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DID YOU KNOW?
Kitchen exhaust cleaning is required by law for virtually every cooking establishment in the United States. Restaurants, hospitals, hotels, employee cafeterias and other food-service locations have a "hood" and ductwork over the stove to exhaust smoke, steam, and fumes out of the building. These exhaust gasas leave a residue on th inside of th duct work. This is usually a grease residue of some sort, depending on the type of cooking. Char broilers commonly leave a heavy black grease. Chinese cooking normally deposits a sticky or rubbery residue. when a charcoal or wood-burning stove is in use, soot and ash residue builds up in the duct work. Dishwashers leave a heavy lint deposit.

When the build up of grease becomes heavy, A fire hazard exists. Approximately one of three restaurant fires is cause by grease. A common scenario of how a kitchen fire starts is this:
1.) A flame flares up on the stove.
2.) The fire contacts the filters above the stove on the kitchen hood. The filters ignite.
3.) Since the exhause fan is on, drawing air into the hood, through the filters, and up the duct, the flame on the filters is pulled into the duct.
4.) if significant grease residue exists on the duct interior, this can act as a fuel and the fire spreads up the duct, perhaps all the way into the fan.
We have seen fire climb up a ten-story duct to the fan on the room and burn up the fam.
Modern duct construction is designed to hopefully withstand such duct fires. The duct seams are welded to prevent grease or fire from leaking out and the shafts around the duct are made of fire resistant materials. However, older buildings. are still at rist, and even in modern ones he fire may leak out or could come out onto the roof via the fan.
When an exhause system is cleaned regularly, however, the chances of a duct fire are extremely remote. In virtually all the duct fires, the ducts were extremely laden with grease or other flammable materials...

HOW OFTEN SHOULD A KITCHEN EXHAUST BE CLEANED?
The most common cleaning frequency is every 3 months. This can vary however. The kitchen exhaust systems which need cleaning most often are those over wood-burning or charcoal-burning stoves. These should be cleanes every month atleas, and in some cases as often as every 2 weeks. Below are various types of cooking establishments and their most commonly recomended cleaning frequencies.
~ Wood-burning or charcoal-burning stoves, char broilers, 24-hour restaurants, some hamburger places: 30 DAYS ~Many hamburger restaurant and fast food locations: 60 DAYS
~Average restaurant, employee cafeteria, hotel or hospital kitchen: 90 DAYS
~Pizza places, convalescent hospital, small snack bar, oven hood: 180 DAYS
~Hoods over non-grease-creating appliances, such as steam kettles, dishwashers, soup vats, etc.: ONE YEAR Kitchen exhaust cleaning is a standard part of the routine maintenance of any cooking establishment. All kitchen managers or restaurant owners should be aware of it's role in fire prevention and ensure it is done on a regular basis.