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Avoid fires and shutdowns at your restaurant with regular duct cleaning

Last month, a fire at Jamie Oliver’s Barbecoa restaurant in central London caused over 150 people to be evacuated from the area. The blaze took over 20 firefighters with four fire engines about 90 minutes to put out. The London Fire Brigade confirmed that the fire originated in the restaurants first-floor ductwork, though the precise cause of the fire is still being investigated.

Considering that the restaurant bills itself as a “celebration of fire-based cooking,” and as a barbecue restaurant cooks plenty of meat, it is highly likely that the cause of the fire could have been excessive grease buildup in the ductwork. Such greasy buildup could easily ignite and cause a flash fire within the ductwork.

In the aftermath of the fire, Jamie Oliver’s Barbecoa restaurant is being forced to address some potentially costly consequences of perhaps not getting their ducts cleaned as often as they should:

Fire Damage: Because a fire can spread quickly through the ductwork, significant costs may be associated with repairing the damage. Additional steps will have to be taken to remove the smell of smoke from the premises as well.

Shutdown Time: On the day of the fire, staff at Jamie Oliver’s Barbecoa restaurant were telling guests who called for lunch reservations that the restaurant would be closed for 24 hours for “operational reasons.” 24 hours may have been a conservative estimate. Depending on the nature and extent of the damage, a restaurant that has suffered a duct fire may have to close for days or weeks.

Loss of Revenue: The fire at Jamie Oliver’s Barbecoa restaurant occurred during lunchtime, and none of those evacuated diners will be paying for their food. Add that to the lost revenue during the period the restaurant is closed for repairs and costs can really start to add up.

Bad PR: As a restaurateur, you don’t want your eatery’s name in the news in connection with a fire or other safety issue. Time and money will have to be spent in order to counteract the effects of this bad PR and convince the public that your restaurant is safe when it reopens after a fire.

By getting your kitchen exhaust hoods and ductwork cleaned on a regular basis, you can help reduce the risk of grease fires and the negative repercussions that they bring. Flue Steam offers both hand scraping and steam cleaning for your commercial kitchen’s exhaust system to help keep your facility safe and compliant.

Flue Steam will make sure your automatic fire suppression system is code-compliant.

Automatic fire suppression systems are a must-have safety feature for all commercial kitchens. They are easy to use in an emergency, but they’re not so easy to install. Many different state and federal codes apply to these systems, and it can be challenging to keep all the details straight. Fortunately, when you trust Flue Steam as your automatic fire suppression system installation company, we make sure your system is UL-300 compliant.

Why You Need an Automatic Fire Suppression System

Automatic fire suppression systems are designed to automatically detect and extinguish grease fires that ignite on your cooking equipment or inside your exhaust hood. This prevents the fire from spreading deep into the exhaust system and causing serious damage and danger.

System Requirements

Automatic fire suppression systems are required to meet certain system requirements in order to be code-compliant. For example, they have to have key parts like a temperature sensor, an extinguishing agent, an automatic gas shut off valve, and a manual trigger. Each commercial cooking appliance that may produce vaporized grease and hence pose a fire hazard must have its own separate nozzle for dispensing the extinguishing agent. This extinguishing agent should be a wet chemical agent that is approved for use in fighting grease fires. Additionally, the system is required to have one alarm that will notify employees of fire and another alarm that will tell employees that the system is discharging. As a highly experienced automatic fire suppression system installation company, Flue Steam can make sure your system meets all these necessary requirements.

Installation Requirements

When it comes to installing your system, there are still more code regulations to follow. For example, the manual trigger for the system has to be installed near an exit but no more than 20 feet from the exhaust system. Because Flue Steam has the C-16 license required by the state of California to work on automatic fire suppression systems, you can count on us to make sure every aspect of the installation is done perfectly.

Future Service

After installation, your automatic fire suppression system will require bi-annual inspections. You’ll also need an extra inspection after every discharge of the system in order to ensure that it has been reset properly and is ready for the next emergency. Who better to provide these inspections than your original automatic fire suppression installation company? We know exactly how the system is supposed to be set up and we can correct any issues that may be discovered during an inspection.

Make sure you choose a professional company like Flue Steam

Just because a company puts up a website and starts advertising kitchen exhaust hood cleaning services doesn’t mean they are qualified or professional. Here are some of the hallmarks of a professional kitchen exhaust hood cleaning company that you can actually trust to get the job done right every time.

IKECA Membership

IKECA stands for International Kitchen Exhaust Cleaning Association. This organization provides certifications and continuing education resources for professional exhaust system cleaning technicians. When a company has IKECA membership, this signifies that they hold their technicians to a high standard and expect them to not only complete their individual IKECA certifications, but also keep those certifications active through continuing education. Therefore, an IKECA member company is able to provide truly professional kitchen exhaust hood cleaning to their clients.

