How-To Clean a Restaurant Exhaust Hood

Taking the time to clean your restaurant exhaust hood on a regular basis will make for a cleaner kitchen, improve restaurant exhaust hood air flow and reduce the risk of fire. Restaurant exhaust hood cleaning should be done every three months, and when done during closed hours will not interfere with normal kitchen operation.

Preparation
Before you begin cleaning your restaurant exhaust hood, turn off any pilot lights on the stove top, ovens and fryers. Any equipment with casters and quick disconnect gas hoses should be disconnected and moved from the work area. All remaining equipment should be allowed to cool and then covered.
Be sure to also turn off the power to your restaurant exhaust hood at both the switch and breaker box.

Hood Cleaning
Begin by removing the grease hood filters and drip cups. Clean the filters and drip cups with a degreaser and set them aside. Next, scrape any visible grease from the hood troughs, filter pans and ducts. Be careful not to disturb the fire suppression system trigger mechanism or fusible links.
When all visible grease has been removed, use a commercial degreaser to clean the surface of the restaurant exhaust hood. Working from the highest accessible point in the interior of the restaurant exhaust hood, wipe clean the inner surface working your way down. Clean the outside surface last.
Be sure to wear rubber gloves, eye protection and a face mask while using any commercial degreaser product. It is also helpful to change cleaning rags as they become heavily soiled and to use scouring pads where needed. Allowing the degreaser to soak on heavily-soiled areas may also be helpful.

Clean Up
Remove the covers from any neighboring equipment, and check for any spilled grease that may need to be cleaned up. Clean the floor in the hood area before returning any equipment to its original position. Replace the hood filters and drip cups, and then polish the exhaust hood and any surrounding equipment with a stainless steel polishing spray. Relight any pilot lights and restore the power to the restaurant exhaust hood system. Finally, check to make sure all equipment is working properly.