No matter what type of restaurant you run, one of the most important things that you must do is to regularly maintain and clean your kitchen hood system. This particular system does a lot in the kitchen and it’ll help remove smoke, grease, odors, and other airborne particles. Because of this, the system is literally a magnet for dirt, grime, debris, and oil.
Now, there are various step-by-step and how-to guides that you could read in order to learn how you can properly clean your kitchen hood system – also referred to as the grease trap system – but, to make things even easier for you, here is a list of tips & tricks that’ll help you throughout the cleaning process:
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First Things First – Unplug it!
Although it might be logical to you, a lot of individuals fail to unplug their exhaust system, which won’t only make it difficult for them to clean it, but it is a safety hazard as well. Hence, before you start removing the grease traps and other components, you should unplug the kitchen hood system. Once you do, you should leave it to cool down since if not, you might end up burning yourself – which you’ll certainly want to avoid.
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Protect The Area Around The System
If there is one thing that you must take away from this article, it’s the fact that you must protect the area surrounding your grease trap. Plastic sheets should be your go-to option for covering different appliances, surfaces, floors, and equipment, mostly because the job will be incredibly dirty and there will most likely be grease dripping all over the area. You should also protect yourself by wearing old clothes, gloves, safety goggles, as well as old shoes.
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Follow Tutorials And Guides Carefully
If you choose to clean the grease traps by yourself, ensure that you follow all the tutorials and guides carefully. After all, you’ll want to do each step properly and you’ll want to guarantee that you don’t damage any components while maintaining them, thus, follow each step carefully. Also, if you aren’t up for going through the entire process by yourself, you could always opt for hiring a professional company to do this.
For more details, check out: premiergrease.com/hood-cleaning.html.
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The Frequency of The Cleaning Will Depend on Your Business
Keep in mind, regular maintenance and cleaning are always recommended, however, how frequently you’ll clean your kitchen hood system will depend on several factors, including how large the kitchen is, the volume of food preparation, and how often you get visits from inspection. Depending on the aforementioned factors, you can determine how often you’ll have to go through the process as one of the following:
- Every Month – if you run a fast-food restaurant or a kitchen with solid cooking operations that require a lot of oil, you’ll have to clean the system at least once a month,
- Every Three Months – if you, for instance, run a place that operates 24/7, you most likely cook a lot of food during one week. If so, you should ensure that you maintain the system every three months,
- Twice a Year – if you have a moderate cooking volume and if you run a fancy, sit-down restaurant, your grease trap system has to be cleaned at least twice a year to ensure safety and efficiency,
- Yearly – lastly, if you only operate your kitchen every two or three months, you most likely prepare a small volume of meals. In this situation, cleaning the system once a year is sufficient.
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Think About Installing Duct Access Doors
You might not realize this until you start cleaning, but the inside of the ducts will be daunting and complex to reach, which means that it’ll also be difficult to maintain them. This is why you should seriously consider installing duct access doors. These are incredibly easy to install and they’ll make the entire process of removing oil, grease, dirt, debris, and fats incredibly easy and simple. Keeping your ducts clean will hinder bacteria and mold from developing, meaning that it’s quite important that you maintain them.
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Never Dump The Oily Residue in The Toilet!
One of the biggest mistakes people make when maintaining the kitchen exhaust system is that they tend to dump all the debris, grease, oils, fats, and other contaminants down their toilets, sinks, or in the trash. This is a terrible mistake to make, especially since it can cause additional problems for you such as a clogged toilet or sink. To avoid this happening to you, you’ll want to place all the residue in a separate, plastic container and later on, deal with it in the right way.
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Use The Right Cleaning Products
You won’t want to use any cleaning products that are flammable. If you do, you might end up creating a fire, especially if you don’t wipe it off entirely from the hood system. Because of this, a wide range of experts recommends that you use water, and more importantly, a liquid degreaser. How much should you put in the water? Well, this will depend on the product you opted for purchasing, hence, read the label to see what the appropriate ratio is.
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Soak The Traps, Filters, And Other Components in The Mixture
Lastly, you should know that the aforementioned mixture isn’t only used for cleaning the system, instead, it is also used for soaking the components that you remove from it. So, before you start scrubbing the traps, filters, fans, and other components that you remove from the kitchen hood, soak them in the mixture you made. This will ensure that all the grease is removed and it’ll also make it easier for you to scrub everything off of the component.
Conclusion
Although you’ll be able to follow different tutorials and guides on how you can maintain your kitchen hood system, the tips we’ve mentioned above will make the entire process simpler, less daunting, and more importantly, they’ll ensure that you do everything that you can to guarantee the safety of your kitchen and the meals you prepare in it.
Since you now know what you should do, instead of losing any more of your time, there is one more thing that you should consider – whether or not you’ll hire a professional company to clean your grease trap. Keep in mind, these professionals will know exactly what they have to do, hence, if you don’t trust your skills and knowledge, opt for hiring their services.
