# Identify your kitchen exhaust system

Lesson 1 of [Kitchen exhaust cleaning: foundations for buyers](https://greasecleaning.fyi/academy/kitchen-exhaust-buying-foundations.md), 10 minutes.

A useful cleaning enquiry starts with the system you actually have. A homeowner with a range hood and a facility buyer responsible for a shared commercial kitchen may use similar words while buying different work. This lesson teaches you to prepare an accurate description. It does not teach you to dismantle equipment, inspect a concealed duct yourself, or decide which building rules apply.

## Start with the purpose

EPA explains that kitchen fans which exhaust outdoors remove contaminants directly from the room and increase outdoor air ventilation. That statement concerns an outdoor exhaust path. Do not assume it describes every appliance sold as a range hood. Ask whether your particular unit exhausts outdoors or returns air to the room, and check the equipment information. Write down the answer before requesting duct cleaning. If you cannot establish the route, mark it as unknown rather than drawing an imaginary connection to the roof.

The Home Office's guidance for small and medium places of assembly identifies excessive grease deposits in catering extraction equipment as a fire hazard. It also calls for cooking equipment to be used and maintained according to manufacturer instructions. The guidance applies to England and the premises described in that document. Its useful lesson for any buyer is to investigate the actual equipment and its maintenance needs; it is not a worldwide rule for every domestic kitchen.

## Make a simple system description

As a buyer's preparation exercise, create a page with the property address, kitchen location, equipment make and model if available, and the person authorised to arrange work. Describe the hood above the cooking area, any filters identified in the manual, the duct route if known, and the fan or discharge location if known. These are enquiry headings, not a claim that every installation has the same arrangement. Give separate names to separate kitchens or systems so a later quotation cannot quietly cover only one of several.

Use existing drawings, manuals and service records where available. A safe photograph taken from an ordinary occupied area can help identify equipment. Do not climb onto a roof, remove a cover, or reach into a fan to improve your enquiry. Ask the provider how it will establish anything you cannot safely identify. An honest unknown is more useful than a confident error that narrows the scope accidentally.

## Describe the concern without diagnosing it

Record what prompted the enquiry: visible deposits, an old maintenance record, an odour complaint, or a planned change in kitchen use. Keep observations separate from explanations. For example, write that an odour was reported during cooking rather than asserting that a blocked grease duct caused it. Ask what inspection or other specialist assessment would be needed to establish the cause.

A provider can then explain which parts it proposes to inspect or clean and which require another service. Ask for that distinction in writing. Cleaning, equipment repair and fire protection system servicing should have explicit scopes rather than being assumed from the phrase kitchen maintenance.

## Your output

Finish with a description that another buyer could read without visiting the property. It should identify the kitchen, state the known exhaust arrangement, list available records, name the concern, and flag uncertainties. Keep the page for comparing proposals later. You have prepared a purchasing brief, not certified the installation or confirmed compliance. Ask the local authority which requirements apply at the property's location.

## Sources

- https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fire-safety-risk-assessment-small-and-medium-places-of-assembly/fire-safety-risk-assessment-small-and-medium-places-of-assembly-accessible
- https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/improving-indoor-air-quality

Also on the [web page](https://greasecleaning.fyi/academy/kitchen-exhaust-buying-foundations/identify-your-system).