As we get through the first half of the year, it’s a great time to perform a good thorough cleaning of your commercial kitchen appliances and exhaust hood system. Regularly cleaning your exhaust hood system is crucial to ensure the longevity of the system, as well as to help ensure your restaurant stays clean, your staff stays healthy, and your kitchen stays open. Below is a checklist we compiled to make sure you get everything cleaned and checked for your bi-yearly cleaning.

CLEANING YOUR EXHAUST HOOD SYSTEM

Regularly cleaning your kitchen exhaust hood weekly or monthly sounds great, but if you’re not keeping up with these frequent cleanings you’re going to eventually get builds up of grease, dust, and other particles and contaminants. These build ups post safety and health risks in the kitchen and for your staff - build ups can impede your exhaust hood systems ability to properly pull contaminant particles from the air and supply your kitchen and restaurant with clean air. Not only does this degrade the quality of air, but it also leads to grease builds up that greatly increase the risk of fire in your kitchen. Here is what you need to ensure your hood system is properly cleaned:

1) Empty your hood system’s grease catch and soak / wash the grease cups

2) Remove grease, dirt, and other grime buildup from the hood filters

3) Inspect and clean the fan belt

4) Wipe down all surfaces, including light fixtures, fire systems, and other areas where frequent build ups occur.

CLEANING KITCHEN EQUIPMENT

After cleaning your kitchen exhaust hood system, there are still other pieces of kitchen equipment that can suffer grease and dirt buildups that put your kitchen at risk of fire or equipment failures. 

If you’re using this checklist for a bi-yearly deep clean checklist, you need to get the cleaning supplies out and knock out some heavy scrubbing to clean your kitchen appliances. Make sure to clean both inside and outside of the equipment, and also move equipment out of the way when possible to clean harder to reach places that won’t get cleaned during quick cleans. 

Kitchen appliances to include in your deep clean includes fryers, stoves, ranges and flat tops, refrigerators / coolers / freezers, charbroilers, pizza ovens, and grills. 

CLEANING THE OVERALL KITCHEN AREA

It goes without saying that while cleaning your hood system and kitchen appliances is important, the overall cleanliness of the kitchen space will ensure your restaurant stays up and running for the long term. A clean kitchen helps ensure the air quality is cleaner and healthier, the food is prepped better, greatly reduces the risk of fire, and puts you at significantly less risk of failing a health inspection that can lead to your kitchen being shut down.

A deep cleaning of the kitchen includes the following:

1) Wiping down walls, including moving all equipment off the wall to clean behind them

2) Sweep and mop the floors, including moving all equipment to ensure a proper cleaning beneath the equipment

3) Use a commercial grade cleaning agent and wipe down all food prep areas, sinks, countertops, and any other surfaces that are in constant use. 

4) Soak and clean utensils, dishes, glassware, pots, and pans. 

5) Empty and disinfect all trash cans and areas where waste is stored.

6) Sanitize and clean ice machines and any beverage dispensers such as soda taps, beer taps, coffee pots, etc.

7) Wipe down all other surfaces such as exist signs, light fixtures, entry doors, windows, and anything else thats exposed to customers on a daily basis.

Keeping up with regular cleaning of the kitchen equipment, exhaust hood system, and overall kitchen area will make these bi-yearly deep cleans much easier and take less time and elbow grease. There still may be situations where even with regular cleaning and deep cleans that your kitchen just isn’t fully clean, and that is why it’s important to get at least one professional hood and kitchen cleaning every year. HoodMart provides our customers with a wide range of exhaust hood systems - from Compensating (Short Cycle) to Perforated Supply Plenum PSP - as well as all exhaust hood accessories such as no weld Grease Duct, hood filters, canopy hood lights, and curbs. If you still have questions regarding the purchase of your hood system, please feel free to contact one of our experts today by calling us at 1.800.715.1014 or by contacting us through our live chat system.