptions of the ingredients in each dish, or an open viewing window into the kitchen. And metaphorically speaking, even though we are not the same business, however, we still learnt from our own clients and ended up opening a viewing window for the public to see what we do and how we do it.

Grease Busters build trust with its customers as well as the greater public

In the spirit of establishing trust with your customer, we are not afraid to reveal exactly what products and equipment we use, how our services are carried out, and show the proof of the work that we do. We follow the same trend of contemporary restaurants that provide customers a detailed description of where meat and produce is farmed—and even how the animals were treated before they landed on your plate— we want to inspire trust by disclosing the similar kind of background too to our clients. We learnt that one of the best ways to optimize our services is to learn, by being our own clients, to understand what our customer’s experience feels like, and whether it is good enough.

We understand the underlying idea that to be transparent, everything about the way one does business has to be clear. If, as a business owner, one is not proud of how they operate or why exactly certain steps need to be followed and what products to be used and when and how and need to lie to their clients, then transparency is not really an option. For us, being ethical is more than a college course. We merge quality and efficiency with genuine investment, not only financially but our time and hearts, for the needs of our customers. Do not get cheated or fooled by companies with fake licenses and no understanding about the international organizations and their existence. We are ready to listen to you and share our knowledge with you and guide you even with your concerns regarding your kitchen exhaust system.

Today with this blog we aim to create an awareness among the food service industries about the potential environmental impacts that the kitchen exhaust hood cleans could cause and inform them about the best management practices to prevent those environmental impacts.

We all know that a kitchen’s exhaust hood system function is to extract the heat, smoke and grease in the air that emerges from cooking food, ovens, stoves, grills, fryers etc. Through the period, grease accumulates on all the components of the kitchen hood’s exhaust system. A regular scheduled maintenance and cleaning of the kitchen’s exhaust hood system is needed for the system to perform efficiently and prevent any fire threats. Professional cleaning, which involves special scrapers, approved chemical cleaners, and water is performed by registered cleaning companies that adheres to the NFPA (National Fire Protection Association), MFPA (Malaysian Fire Protection Association) and IKECA’s (International Kitchen Exhaust Cleaning Association) standards.

Moreover, the job does not here. Only the members of the international organizations mentioned above are advised to apply environmental regulations to dump the wastewater resulted from the cleaning process. As a professional cleaning company, we do not and cannot dump the wastewater just anywhere since it contains cleaning chemicals and grease compounds, hence a proper disposal is required. It is, in fact, illegal and is punishable by law to dump or discharge the polluted water; directly or indirectly, onto the land that could drain to a storm water system. This system leads or drives all the clean water from the storm drains, roads, ditches, catch basins, parking lots etc. to water bodies off the state’s land. And as a food service industry it is necessary and of utmost importance that you hire a professional kitchen exhaust hood system cleaning company that knows and follows these laws and standards.

Best Practices

The following are the best management practices which we are now sharing with you as we aim to spread good knowledge, to help you prevent illegal discharges, help keep the environment clean and reduce pipe blockages associated with hood cleaning:

I· Remove as much grease as possible, by mechanical means (scraping) prior to treatment with cleaning chemicals and rinse water. This scraped off grease in a solid form can be disposed of in the trash.

II· Collect the wastewater that is generated from the cleaning process. When possible, we use a licensed hauler to dispose-off the wastewater with utmost care. If not feasible, the wastewater may also be discharged in the drains that are connected to a working grease interceptor. However, many food service industries only have grease interceptors that are sized for normal day-to-day use, and as such may not be able to handle the large volume of grease generated during the hood cleaning process. Excessive fats, oils and grease can cause major problems by clogging sewer pipes. Talk with the wastewater superintendent from the local wastewater treatment facility of the area to reduce the impact of this process.

III· The chemical cleaner used to remove the grease can cause the wastewater to reach corrosive levels (high pH). The pH of wastewater must typically remain between 5.0 and 12.5 (check with the management of the wastewater treatment facility for specific limits). Recent tests have shown that some wastewater can have a pH of 12 or greater. A pH greater than 12.5 is considered hazardous and is not allowed to be discharged to any drain, instead it must be managed as hazardous waste. Using a simple pH test strip will determine the pH level.

