Commercial Vent Hoods – For Your Commercial Kitchen

Commercial Kitchen Vents Are Important
Commercial kitchen vents are vital to the smooth running of a restaurant, whether small or large. They provide a flow of air to keep the kitchen safe for your staff and your customers by filtering the hot greasy air produced from cooking and bringing in make-up air to cool and oxygenate the kitchen. They also keep the air smelling fresh and stop kitchen smells floating out into the dining room – very off-putting for customers.

The best vents are made with stainless steel, which does not corrode and will last many years. Some contain variable speed motors to suit both busy and slack times and can include smoke alarms. Every hot food preparation area needs a vent, however, with ranges side by side, a single range hood can cover all of these. These range hoods can either be wall-mounted or provided as an island installation to suit the layout of your kitchen.

The right style and size of vent hood for your kitchen is essential. It’s important for efficient functioning, as well as safety, as lack of correct
ventilation can lead to a deadly carbon monoxide build-up and to accumulations of grease, which can encourage mold and mildew, which are also health hazards and which can get your restaurant closed down! Restaurant owners have to abide by the regulations, so finding the right ventilation is important to keep from getting a fine or even being shut down for violations. So make sure you pick the right size and style for your business.

A commercial exhaust hood, or even a number of hoods, depending on the size of the kitchen, is crucial to any commercial kitchen venture. These are needed for any commercial cooking where grease is involved, to extract the heat and grease-laden vapors generated, so the kitchen runs safely. It is important to get the right equipment for your situation. With a properly designed commercial hood system, you can keep your business legal as well as run it efficiently. It’s not possible to use a hood made for a domestic kitchen in a restaurant or commercial food preparation area, because of the level of heat grease and vapor produced in commercial kitchens, of whatever size.

A commercial hood vent needs to remove steam, smoke, grease and heat from the food preparation area. This is why commercial vent hoods are installed directly over the heating areas in your restaurant. Then they can collect heat and grease at source. There are baffle filters inside the vent hood to filter out as much grease as possible so it doesn’t enter the ducts forming your ventilation system. The type of baffles you will need are determined by the cooking system in your kitchen, however, even with the best baffle filters, some grease will get through and the system will need regular cleaning. Because of this residual grease, it is vital to be able to clean the ventilation fan and the ductwork from the top, and this means you will need a hinged cover on the exhaust fan in the vent hood. This will reduce the risk of fire hazards and keep your kitchen safe.

Along with the heat and the grease-laden vapors, the exhaust fan also removes air from your commercial kitchen and that needs to be replaced. This is done with a “make-up air unit”. This brings in clean, fresh and usually cooler air to the kitchen and makes up for the hot greasy air removed by the fan. In total, the extraction canopy for the removal and the make-up air unit for replacement of hot air by clean fresh air, forms part of any industrial kitchen hood system.

If you are in Ireland or Northern Ireland and need a commercial vent hood or extraction canopy, you can get information and a quote on fabrication and installation from http://stainlesscateringsupplies.co.uk/