A site assessment for baked-on grease is the document you hand to a cleaning contractor, a shift supervisor or an equipment supplier so that everyone is quoting, pricing and cleaning against the same conditions. It is not a room list and it is not a photograph folder. To be usable, it has to name each cooking surface, say how hard the deposit on that surface is, record what services the site can offer beside it, and state what "clean" means when the work is inspected. The six sections below are the ones that decide whether the follow-up quotation and the follow-up cleaning hold up.
1. The surface register: what is actually being assessed
Walk the kitchen and write one line per surface that carries grease. On a hot line that normally means the cooktop or range top, the griddle and grill plates, the fryer wells, splashbacks and backscreens, the hood filters, the range hood interior, ductwork near the hood face, the floor directly in front of the line, and the plinth and equipment feet underneath. Record for each one: what it is made of, whether it is electric or gas, whether it is fixed or movable, and whether the surface can be sprayed with water at all.
Two columns matter most. First, access: can the assessor reach the surface standing up, does it need a ladder, does the unit have to be pulled forward off its feet, and is there a power isolator within reach. Second, sensitivity: nearby electrics, thermostats, ignition assemblies, indicator lights, terminal enclosures and bearings that must not be sprayed directly. A register without those two columns produces a quotation that nobody can execute on a Tuesday night.
2. Deposit classification and how the assessment records it
Baked-on grease is not one thing, and the method chosen later depends on where the deposit sits on that scale. Fresh, unsplit oil wipes off with detergent. Oil that has been heated, cooled and heated again turns varnished and tacky. Oil that has been baked repeatedly onto a hot well or a griddle shoulder polymerises into a hard, dark film that cold water and a scrubbing pad will only smear. Assessors usually record depth (light film, built-up layer, thick crust), how long it has been there, and whether the deposit is on a surface that runs hot in service or on something that stays cool.
Add two observations that decide the cleaning route. Note whether the deposit can be softened first, because heat does most of the work on polymerised grease and pressure only moves what the heat has released; and note whether the site is willing to let chemicals sit on the surface at all. Where the kitchen handles food on open surfaces, [commercial kitchen steam cleaning](https://www.powerde.net/qingjiehangye/41.html) is often assessed as the substitute for long chemical dwell, since high-temperature heat softens the film and the pressure lifts it without leaving a residue that has to be rinsed off a food-contact area. Record the observation as an observation, not as a promise about the result.
3. Utilities, services and access constraints
The assessment has to capture what the site can supply next to each surface, because that constraint rules machines in and out before anyone talks about price. For each cleaning zone, record: distance to the nearest cold-water tap and the fitting size; whether a 220 V supply is available near the line and who is allowed to connect to it; where run-off water goes and whether it reaches a grease interceptor or a floor drain; whether the floor has a fall towards that drain; aisle width and door width between the wash point and the equipment; whether the work happens after service, overnight or on a closed day; and how many people the site can release for the job.
Water is the item most often missing from the assessment. Greasy run-off cannot be sent through a prep-area sink, and an interceptor that has not been emptied will turn a compliant clean into a flood. Where the kitchen has no wash point beside the line, the assessment should say so plainly and note that a plumbed-in unit beside the line and a self-contained mobile unit are different proposals, not one.
4. Equipment fit and the parameters to check against it
Once the surfaces and the services are on paper, the assessment matches them to a machine class and records the parameters that justify the choice: water tank volume, supply voltage, heating power, steam temperature, vapor pressure, tank material, machine footprint, and which cleaning modes are available. Fixed units in the Cleaning Equipment Series are usually assessed against kitchens where the line stays in one place and the crew can work beside it; mobile and hand-pushed units are assessed against sites where several servery areas share one crew or where the route between bays is narrow.
Take one documented example so the parameter list is not abstract. The Fixed Steam Cleaning Machine PowerDe HW02 detail page lists 220 V working voltage, 6 kW heating power, 160°C steam temperature, 0.8 MPa vapor pressure, an 80 L SUS304 tank, a tap-water inlet with a 4-point internal-tooth joint (1/2 inch), dry-steam and wet-steam plus vacuum functions, and an overall size of 1,200 × 800 × 1,200 mm including handles. Those numbers only become a fit decision when the assessment has already recorded the site's door widths, aisle widths, isolator positions and inlet fitting. Ask the supplier for the current specification sheet for the model being quoted rather than carrying values across from a blog post or an earlier quotation, since the published figures for a series are revised.
5. Protection, isolation and the parts that must stay dry
Every assessment for hot, wet work needs a section on what stops an accident, and on what must not be washed. For electric ranges and fryers that means a stated isolation step at the isolator, and lock-and-tag where the site runs a permit system; for gas equipment it means shutting the gas to the unit and letting it cool before steam goes near it. Steam onto a hot surface produces an immediate flash of vapour, so the assessment should record who confirms cooling and roughly how long it takes on that particular equipment.
List the parts to work around rather than spray: thermostats and probes, control knobs and bezels, ignition assemblies, indicator lights, terminal enclosures, and on electric fryers the element terminals at the end of each heating element. The HW02 product page describes leakage, short-circuit, high-temperature, high-voltage and water-shortage protections on that machine. Treat those as protection features to be informed about and reported on, not as a licence to spray a control panel, and write that distinction into the assessment so a shift supervisor cannot read it the other way.
6. Method per surface, dwell, passes and reach
The section that separates a usable assessment from a description of the room is the method column. For each surface, the assessment should state the sequence: clear and cover, soften the deposit with heat or with a chemical dwell where the site allows it, then lift the released film with pressure, then collect the run-off, then dry. For the two worst surfaces in the kitchen, write the working distance, the dwell time on the deposit and the number of passes, because those three details are what a second shift can repeat. A method written as "steam clean the fryer well" will be performed four different ways on four different nights.
Record reach as a measurement, not an impression: distance from the machine to the farthest surface, whether the crew has to carry the unit, and whether the hose crosses an aisle people walk through during service. For commercial steam cleaning equipment, that measurement decides between a fixed unit beside the line and a mobile unit that has to be moved twice a shift.
7. Acceptance criteria and re-clean triggers
Close the assessment with criteria a crew can check in seconds without an argument. Typical ones: no visible oil film left on the splashback or the well shoulder; the drain spout and strainer clear of residue; griddle and grill plates free of varnish and not tacky to the touch; hood filters free of dripping deposit; floor dry within a metre of the machine; no detergent smell on a food-contact surface; and on electric equipment, one functional check that the unit reaches its set temperature after reassembly. Fix the re-clean trigger in the same document — for example, any surface that still needs a blade or a scrubbing pad after the agreed method is a failed task on that surface, not a partial pass.
State what the customer receives as evidence: the signed task sheet, the interceptor check, and a note of any surface where the method had to change. Deep grease deposits on cooking equipment and in extract lines are a fire issue as much as a hygiene issue, so the record of what was cleaned, when and to what standard carries weight with a fire risk assessor as well as with the kitchen manager.
Send the assessment, not the product list
If the assessment is honest about surfaces, deposits, services and access, a supplier can recommend a configuration instead of guessing. Shenzhen PowerDe Automation Precision Equipment publishes parameters for each machine in the cleaning equipment series and specifies customized steam cleaning equipment against a site's layout and duty cycle. Send the surface register, the utility notes and photographs of the worst deposits through the contact page, and ask for a machine and method matched to that kitchen rather than a catalogue page.