Steam and hot water pressure washers can be used to eliminate or reduce the use of chemical cleaners and the associated pH spikes. It should be borne in mind that no wastewater can be discharged into a storm drain. And dilution is not an acceptable method of treatment. 

IV· The rooftop section of the exhaust system must also be cleaned. Any greasy or alkaline wastewater generated on the roof must also not be allowed to enter the roof drain. As mentioned above, these drains are usually connected to storm water systems or discharge to the ground. It is illegal to discharge this wastewater directly or indirectly into the storm water system.

V· The rooftop section of the grease hood should have a covered grease collector to capture the excess grease. These collectors should be emptied (to solid waste or rendering) and cleaned on a regular basis, otherwise grease may overflow onto the roof and eventually end up in the roof drain. Grease is considered a pollutant and cannot be discharged via the roof drain. It can be disposed of in the trash.

VI· Filters should also be cleaned frequently in an area where the wastewater is drained to a sink.

VII· Food service establishment owners or managers should oversee the hood cleaning process.

VIII· Train the staff how to dispose-off the grease.

Food service owners or managers should be aware of the practices used by the hood cleaning company that they hire. At Grease Busters we provide every detail of the kind of work our clients should expect from us, followed by a detailed report to our clients, after our service. Some cleaning companies may not be aware that it is illegal and punishable by law to dispose-off the grease and related wastewater into a storm drain. Hire a reputable company that has appropriate certifications and is knowledgeable about environmental regulations.

This piece is written with the aim to share knowledge for the better of our own environment. Grease Busters believes that we all need to play our part in making this world a better place for us and our children in future to live in. For more information on this topic, you may contact the local wastewater treatment facility in your area.

