Belsito Plumbing LLC

kitchen hoods, kitchen exhaust hood

Oven vents and fans are a nice addition to your kitchen. When cooking something particularly pungent (or when accidentally cooking to the point of charring), your oven vent is there to reduce lingering odors and suck away smoke. To keep your stove vent running at peak performance, you need to clean your over-the-stove vent hood periodically. Below are some tips on how to turn this dirty job into an easy one.

Range Hood Cleaning: Filter Cleaning and Replacing
When it comes time for a good cleaning, range hood filters may be removed and soaked in a degreasing solution until the grease is dissolved. Wash them in soapy water to remove any traces of the degreaser. Also, a filter may be put in the upper rack of the dishwasher and run through a normal cycle. If you are located in Phoenix Arizona Belsito Plumbing can professionally clean your Kitchen hood. 

Some stove vent systems actually circulate the air rather than suck it outside. These types of systems may have one or more activated charcoal filters which must be replaced when they lose their effectiveness.

Interior Range Hood Cleaning
The unit must be turned off before being cleaned. Also avoid spraying cleaner directly onto the light bulb or light bulb socket. You can clean the interior of the vent hood with a standard household degreaser/cleaner and a sponge or rag; it will probably get quite dirty, so make sure to use something that you don't mind throwing away afterward.

Exterior Oven Vent Cleaning
The exterior of a vent hood may also be cleaned with a standard household degreaser/cleaner or a non-abrasive cleanser. Since exterior range hood cleaning is a lot easier to do, you may want to incorporate it into your daily or weekly cleaning routine. If your vent hoods have never been cleaned, you may want to call in a professional to do the job the first time, as it is very likely that it will be pretty messy.

Stove Vent Problems and Repairs
Excessive grease and grime trapped in your vent hoods, years of neglect, and other factors can cause your oven ventilation system to malfunction. Unlike periodic range hood cleaning, things like improper function or odd noises during operation should probably be handled by a professional.

Kitchen exhaust cleaning (often referred to as "hood cleaning") is the process of removing grease that has formed on the walls of ducts, hoods, fans and vents in restaurant kitchen exhaust systems.

Processes

Two processes are used to clean kitchen exhaust systems:

Caustic chemicals

Caustic chemicals can be applied to break down the grease. After that, hot water can be used to rinse away the residue. Chemicals are generally applied with either a garden type sprayer, downstream injection through a pressure washer or with a chemical foamer.

Once the chemicals are applied, they are allowed to dwell on the surface of the grease for a period of time, before being washed off of the surface with hot water. In extreme situations, where grease buildup is too heavy for a chemical application and a rinse, scrapers may be used to remove excess buildup from the contaminated surfaces, before chemicals are applied.

Hot water pressure

Machines can be used that both boil water and then apply this water under pressures up to 2000PSI. To prepare for this, heavy-duty tarps are first clipped to the hoods and then angled into plastic garnage cans to catch the run-off. As the cans are filled the contents are disposed of successively. The grease should be removed rather than just emptied into the local drains to avoid clogging issues. Some cleaners use both chemical and hot water pressure methods depending on the application and availability of tools.

 Finishing

Often, cleaners also apply polish to the hoods for improved appearance. NFPA 96 also requires a purpose-designed sticker to be applied to the finished hoods to enable the Authority Having Jurisdiction as well as insurance adjusters to check for compliance with the local fire code.

Fire hazards

The build-up of grease in and around exhaust ducts has been linked to serious fires such as the Boston fire which caused the deaths of two firefighters


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