As a restaurant manager, there are a lot of maintenance programs that you monitor on a weekly basis. None should be more important than the maintenance of your exhaust system. Setting up proper maintenance of your exhaust system between services helps reduce the risk of fire in your facility, and it can actually help decrease the frequency of your exhaust system cleanings.
In our published article on the Hood Boss website titled, “Baffle Filter Cleaning,” we discuss the importance of proper maintenance of your baffle filters. The cleaning of your baffle filters is very important due to the fact that a standard baffle filter collects 30-40% of grease that enters your system.
Another portion of your exhaust system that should be maintained on a regular basis is the filter track. The filter track is the bottom portion of the hood that your filters sit in and allows the filters to drain the grease that they collect. As the grease drains out of the filters, it follows the channel over to the grease cup that collects the run off from the filters. The grease that collects in this track and the grease collector become a fire hazard faster than the rest of the system.
If you are unaware of what level of grease accumulation requires cleaning, please read our article, “When to Clean your Kitchen Exhaust Hood.” The lower filter track and grease collector should be cleaned out when the baffle filter cleaning occurs for each exhaust system in your facility. To clean out the filter track you only need a hand towel to drain the grease to the grease collector and another to wipe out the track when finished.
Vent Hood with Filters in Place
Vent Hood without filters showing lower track
Cleaning the lower filter track when you are removing the filters for their scheduled maintenance can help reduce heavy accumulation between cleanings. In some cases, this maintenance can help extend the amount of time between exhaust cleanings of your system and reduce the risk of fire due to heavy accumulation. We recommend putting a maintenance plan in place for your hood system and monitoring the grease accumulation with a grease comb. If you do not have a grease comb, you should reach out to your hood cleaning provider. If they do not have them, please give us a call and we would be more than willing to get you one.
Vent hood Lower filter track showing grease accumulation
If you have any questions on how to set up a proper maintenance schedule for your exhaust system, please give us a call at 972-704-1812 or visit us at www.thehoodboss.com.
