Hood Cleaning or Kitchen Exhaust Cleaning is the process of removing all grease and debris from the hood, filters, exhaust fan, and ductwork. Commercial cooking establishments are required by law to have their hoods cleaned at least bi-annually. The entire process will take a professional hood cleaning company from start to finish 3 to 6 hours. When hiring a company, make sure they have insurance, references, and are licensed in the state. Below is the process that our certified technicians at Red Star Services follow in order to ensure a grease-free and fire safe cooking environment.

Step by step guide to hood cleaning

  1. Preparing the commercial kitchen for the cleaning process –  In order to prepare the kitchen for the cleaning all the pilot lights and gas valves on the appliances must be shut off and covered with tarps. This process will prevent your kitchen equipment from having any chemicals or grease splatter on them.
  2. Wrapping the hood to protect from water spillage – To make sure our technicians do not spill any water on the floor we wrap your hood in poly plastic and funnel the plastic into a container catching all greasy water run off.
  3. Cleaning the grease baffle filters – In order to get your baffle filters clean again we remove your filters and soak them in our chemical tanks for a couple hours. After the filters have been soaking and the grease is loosened we pressure wash the filters to remove any and all grease.
  4. Making your ductwork grease free – The ductwork is cleaned by manually scraping and removing all hardened grease and debris prior to spraying with chemical. Our technicians will then spray a chemical mixture in your ductwork and let dwell for 30 minutes to an hour.
  5. Removing exhaust fan and cleaning – We remove your exhaust fan and spray the bottom and top of your exhaust fan with chemical. We also will change your fan belt and then pressure wash to remove all grease.
  6. Hood Cleaning – The hood is manually scraped to loosen all grease and debris and then sprayed with our proprietary chemical. We let the chemical dwell in the hood allowing for the grease to loosen. When our technicians have determined that the grease is loosened we use hot water pressure washers to remove all the grease from your system.
  7. System is hot water pressure washed from top to bottom – When all the chemical has penetrated the grease and debris our technicians will use hot water pressure washers to spray all the grease out of your system. It is important to spray from top to bottom allowing for grease to flow with gravity into our plastic funnel on the first floor.
  8. Filters are placed back and system is inspected – When all the components of the exhaust system have been properly cleaned the filters are placed back in the hood the hood is wiped down with polish to leave your system looking professional. Our technicians will then test your exhaust fan to make sure it is working and pulling smoke out of your kitchen.
  9. Clean up and certification sticker is applied – It is required by law that after a kitchen exhaust cleaning company cleans your system that they place a certification sticker on each hood. This sticker will show the fire inspector, health department, or insurance agent the date you were cleaned and when your next cleaning date is scheduled.
  10. Cleaning up is our priority – We care about your restaurant and make sure on every job your kitchen is left in the condition we found it. We will wipe down your system with stainless steel polish, mop your floors, re-light your pilots and turn your gas back on.

When should I have my hoods cleaned again?

A professional hood cleaning company will put your establishment on a hood cleaning schedule. It is recommended by the National Fire Protection Association that you have your hood cleaned every six months. It is imperative that you make sure you stay on a schedule and do not skip any cleanings. If you skip a cleaning the grease and debris can carbonize and make it almost impossible for our proprietary chemicals to remove the grease. If you are interested in a free no obligation quote call Red Star Services today! 1-888-225-0816