If you run a commercial kitchen, then this is a MUST READ for you! As a service provider of cleaning of the kitchen exhaust hood system in the food industry, we come across a lot of customers who do not have any idea about the importance of clean filters and a lot of our time is spent educating them about the greasy kitchen exhaust system cleaning regimes, for the exhaust system parts that they can do. Unfortunately, many restaurant owners did not know what was required to do and what was involved in a cleaning process. Perhaps which could be the reason why their kitchen hoods get dirty in less than a few months, the previous kitchen exhaust hood cleaning company did not really follow the protocols. So, here is a small read for you. We all know that a kitchen’s exhaust system is designed to drive out all the greasy heavy smoke and smells. So, if these extracts are not cleaned timely and properly, the potential “ugly” acts may follow: 1- The fumes that are extracted out, carry grease with them that builds up inside the parts of the kitchen’s exhaust hood system, like filters, hoods, extractor fan etc. 2- It is important to understand that grease is a highly flammable danger that the cooks play with all the time in the kitchen while cooking because it is also responsible for most fires caused inside the kitchen restaurants. 3- Moreover, the greasy, dirty kitchen exhaust systems also force the fan to push harder which can result in: I- Under-performance eventually leading to more problems II- Consumption of extra energy and higher energy bills III- Shortened lifespan than it was supposedly made to last IV- Contamination of food V- Catching fire VI- Creating unpleasant smells due to inadequate ventilation Although it may seem a nuisance, but you should have your kitchen exhaust system professionally cleaned if: 1- It has not been cleaned in at least 4-6 months 2- If you often fry food or grill meat 3- If it is visibly dirty or trained 4- If there is an unpleasant odor exuding from it In addition to that, apart from being a fire hazard, grease inside the kitchen exhaust system also generates contamination or proliferation of diseases, mold or bacteria in the air, which can not only make the cooks and chefs ill, but they may also sit on the food and make your customers ill, which could leave you in a bad position. Therefore, only by carrying out the cleaning of the kitchen hood’s exhaust system cleaning, can the restaurant owner avoid these threats and it is their responsibility to make sure that the kitchen exhaust hood is cleaned thoroughly and properly. It is a dirty yet most crucial task which should be left to be cleaned by professionals as there are no shortcuts for cleaning it. THE BAD: Bogus Cleans As exaggerated as it may sound, routine kitchen hood cleaning is the most important service performed in commercial kitchens. A proper hood cleaning is carried out professionally and according to the schedule. We understand that the facility’s personnel or restaurant managers and owners may not be available during the cleaning, however, you can rely on Grease Busters to make sure the cleans are done correctly. We do not take a single cleaning job for granted. All kitchens are the same for us, they will have all our attention to details no matter how big or small or dirty they are. In general, as a rule of thumb, any kitchen exhaust system cleaning service providers should always provide their clients reports showing the before and after cleaning photos. Other than that, Grease Busters also provides observations and recommendations that we may find may prove necessary for your system (i.e. inaccessible areas). We also provide in-depth reports and certificates of completion, which could be passed on to the insurance representatives, and other jurisdiction authorities. Oftentimes when our clients hire our services for the cleaning of the kitchen exhaust hood system, before we start with our own cleaning, to take pre- and post-cleaning service pictures, we are usually greeted by a nasty surprise, which is very dirty and grimy kitchen exhaust hood system. The restaurant managers’ common response to seeing it is always, “But we had the hoods cleaned not long ago!” So, we dig deeper and find the same situation or even worse on the inside too and when that is the case, unfortunately it means that the previous kitchen exhaust hood cleaners only cleaned the areas that were visible to your eyes, which leads the clients to believe that they did their job perfectly. When the clients showed their past reports, we found some shocking surprises. We found out that their past contractors had used old photos repeatedly and even some photos were not of their own kitchen exhaust system from the inside! The photos were totally unrelated to their business and the sad truth is that the kitchen owners and managers are often tricked by unprofessional exhaust hood system cleaning service contractors or companies. They clean one part of the kitchen exhaust and provide a certificate and some random pictures and fool their clients that their work is in compliance with the local law authorities and insurance companies. As a restaurant owner or manager, you should know that a proper cleaning of the kitchen exhaust hood system should include of the following parts of the system: 1- Exhaust Fans 2- Ducts on the inside 3- Hood Plenums or the area behind the filters 4- Interior of the Hoods 5- Grease Trays 6- Grease Filters 7- Access Panels, if there are any. THE GOOD: All Hope Is not Lost Being a kitchen exhaust hood cleaning service provider company, we know that finding kitchen hood cleaning companies, like Grease Busters, that really understand and follow the correct guidelines of local law authorities are rare. This is the reason as to why the more you know and understand what is needed and correct; the better you can select the right company. The right kitchen exhaust hood cleaning contractor will provide a proper professional service. Additionally, the fact remains that, do not just go with the cheapest service providers but professionals. We are revolutionizing every day, to help you mitigate the build-up of the grease, according to the government and health department regulations in a cost-saving and environment-friendly way, without cheating you. Our word is our bond. You do not have to be our client to get answers. If you have further concerns, reach out to us on our website and we are ready to help you.

The most critical and crucial component of maintaining a successful kitchen business is taking care of your machinery, environment, and its cleanliness. You watch over your equipment; it watches over you. Here are just a few of the many benefits of regularly getting your exhaust system's ducts cleaned to ensure hygiene as well as safety.

Fire Prevention

Vapor and grease build up inside exhaust ducts can heat the machine, and the heat slowly spreads around the entire surrounding area, and the high-in-temperature, the overheated machine can become a potentially fuel a fire. Accumulated grease and other residues in your exhaust system's duct is often flammable and a fire hazard.

By removing the dirt, grime and other flammable elements which collect over time, you may be preventing a fatal fire accident and protecting lives, property and your equipment.

Improved Indoor Air Quality/ Reduced Odors

Help fix contaminated air that may be a safety hazard for you and others in that environment. By regularly cleaning your system’s ducts you may be improving indoor air quality, reducing airborne toxins and boosting the overall atmosphere of the area.

This will also help keep unpleasant odors at bay by getting rid of dust, mildew, fungi, or moss, which often accumulate in dark, congested corners such as ventilation ducts. Regular cleaning will get rid of unpleasant smells, pollutants, and allergens, and keep your environment and equipment fresh and healthy.

Health Protection

Protect the health of you and those around you by enhancing a clean, hygienic working environment and machinery, which is free of toxic residues such as mold and mildew, which develop invents over time. Removing dust and debris from there cleanses not just the machinery but also the air around it and boosts the health of your equipment, and the atmosphere remains pollution-free.

