Cooking vapour condenses as grease along the entire exhaust path — filters, hood plenum, ductwork, fan housing. That deposit is fuel sitting directly above open flame, inside a duct that runs through the building. Commercial kitchen fires overwhelmingly start here, and a duct with an established grease layer carries fire into concealed spaces where suppression cannot reach it.
The steps ChatterFix schedules for this PM. Every step is a checkable item on the work order — a technician can speak their way through it without touching a keyboard.
Cooking vapour condenses as grease along the entire exhaust path — filters, hood plenum, ductwork, fan housing. That deposit is fuel sitting directly above open flame, inside a duct that runs through the building. Commercial kitchen fires overwhelmingly start here, and a duct with an established grease layer carries fire into concealed spaces where suppression cannot reach it.
Extraction volume falls first, so the kitchen gets hot and smoky and staff prop doors, which unbalances the make-up air further. Meanwhile the grease layer thickens beyond what a routine clean removes. Insurers and fire authorities both ask for cleaning certificates, and an uncertified system after a fire is a coverage problem on top of a fire.
Quarterly for a standard operation; monthly for solid fuel or high-volume frying, and semi-annual only for very low-volume kitchens. The standard is clean to bare metal along the accessible path — a wiped hood with a loaded duct is not a clean system, whatever the invoice says.
This procedure — and every other PM for your industry — is already built into ChatterFix. Pick your industry and it lands on the right equipment, on the right interval, in about three minutes.