Multiple Cleaning Methods

Many cheap exhaust hood cleaning companies focus exclusively on hand scraping. This is the easiest way to clean a kitchen exhaust hood, and it’s possible to do a passable job of hand scraping with very little training and no certifications. However, a professional kitchen exhaust hood cleaning company will not only do a better job of hand scraping, they will also offer other cleaning methods. For example, Flue Steam offers professional hand scraping as well as steam cleaning for kitchen exhaust hoods and exhaust ducts. Plus, we prove the effectiveness of our work by using a special IKECA comb to measure the depth of grease deposits before and after cleaning.

Service for Your Entire Air Control System

One final hallmark of a professional kitchen exhaust hood cleaning company is the availability of comprehensive service for your entire air control system. This shows that the company truly understands how the cleaning they’re performing affects the rest of your system. For example, at every exhaust system cleaning visit, the pros from Flue Steam also check your exhaust fan to make sure it is clean and in good condition. This is important because without a fan drawing hot, greasy air out of the kitchen, grease deposits will accumulate faster on your exhaust hood and in your duct work and increase your risk of a fire. We can also provide grease filter exchange service, as well as maintenance and repairs for your swamp cooler and your emergency fire suppression system.

When it comes to the safety of your commercial kitchen, naturally you don’t want to take any chances. A fire in your exhaust system could shut you down for weeks or even months, depending on the severity of the resulting damage. This will be very costly in terms of lost revenue as well as damage to your reputation and brand name. Fortunately, you can reduce the risk of fire in your kitchen exhaust system with regular kitchen exhaust hood cleaning Burbank CA. Here’s why you should trust Flue Steam to provide this service for you.

We Are an IKECA Member

The fact that we are a member of IKECA (International Kitchen Exhaust Cleaning Association) demonstrates Flue Steam’s commitment to quality and excellence in exhaust system cleaning. Our technicians have completed IKECA courses relating to various industry topics, which equips them with the knowledge and training needed to clean your hoods and ducts according to best industry practices.

We Offer Hand Scraping and Steam Cleaning

At Flue Steam, we can offer our customers an excellent balance of quality cleaning and value because we offer both hand scraping and steam cleaning services. When used together, these two services can create a very affordable plan for achieving safe kitchen conditions. Hand scraping is best for kitchen exhaust hood cleaning Burbank CA because the exhaust hood is usually heaviest hit by grease deposits. You can get it hand scraped frequently at a reasonable price. Steam cleaning is best reserved for deep cleanings several times per year, to reach into the nooks and crannies of the exhaust ducts where grease build up occurs more slowly.

We Can Help You Schedule Cleanings for Maximum Efficiency

While all commercial kitchens are required to get kitchen exhaust hood cleaning Burbank CA, different kitchens will require cleaning at different intervals, depending on how fast grease builds up in their system. The primary factors affecting the speed of grease build up are the type and volume of food prepared and the method of cooking. Naturally kitchens that fry lots of food will require more cleaning than those that specialize in raw foods or vegetarian dishes. In order to make sure you don’t spend money on unnecessary cleanings, Flue Steam will measure your grease deposits before we clean. Eventually, we should be able to predict how long it will take for your grease deposits to build up to dangerous levels and schedule cleanings accordingly for maximum cost-efficiency.

Commercial kitchens need periodic kitchen exhaust hood cleaning Culver City CA in order to maintain compliance with various fire safety codes. Without frequent cleaning, vaporized grease generated during cooking can congeal on the insides of the exhaust hood and ductwork, resulting in a dangerous fire hazard. Should the congealed grease become superheated, it could ignite. The deeper inside the exhaust system the fire is, the more devastating it will be. Fortunately, you can turn to Flue Steam for expert kitchen exhaust hood cleaning Culver City CA to reduce your risk of fire and keep your kitchen safe. But which cleaning method should you request? We offer the following two methods.

Hand Scraping

Hand scraping is a simple and effective way to remove grease from the kitchen exhaust hood and other parts of the exhaust system that we are able to reach by hand. We literally scrape the layers of congealed grease off of your exhaust system walls using a metal tool. We can use an IKECA depth comb to measure the grease deposits before and after scraping to prove that we’re doing a good job. Hand scraping is a very affordable way to reduce your grease deposits to safe levels. The down side is that it only works on parts of the system we can reach.

Steam Cleaning

Steam cleaning is a much more thorough method of cleaning an exhaust system. It involves filling the system with hot, high-pressure steam to remove the grease deposits. Because the steam reaches to every corner of the exhaust system, it can remove grease deposits you simply can’t access by hand or even see. The downside is that steam cleaning is more expensive than hand scraping, which can be a problem for business that fry a lot of food and need frequent cleanings.

Use Both!

Ultimately, a combination of both types of kitchen exhaust hood cleaning Culver City CA is needed in order to achieve clean conditions in the ductwork and reduce the risk of fire throughout the whole kitchen exhaust system. No matter which method you choose for a given cleaning appointment, we’ll do an excellent, thorough cleaning job and also provide helpful “Certificate of Performance” stickers. These stickers not only help you keep track of your last cleaning date, but also satisfy health and safety code inspectors looking for proof that you are in compliance with your exhaust system cleaning obligations.