Reduced Energy Consumption/ Air Conditioning or Heating Costs

When released from extra stress load in struggling to deliver the desired result, your system will run more smoothly and consume less energy when airflow isn’t restricted. Go easy on your pocket and your exhaust system by making sure it isn't clogged up. It is also less likely to break down, and you can save up on expensive repairs or replacements.

Long Lasting System Durability/ Better System Maintenance

Taking care of your machines is essential for their durability and boosts their overall health, functionality, and maintenance. Keeping them clean of dirt and congested grease, grime or soot helps them perform better and last longer regarding life expectancy.

Eliminate Allergens

Promote better work efficiency and prevent sickness and allergies by getting rid of air pollutants, which may cause disease breakouts. Keep your business up and running, your work going at top speed and efficient machine performance and result by doing the simple task of scheduled regular vent cleaning.

Routinely checking up on and cleaning your ducts is crucial for the smooth running of the system and health of your environment. Habitually contact experienced professionals to check your ventilation system for grease, dirt, and grime which may tamper with its operation, and cause serious possible harm to you or your workplace, it is a necessity to get your system regularly serviced to keep it running at perfect speed with perfect ease.

Now that you own a restaurant, you must have realized it's not as easy as you thought it would be. You don't get free food (you're paying for everything), you can't just open the fridge and eat all the chocolate cream you want. No. It might have killed the dream you have had since you were 9, but you have to admit owning a restaurant is fun. You must also know by now that there are still things you need to learn, always.

Out of these things, that you must learn there is one that is always neglected and never given the importance it deserves: your kitchen exhaust system.

While cooking, grease can evaporate and stick to the walls and ceiling which despite being unhygienic can cause a fire hazard. Your exhaust system prevents that from happening, and it's important to clean your exhaust system regularly.

Here are four things you should know about cleaning your kitchen exhaust system.

How Often Should You Clean It

The NFPA-96 Standard Section 11.4 states that entire exhaust system shall be inspected for grease buildup by a properly trained, qualified, and certified person(s) according to the type of food the restaurant serves. For example, Systems serving solid fuel cooking operations must clean it once a month but systems are serving low fuel cooking operations like churches can get it cleaned once a year. You can also check on your own and know when to clean it.

Install Doors

To clean the exhaust system well, you need to access all the parts. To reach these parts even the horizontal and vertical ductwork, openings or doors must be installed. These openings must be large enough to ensure thorough cleaning a minimum of every 12 feet of horizontal ductwork and on every floor of vertical ductwork. Companies often attach doors, but they're rarely big enough to get it cleaned right, so you now see why we insist that you install them on your own.

What is Clean?

You will know that a surface is clean if there is no grease is accumulated on it. For a more precise measurement purchase the Grease Gauge which is a tool developed by IKEKA, it measures fuel accumulation on a surface to see if it’s clean or not. You can also always use the old fashioned way and rub your finger against the surface to see if it gets oily or black.

Know the Right Way

Your kitchen exhaust consists of mainly three parts: the fan, the hood, and the ducts. You need to know what kind of material it is made of. If it's made of stainless steel, then you must use warm soapy water if it's vinyl or plastic try an all-purpose cleaner but you can also use soapy water, for copper buy a copper cleaner. You should also check for signs of corrosion if you're using metal. You must try to focus individually on all parts and clean them well.

For a restaurant to not shut down, it needs the approval of a health inspector, and for that, it must keep every nook and cranny clean. It might be a little difficult, but if you're on a budget, you can clean it yourself with right things.

You want to open up a restaurant, and you've been checking the requirements for your kitchen. You're afraid you're going over budget, so you start cutting costs. You look at the words "exhaust system" and think of all the trouble you will have to endure to keep it clean, but you think of how necessary it is. You think okay fine, we'll just clean it once a year or something. No. You need to stop right there.

Cleaning your kitchen exhaust is important. If it’s still something you're not sure about, then let us help you make up your mind with these 4 benefits of cleaning your kitchen exhaust.

1- Fire Hazards

You know how much oil we love to put in our food, the richer, the better. The exhaust system is supposed to stop this grease from accumulating on our walls and other places. The exhaust system, itself, is full of grease. Grease accumulation leads to kitchen fires and for you and your worker's safety, clean your kitchen exhaust. You can hire a professional exhaust cleaner, yes they have one of those (see how important it is?), and they’ll scrub it well enough for you to stay in compliance with the fire code so you can merrily run your restaurant.

