Why Commercial Kitchen Hoods Need Cleaning

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As a restaurant owner, you already know the importance of keeping your work environment clean. That's why regular commercial kitchen cleaning is absolutely essential, both from a fire safety standpoint, but also from a health standpoint--for your employees and your customers.

Here are the big three reasons for cleaning kitchen hoods regularly.

1- Fire Prevention--As you well know, restaurant cooking produces a lot of grease and oil particles, moisture, fumes, and vapors. Turning on the exhaust fan shoots all that stuff straight up through the kitchen hood exiting through the duct work. 

As it does, it goes through filters which build up residue over time, and those tiny oil particles become highly combustible.

Without regular commercial cleaning, all that gunk diminishes the ability of the ventilation system to do its job, increasing the risk of fire in the manifolds. 

Grease fires are difficult to control and they spread fast. All the more reason to keep your kitchen hood cleaned and keep your kitchen crew away from unsafe conditions.

2-Productivity--Clean vent hoods make your kitchen tasks easier. Clean hoods won't generate heat, smoke, or contaminated air, improving not only your indoor air quality but maximizing the efficiency and productivity of your kitchen employees. 

What's more, employees won't have have to deal with the hassle of interruptions from poorly functioning equipment. A clean kitchen is good for employees, customers, and your bottom line!

3--Insurance Liability--If you pass the due date for your regular cleaning and there is a fire, you are responsible for any kind of damage resulting from the fire. Worse, if you have had your commercial kitchen ventilation system cleaned but it wasn't cleaned by a certified cleaning service, your insurance may not pay.

The National Fire Protection Association states that every year, there are an average of 11,100 structure fires in eating and drinking establishments in the US. The result? $163.1 million dollars in property damage.

This is a devastating loss for both employees and owners, and easily preventable. Statistics show that less than 70% of these businesses will ever reopen. don't be a statistic!

Here in Staunton, commercial kitchen owners understand the risks of not having a clean kitchen exhaust system. But they also have grappled with finding a locally certified hood cleaning company so that they can stay in full compliance with local and state laws.

The closest certified exhaust hood system cleaning service is either Richmond or Lynchburg. Because Staunton is approximately a two-hour drive for these out-of-town companies, they require a three-unit minimum to make the trip profitable for them. And that's understandable. Nobody's in business to lose money.

Fortunately, food service owners now have their own maintenance service they can turn to. Locally owned and operated right here in the Queen City, Pristine Hoods, LLC, is licensed, insured, and certified by MFS in Florida.

We provide complete hood and exhaust care to keep your kitchen clean and safe. How? Using a high pressure washing system and a degreaser to chemically break down and remove that nasty grease.

Your kitchen hood is bare metal clean when we finish! That's what the national standards set forth by NFPA-96 suggests for the most effective clean. And because we cover your equipment with plastic sheeting, we leave no mess behind either.

But there's one more aspect to keeping your restaurant clean and abiding by the law that's challenging for restaurant owners. And that is, remembering when your kitchen hoods are due for inspection.

Time flies and you've got a lot on your plate (no pun intended). It's no wonder it's easy to forget. That's where we come in.

When you partner with Pristine Hoods, LLC, we'll send you a friendly reminder of when your next inspection is due. You don't have to worry about it. We take care of it for you. That's one recurring task you can take off your to-do list!

Not only have you followed the law by scheduling services with us, you've also extended the life of your equipment. Consistent cleanings help keep the motors and moving parts clear of grease, residue, and dust. That means you'll have fewer breakdowns, saving you a lot of money on repairs and equipment replacement. 

Your employees will love it because regular kitchen ventilation cleaning provides a safe environment in which to work.

We take restaurant cleanliness seriously. To keep you in compliance with safety standards and fire prevention, we use powerful methods to get the job done.

• Pressure washing all accessible horizontal and vertical duct work as well as the vent hood canopy
• We detail the baffle filters, making sure they are suitable for continued use
• Dry and polish the hood canopy
• Mop the floor surrounding the vent hoods once we've finished
• We properly dispose of all materials

Pristine Hoods, LLC ensures you have an efficient and clean operating vent hood system that is compliant with NFPA-96. (More about that below.)

We clean your entire hood, never cutting corners. All work is performed by certified technicians.

That's the big question! It varies depending on the type of food establishment. Generally, most food establishments are required to have exhaust hood cleanings every three months. But how can you know if that's the right schedule for you?

There are three factors that play a crucial role in determining exhaust cleaning. 

• The menu items
• Volume of cooking you do
• The type of cooking equipment and appliances used in your kitchen

Here's the schedule of frequency for commercial hood cleaning:

Monthly--Systems using solid fuel must have their kitchen hoods cleaned every 30 days. 

Quarterly--Systems serving high volume operations. For example, 24-hour cooking, charbroiling, or wok cooking.

Semi-Annually-Systems serving moderate volume cooking operations.

Annually--Low volume cooking such as day camps, churches, and seasonal businesses need an annual cleaning.

No matter your need--monthly, quarterly, or annually--Pristine Hoods, LLC will keep track of when you need your next cleaning and let you know.

To reiterate, here's what we clean:

• Exhaust hood
• Kitchen hood filter
• Hood fan blades
• Kitchen hood duct

Commercial kitchen exhaust cleaning is so important to public health and safety, it's mandated by law. 

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), an international safety advisory organization, develops best practices and codes for fire prevention.

They also regulate industrial and commercial facilities through codes used by various authorities.

One such code, the NFPA-96, is the "Standard for Ventilation Control and Fire Protection of Commercial Cooking Operations." 

This code regulates how hood and grease filters should be installed and maintained for cleaning.

You can download the NFPA-96 checklist here.

Code compliance is critical for the smooth running of your restaurant, but so is peace of mind. No one wants to own a food service business that is a hazard, whether it's contaminants, dirty fryers, grime, odors, or possibly a flammable restaurant environment.

Thoroughly cleaning your kitchen hood is a dirty job, but we make it easy to remove the grease, grime, and other buildup.

When you clean your restaurant working area, you're not only in full compliance with local laws, state and national laws, you're telling the public and your employees that safety and code adherence is important to you.

Your establishment--because of its cleanliness and the quality of your food--becomes a business that customers would highly recommend. These commonsense preventative measures are the law, but they also extend the life of your equipment and create a healthier environment which affects employee productivity.

Call us today for a free estimate on cleaning your commercial kitchen hood. Let us take the stress of keeping up with scheduling regular cleanings off your shoulders!

We're flexible and we're here to help!