How to Clean an Exhaust Hood & Duct

For home or restaurant owners, an inadequate cleaning schedule can leave you with a layer of thick, hard, impenetrable oil along the inner surfaces of your exhaust hood and vent. For busy restaurants, going two days or more can leave you with a cleaning job that defies cleaning agents and scrubbers. The oils harden, and since they have a natural resistance to water, they become like varnish. Worse, if you don't rectify the situation, your restaurant might fail a city health inspection that focuses on general cleanliness. Correct cleaning will keep your exhaust hood and vents shimmering and keep you in the kitchen cooking rather than cleaning.

Spray bottle
Vinegar
Hot water
Plastic putty knife
5-gallon bucket
Sponge
Washcloth or sponge

Instructions

- 1
  Fill a spray bottle with a mix of 4 ounces of vinegar for every 12 or 16 ounces of hot water.
- 2
  Slide the vent catch panels out of the vent hood. The vent catch panels have a corrugated or V shape, which increases surface area, so they can catch more grease.
- 3
  Rinse the vent catch panels using water heated on an oven or from a hose if you have a restaurant. Make sure the water is very hot. The scalding water will soften the grease.
- 4
  Spray the loosened grease with hot water until it further breaks up and dissolves, ensuring you spray under the edges and into the corrugations until the water draining from the panel becomes clear of grease.
- 5
  Scrape the inner surface of the vent hood with a plastic putty knife. Grease will penetrate the catch panels and collect on the hood, so you need to scrape as much of this off as possible.
- 6
  Spray the residue with the mixture of hot water and vinegar. Vinegar acts as a natural solvent, and will break up the grease.
- 7
  Place a 5-gallon bucket beneath the outer drain hole of the catch-panel ledge. The ledge that holds the catch panels has a drain hole at each end.
- 8
  Drag a washcloth or sponge along the catch panel's inner ledge and allow the grease to fall through the drain hole and into the bucket.
- 9
  Rinse the catch-panel ledge with the hot water and vinegar mixture.

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