2- Odor Removal

You work with cumin, you work with garlic, you work with curry. How are you still conscious and not on the floor by the fetid stench. Your hero is your exhaust system. Without your exhaust, you will find customers leaving with a hand holding their nose and your restaurant earning a bad name. You don’t want that, now do you? Of course not! You need to treat your hero by getting it cleaned when it needs to be cleaned. When you schedule regular exhaust cleanings, you and your customers will be able to enjoy fresh air although the odor cannot completely be irradiated from the kitchen it can be reduced to a significant extent.

3- The Inside Air Quality

Cooking can release harmful pollutants that affect the inside quality of your kitchen. The hood is supposed to capture the cooking fumes, but it is unable to do so when grease has clogged it. Research has proven that while cooking with gas or electricity, pollutants like nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide can be released and these pollutants are either inhaled by the employees in the kitchen or go in the food to be served if the exhaust system is not clean. This can cause diseases like lung cancer. So it is up to you to decide whether spending some bucks on the maintenance of your exhaust system is worth everyone’s health.

4- Easy on the Pocket

A clean kitchen exhaust system results in smoother air flow. The effectiveness of the system improves your efficiency that is, it does not waste energy. The production rate will also increase while your bills, in the long run, might not. Now you might be able to save up for that renovation you have been thinking of.

You cannot have doubts about this now. Call up a professional exhaust cleaner and avail all these benefits! You can even help others who are going through the same dilemma as you. Share your knowledge! Run! Go!

The kitchen in your restaurant is the king's room, it must be looked after, cleaned, and make anyone who sees it go 'wow.' Just like a king, his room needs high maintenance. If your kitchen isn’t spotless, the customers are sure to raise questions and eventually you will lose them if the health inspector doesn’t catch you before. The ventilation system is an integral part of your restaurant kitchen and cleaning it can be tiresome, but you have to do it.

What Does the Ventilation System do?

The ventilation system is supposed to maintain a fresh balance air and the one that is taken away. It offers built-in fire suppression abilities to keep the workspace, and everyone in it safe ventilating a commercial kitchen can be very complicated. Air must move through ductwork swiftly and effectively.

The Battle with Space

The equipment must be arranged in such a way that it does not take a lot of space since, in a commercial kitchen, space is already a struggle; you need different working stations, a place to store clean dishes a place to set the orders and a place for the workers to move around without bumping into one another.

A kitchen exhaust system is supposed to take away contaminates in the air by pulling them out through an exhaust fan. As soon as the contaminates are removed, fresh air from the outside comes inside.

When to Clean the Hood

The significant parts of a ventilation system include a fan, an exhaust hood, and ductwork. To prevent your kitchen from catching fire because of grease, you must make sure that you clean your kitchen hood exhaust system to fire code standards regularly.

To satisfy your insurance company, health departments, fire inspectors, your exhaust system must be consistently inspected and cleaned. The amount of cleaning required varies with some factors for example how much your restaurant is in use.

If you're a big restaurant that gets hundreds of customers a day then, yes, you are required to clean your oven hood more often than a less busy one. But it also depends on the type of food you serve, for example, a fast food restaurant will need to clean its exhaust hood more than a Chinese restaurant just like a barbeque restaurant would clean its exhaust more often than a Thai food restaurant.

It also depends on the type of stove you use; If you’re working on charcoal-burning stoves or wood-burning, you should have to clean every month, or you should also clean every two weeks.

Here are some examples of how often you should try cleaning depending on certain factors:

• Average restaurants – 90-day cleaning requirement
• Fast food restaurants – 30-day cleaning requirement
• Oven hoods – 180-day cleaning requirement
• Hoods over non-greasy appliances – 1-year cleaning requirement

Clean it Right

You must also know the right way to clean your exhaust hood; if it's made of stainless steel, then you must use warm soapy water if it's vinyl or plastic try an all-purpose cleaner, but you can also use soapy water, for copper hoods buy a copper cleaner. And remember, cleaning the outside is almost as important as the inside for a clean kitchen and will raise worker motivation.

Now that you know all there is to know about your exhaust hood grab your cleaning appliances and go, go, go!