How Often Should Restaurant Hoods be Cleaned?

Every restaurant with a working kitchen has a hood for the cooking ranges. Your restaurant hood captures the cooking fumes and channels them up out of the building through a vent. It is an essential part of your kitchen exhaust system. Of course, this process is hardly residue-free. Everything you cook is released into the air, from evaporated oil and grease to the spices you use. The grease on the hood both attracts dust and risks dripping back down into the cooking and prep areas. It's no surprise that restaurant hood cleaning is a must on a regular basis.

But, not all venues remember to schedule regular restaurant hood cleaning to ensure the kitchen and prep space remain pristine over weeks and months of constant food creation. How often should you schedule restaurant hood cleaning services? Let's find out.

How often you clean your restaurant hood depends on how much cooking, fumes, or smoke occurs under that hood. Cleaning your restaurant exhaust hood and exhaust system is a matter of fire safety, so it's no surprise that it's from these guidelines that we get our recommended cleaning schedule. How often should restaurant hoods be cleaned? It depends on their volume.

• Annual Exhaust System Inspections
• Low-volume kitchens
• Churches, day camps, seasonal restaurants
• Semi-Annual Exhaust System Inspections
• Moderate-volume kitchens
• Most restaurants, schools, and community center kitchens
• Quarterly Exhaust System Inspections
• High-Volume Kitchens
• 24-hour restaurants, high-volume event venue kitchens, fast food
• Charbroiling and wok cooking
• Monthly Exhaust System Inspections
• Solid Fuel Kitchens
• Cooking over charcoal or wood

The NFPA 96 Standard for Ventilation Control and Fire Protection of Commercial Cooking Operations

The National Fire Protection Agency or NFPA has written a comprehensive fire-prevention guide regarding the inspection, cleaning, and maintenance of any commercial kitchen hood and exhaust system: The NFPA 96 Standard. It is from this regulation that we build our cleaning schedules depending on the volume, looking methods, fuel type, and overall grease deposit buildup from each kitchen.



The full name of the regulation is NFPA 96: Standard for Ventilation Control and Fire Protection of Commercial Cooking Operations. But the restaurant industry typically calls it the "96 Standard" for short.

Restaurant Hood Exhaust System Cleaning Checklist

• Hood
• Inspect Weekly
• Clean quarterly to monthly for good measure
• Exhaust filters
• Inspect Monthly 
• Clean quarterly to yearly, on inspection
• Fan blades and fan mechanism
• Inspect quarterly,
• Clean at least yearly
• Ductwork: horizontal and vertical
• Inspect quarterly
• Clean at least yearly
• Housing and trim
• Clean weekly with kitchen surfaces

How often should you clean each element of your restaurant hood exhaust system? Those parts you can easily reach, like the housing, trim, and lower areas of the hood, can be cleaned regularly with your weekly or monthly kitchen deep-clean. Use the same grease removing methods you would on your backsplash and grease channels in the range. 



Inspect your exhaust system for grease buildup monthly. Expect to need a hood and filter cleaning quarterly or more frequently, and expect to need the entire exhaust system professionally cleaned - including the ductwork - at least once a year.

Why Cleaning Your Restaurant Hood and Exhaust is Important

The biggest problem with your hood and exhaust system is grease buildup. While hot grease will fly up in vapor and cling to your exhaust system, it solidifies again when cooled. Solid or pooled deposits of grease in your exhaust are, unfortunately, fuel for a dangerous grease fire in the kitchen. 

Even when a fire does not occur, grease still builds up to clog your vents and gum up your fans to decrease the exhaust system's efficiency. With enough buildup, there is also the risk of old, dust-filled grease dripping down into the food you are currently cooking. Keeping those range hoods and the entire ventilation clean is essential to your restaurant's quality operations on a number of levels.

Professional Restaurant Hood System Inspections and Cleaning Services

Suppose you're worried that it might be time for your restaurant hood cleaning and exhaust system cleaning, contact experts for an inspection. We'll not only let you know if you need cleaning right now, but we'll also show you what to look for and provide pointers on maintaining the easier-to-reach sections of your exhaust system to keep clean routinely. Our team can then handle deep-cleaning your entire hood exhaust system, including fans and ductwork, to leave you with a fresh start before your next system inspection.

For professional restaurant hood cleaning services, please contact the HVAC cleaning experts at Midwest Duct Cleaning!