What Actually Gets Cleaned During Commercial Kitchen Exhaust Cleaning?

A commercial kitchen exhaust cleaning is not a wipe of the stainless you can see from the cookline. It is the grease path that carries cooking vapor out of the building — and only the parts of that path someone can actually reach.

This page is general guidance for restaurant operators. What Wilke Service Co. quotes as kitchen exhaust cleaning is the accessible hood-to-fan path plus rooftop grease. Wilke Service Co. does not inspect or service fire-suppression systems. That work stays with a qualified fire-protection contractor. How often your system must be cleaned varies with the type and volume of cooking, grease accumulation, locally adopted requirements and the authority having jurisdiction, and insurer or facility requirements — not by this article.

The path that gets cleaned

Industry standards treat the exhaust system as the equipment that captures grease-laden vapor and moves it outdoors. In practice, a thorough cleaning follows that same line:

• Hood canopy — the underside and interior surfaces over the cooking equipment.
• Grease-removal devices — baffle filters and similar inserts, pulled, cleaned, and put back.
• Plenum — the collection box above the filters, before the duct.
• Duct — horizontal and vertical runs that can be opened and reached.
• Exhaust fan — blades, housing, and the fan base when they can be accessed.
• Rooftop grease — curb, containment, and the grease that walked out of the fan.

That list matches the work on our kitchen exhaust service hub. If a section cannot be opened, it is not cleaned. Calling it cleaned anyway is how grease gets left in the dark.

What this service is not

The National Fire Protection Association’s overview of restaurant fire protection is clear that cooking equipment producing grease-laden vapors needs both ventilation and a listed fire-extinguishing system. Those are neighboring systems. They are not the same job.

• Fusible links, tanks, nozzles, and other fire-protection devices — not included.
• Electrical work on the fan circuit — not included.
• Roofing repair or curb replacement — not included.
• A fire-marshal inspection or a “passed NFPA” stamp from Wilke — not offered. We document the cleaning we did.

Optional add-ons that are exhaust-path work — hinge kits, safety cables, grease-containment pads, filter exchange — sit on the hinge kits and grease containment page. They are quoted as their own lines.

How often is “enough”?

There is not one universal cleaning interval. Frequency varies with the type and volume of cooking, how much grease has accumulated, locally adopted requirements and the authority having jurisdiction, and what an insurer or facility requires. Fire-extinguishing systems have their own maintenance cycle, separate from exhaust cleaning.

We will quote a one-time visit or a recurring calendar if you want one. We will not invent a required interval for your kitchen, and we will not tell an insurer what they must accept. If the fan will not open, that belongs in the notes — see when an exhaust fan needs a hinge kit.