A request that says "quotation for extraction-system cleaning equipment, 4 kitchens" usually comes back as a price for a machine that was never the right one. Extraction surfaces in a restaurant — hoods, canopies, baffle filters, ductwork, fans, and the stovetops and grills sitting underneath — decide the required steam temperature, the water volume, the power supply, and whether the machine should be fixed, hand-pushed or towed. Before anyone can quote responsibly, someone has to collect the following facts, ideally by walking the site with a phone camera and a tape measure.
1. The surfaces on the list, one by one
Write down every item the buyer expects the machine to handle, using the names the crew already uses: hood face and baffle filters, the inside of the canopy, horizontal duct runs, the extract fan housing, the range hood above the line, the stovetop, the flat-top grill, the fryer exterior, the splashbacks, and the floor strip in front of the line. Surfaces differ far more than buyers expect. A baffle filter is a stack of angled stainless slats with a grease film on both sides; a duct is a long, hard-to-reach internal wall; a stovetop is a flat surface with electrical controls that must not be flooded. Each one points to a different nozzle, a different mode, and a different amount of work per square metre.
State clearly what is included and what is not. If duct interiors are subcontracted to a contractor today, say so, because the machine then only needs to cover hoods, filters and cooking surfaces. If the buyer intends to do the ducts in-house, that changes the required pressure and the accessory set.
2. What the grease actually looks like
Describe the deposit rather than the equipment. Fresh oil splashed yesterday behaves differently from the dark, varnish-like layer that builds up when filters are cleaned once or twice a year. Polymerised grease does not move with cold water and detergent, so a machine bought for light daily wiping will stall on a hood that has been left for a year. Useful answers: how often the filters are pulled today, how often the hood interior and duct are cleaned, whether deep cleaning happens at night or on a shutdown day, and whether any chemical degreaser is used now and how long it dwells.
Also state the cooking method, because it sets the type of grease. A charcoal grill and a flat-top produce heavy, carbon-loaded residue; a steamer or an induction line produces far less. If the site runs high-volume frying, say so; if the menu has shifted toward grilling, say that too.
3. Quantities and areas, not "a few hoods"
A quotation needs numbers that a vendor can price against. Collect: the number of hood sections and their length and depth; the number of baffle filters per section and their dimensions; the length and diameter or cross-section of accessible duct runs; the number and size of stovetops, grills, fryers and kettles; and the floor area in front of the line. Note whether hoods sit at 2.2 m or 4 m, whether filters are hung high enough to need a ladder, and whether the site is one kitchen or several with different layouts.
The quantities drive the tank size, the duty cycle and the accessory list. A single restaurant hood cleaned weekly and a central kitchen with a dozen hood sections cleaned on a Sunday shutdown are not the same specification, even when both requests say "extraction system cleaning".
4. Utility and access conditions at the machine's position
Power is the constraint that stops more orders than any other. Record the outlet type and voltage available in the kitchen and in any yard or loading area, whether three-phase supply exists, the distance from the nearest outlet to the hood face, and whether the circuit is shared with cooking equipment that must stay on. Then record water: is there a tap connection, is the machine expected to run from a bottled or tank supply, and where does the run-off go? Greasy run-off cannot simply wash into a dining-area drain, and the buyer should say which drains are permitted.
Access decides the form of the machine. Note the width of the doorway between the kitchen and the store room, the presence of steps, thresholds, or a ramp up to the loading bay, and the distance the machine has to travel. A unit that cannot pass the back door is useless regardless of its performance, and a machine with handles, wheels and a compact footprint may be required simply to fit the route. This is where commercial kitchen steam cleaning differs from vehicle cleaning: the machine moves through a working kitchen, not across a forecourt.
5. Time window, crew and who operates it
Say how long the cleaning window is and who holds it. Deep cleaning done between 22:00 and 06:00 by two kitchen porters, with the line opening at 07:00, puts a hard ceiling on the time per hood and rules out any method that needs a long dwell or a long drying period. Note whether the crew is in-house staff with no cleaning specialism, a dedicated cleaning team, or a contractor who repeats the same job across multiple sites; the same machine needs different documentation and different training time in each case.
Give the operating pattern as well: how many shifts the kitchen runs, whether cleaning happens daily or weekly, and whether equipment must be returned to service the same night. A machine sized for an eight-hour weekend job will be pushed too hard if it is expected to run four hours a day, every day.
6. Constraints that rule options out
List the non-negotiables before the quotation, not after delivery. They typically include: no open flame or hot-work permits in the kitchen; electrical control panels and terminal boxes that must stay dry; a requirement that no solvent-based degreaser be used because of food-contact rules; noise limits because the kitchen adjoins a dining room or a residential floor; and any hygiene standard or audit the site must pass. Where the buyer wants chemical-free cleaning, they should say so explicitly, because restaurant exhaust hood steam cleaning on high-temperature steam and pressure is chosen for exactly that reason, and the specification should be built around steam temperature and pressure rather than around detergent dosing.
Record anything the buyer already owns: an existing steam machine, a pressure washer, a vacuum, a filter-washing sink, a contractor's equipment. Repetition costs money; a missing accessory kit costs more.
7. Documentation the buyer must receive with the machine
State what paperwork the site needs, because it forms part of the order. Ask for the machine's rated voltage and heating power, steam temperature and vapor pressure, tank material and capacity, the accessory list with nozzle types, the protection features on the unit, the language of the manual, and the warranty and spare-parts terms for the buyer's country. A buyer importing a unit also needs to confirm that the mains supply matches the machine's rating; on this site's fixed unit, for example, the listed figures are 220 V, 6 kW heating power, 160° steam temperature, 0.8 MPa vapor pressure and an 80 L SUS304 tank, and any deviation must be agreed before production rather than discovered at commissioning.
8. Sample surfaces and the test that settles it
The fastest way to avoid a wrong specification is to send evidence: a photograph of a removed baffle filter, a photograph of the hood interior, a photograph of the stovetop edge where the deposit is thickest, and a short video of the cleaning crew doing the job today. Ask the manufacturer to run one of those surfaces on the machine they intend to supply, and to report the mode used, the time taken and what had to be repeated. That single test resolves arguments about whether the buyer needs a fixed unit or a mobile one, dry steam or wet steam, and one nozzle or several.
9. Commercial terms to fix in the enquiry
Close the information set with the commercial facts: target delivery date, shipping address and incoterm, whether the buyer's electricians or the supplier's instructions handle commissioning, spare-parts and consumable availability, and the lead time the buyer can accept. Where a standard machine does not fit the duct layout or the doorway width, say so in the enquiry; customized steam cleaning equipment is specified from the same site information, and a custom build quoted on vague information is the most expensive version of the same mistake.
A short checklist carried into the kitchen — surfaces included, deposit type, quantities and dimensions, power and water and drainage, access route, cleaning window and crew, constraints, documentation, evidence samples, and commercial terms — turns an enquiry into a specification. A vendor who receives it quotes a machine that fits the site; a vendor who receives "four kitchens, extraction system, please quote" quotes the cheapest machine they have.
