Most people don’t give their kitchen fan and exhaust system much thought, but it is an important thing to clean and maintain. Cleaning your kitchen’s exhaust system will improve the air quality in your home, improve hygiene in the ktichen and enhance your cooking experience. Here are some tips on cleaning the kitchen exhaust.
1. Why should the kitchen exhaust be cleaned?
Because it enhances the cooking experience and improves safety. If you’ve burned a dish, you’ll know that it usually gives off smoke and then the smoke alarm blares through the house! An exhaust system is the most effective way to get rid of the smoke that spreads through your home. More importantly, steam and smells that come from your kitchen can easily stick to your walls, creating an unhygienic and smelly kitchen. You exhaust system blows smells out before they start to linger.
Over time, your exhaust system will get clogged with grease and dust particles and won’t function well. So you need to clean it.
2. How should you clean the commercial kitchen exhaust?
Remove the filter
The first thing you should do is turn off the appropriate circuit at the breaker box. Then open the kitchen windows to get some air circulating. Remove the mesh filters on the fan, put them in a sink and pour boiling water over them. This should loosen the grease on the filter.
Clean the filter
In order to remove maximum grease, you may use caustic chemicals such as ammonia. Chemicals are generally applied with either a garden type sprayer, or using a downstream injection through a pressure washer. After the chemicals are applied, allow them to rest on the surface of the grease for sometime before washing them off the surface with hot water.
In extreme cases, where the surface is contaminated due to heavy grease build up, scrapers are used to remove excess buildup.
Clean the fan
The filter is not the only part contaminated with grease; the fan blades will be covered too. For cleaning the fan, trisodium phosphate cleaner can be used. While making use of such an intense chemical, you must use a mask. You may also substitute trisodium phosphate cleaner with a mix of 1 quart warm water, 2 tablespoons baking soda and ¼cup ammonia.
After applying the chemical, start working from the back and scrub the fan while simultaneously drying the areas that are covered. If the grease is heavy, it may take a number of attempts to get it completely clean. However, it is necessary to keep repeating the process over and over again to avoid quicker build up of grease. Once you have finished cleaning, replace the mesh filters in their frames, put them back into the kitchen exhaust fan and turn the circuit breaker back on.
This process should be performed at least annually to keep the exhaust fan in good working condition. However, if you find that cleaning your kitchen exhaust system does not make any difference, get in touch with trusted professionals who can help you.
