Kitchen Exhaust Fan Maintenance

A properly running Commercial Kitchen Exhaust system is crucial to achieving optimal airflow and grease extraction from your kitchen.  Kitchen exhaust fan maintenance is not the same as hood cleaning services and most hood cleaning companies are not qualified to perform maintenance services required to keep your kitchen exhaust fan running properly.  Outside your regular hood cleaning service, which should clean your fan, duct work and hoods, there are several key mechanical areas of your system that need to be maintained, which we refer to as kitchen exhaust fan maintenance, to keep your system running and performing at optimal performance.

• 5 Point Kitchen Exhaust Fan Maintenance – Regular maintenance to the motor and its components are critical to keeping the fan performing at top performance.  Failure to maintenance your kitchen exhaust fan, specifically the fan motor, can cause the fan blades to become unbalanced, your motor to lose operating power causing your drive shaft and motor to become out of alignment.

• Hinge Kits – All kitchen exhaust fans are required by NFPA 96 fire code to have proper hinge kits installed to allow the fan to open and close to the curb leading to your duct work.  Part of your kitchen exhaust fan maintenance includes inspecting, adjusting and/or replacing hinge kits. When these hinge kits are not inspected and adjusted, they can fail.  Lack of hinge kits present on your kitchen exhaust fan will result in inaccessible area on your kitchen exhaust system or inevitable damage to your kitchen exhaust fan and roof from improper removal and placement of fan onto the roof.

• Grease Containment Systems – The purpose of your fan is to extract the grease being produced out of your kitchen.  NFPA 96 requires proper grease containment systems to be installed on or around the fan unit to capture grease as it exits the fan housing assembly and also need to be inspected and serviced during your regular kitchen exhaust fan maintenance.  Lack of proper grease containment system or lack of maintenance to the system, will result in grease spilling onto your roof, down gutters and into run offs.  This can cause severe damage to your roof and you risk fines for illegal grease dumping and run off.

1. Clean dust and debris from motor
2. Tighten and/or replace belts.
3. Adjust motor mounts
4. Adjust pullies and shaft
5. Grease shaft and bearings

Failure to perform proper kitchen exhaust fan maintenance on your fan motor can lead to several costly repair up to and including complete fan replacement.  

Waiting until your fan breaks down always creates additional unnecessary expenses and headaches because fan parts are not readily available same day which can lead to potentially having to close your restaurant until parts are available.  Like you HVAC system, or the breaks on your car, routine kitchen exhaust fan maintenance can significantly reduce your exposure to business halting, mechanical break downs of your exhaust system.  It is not uncommon for systems to be running 12-20 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Contact us to learn more about our regular kitchen exhaust maintenance packages.

A critical element to your kitchen exhaust maintenance are your hinge kits.  Not only are they required per NFPA 96 fire code, they can and will significantly reduce the cost of repairs and allow your hood cleaning service company to perform their cleaning service with one less inaccessible area.

Why are Hinge Kits Important:

• Keep you compliant to NFPA fire code.
• Prevent roof damage from fan being placed on roof.
• Prevent fan damage from fan having to be removed from curb for cleaning.
• Eliminates inaccessible areas at top of duct work from fan not being removed.

There are many brands of hinge kits available, but for most applications, we only trust the highest quality Type #1 hinge kits.  As a dealership for hinge kits, you can have confidence and piece of mind that our team is properly trained in the installation.

While it is so easy to, there are many reasons why you should NOT neglect your grease containment systems.  Several of the reasons could lead to costly repair bills you could be responsible for, even as a tenant in a location.

Here’s why:

• Prevents illegal grease run off from roof into drainage lines that can lead to fines for grease dumping and run off.

The average cost of a replacing a roof membrane on a commercial facility that is approximately 3,000 sq ft can range from $30,000 to $50,000, while illegal grease dumping and run off fines can start at a minimum of 1 year jail time and up to $25,000 fine.  Regardless if you are the building owner or tenant, as the restaurant owner/operator, you would be held liable for damages caused by the grease production and improper grease containment systems.