A commercial kitchen exhaust system can be found in any location that cooks or prepares food in some way. This most often refers to restaurants but there are other types of establishments that contain kitchen exhaust systems. Grocery stores, hospitals, employee cafeterias, churches, day camps, hotels, seasonal businesses, senior centers or assisted living centers are all examples of places you may find large cooking operations that would need commercial cleaning services at some point. Anywhere commercial cooking operations happen, you can be assured there will be a fire code inspection on a regular basis. A big part of this fire code inspection involves checking the kitchen exhaust systems and ensuring that routine cleanings have been taking place.

During the preparation and cooking of food, a tremendous amount of grease vapor, heat, food particulates, and exhaust get expelled into the air. Kitchen exhaust systems exist to ensure the kitchen is properly ventilated and removes these contaminants from the air. This protects your cooking staff from inhaling or being exposed to these contaminants as well as prevents them from sticking to nearby surfaces. However it’s important to note that different cooking volumes, fuel types and equipment have different regulatory standards. Bare Metal Standard is here to expel any confusion on how often your system should be cleaned based on the type of cooking your kitchen does.

Regulations and Enforcing Service

NFPA or the National Fire Prevention Association, Standard 96, is the code that specifies construction and regulation of kitchen exhaust systems and their suppression systems. This code also includes the average inspection frequency for various types of cooking operations. To truly keep your kitchen and staff safe from a potentially destructive grease fire, it is considered best practice as well as recommended by code to clean each system “…prior to surfaces becoming heavily contaminated with grease or oily sludge.” – NFPA 96, code 11.6.1. This means that as a restaurant or other commercial kitchen owner, if you have more than one hood system you may need to classify your cooking equipment and schedule their cleanings at different times. The table to the right breaks down the different classifications of cooking operations based on type or volume of cooking according to the NFPA.

Custom Scheduling Software for Diverse Businesses

Let’s say you have a wood fire oven for pizza, a grease fryer for onion rings, and a grill for burgers that is only used during the summer as a seasonal offering. Each of these systems ventilate into their own, separate hood. Solid-fuel cooking operations will require different cleaning schedules than liquid-fuel cooking operations. Seasonally used cooking equipment won’t need to be cleaned as often as equipment used year round. How do you keep track of each individual piece of equipment while remaining up to current fire safety codes? That’s where Bare Metal Standard comes in.

• We stay on track.
  Our technicians stay current on the most recent fire code expectations and inspection schedules in your local area.
• We use custom scheduling software.
  Our software provides us with unique alerts for when your specific systems need to be cleaned throughout the calendar year.
• We contact you.
  When it’s time to get your system cleaned again, we’ll get in touch and make an appointment to ensure all your systems are up to code.

Our goal is to guarantee you never fail another inspection. We know you’re busy. That’s why we do the thinking for you. Bare Metal Standard is your reliable partner in kitchen exhaust cleaning nationwide.