A kitchen that only scrubs the hood once a year either forgets half of it or discovers the problem during a fire-risk assessment. An extraction system is not one item to clean; it is a chain of surfaces — canopy, filters, duct, fan, discharge louvre and the grease containment under the hood — each collecting grease at a different rate. A workable checklist names every surface, fixes who does it, says how often, and records what was done. Written that way, the checklist is both a working routine and the evidence pack a fire assessor or an environmental health officer asks for.
Why a generic kitchen checklist fails on extraction systems
Ordinary kitchen cleaning targets visible surfaces. Grease inside an extract duct is invisible until it restricts airflow or ignites, and the parts that matter most sit above a hot line, behind a fan, or inside a box nobody opens during a night clean. Three properties of extraction work decide the whole checklist:
- Deposit type changes over time. Fresh grease film is soft and responds to detergent. Grease that has been baked repeatedly hardens into a varnish that scrubbing smears rather than removes, so heat has to come before mechanical effort.
- Surfaces are hard to reach and hard to inspect. Duct interior, fan housing and the top of a canopy cannot be judged from the floor. The checklist needs access points and an inspection step, not just a cleaning step.
- Electrical and safety parts are in the same assembly. Motors, wiring, lights and cut-outs share the enclosure with the greasy surfaces. The checklist must state what may be sprayed and what may only be wiped.
Because of those three facts, the checklist works best as a register of surfaces plus a method per surface, not as a list of tasks with dates.
Step 1: build the surface register before the task list
Walk the extraction run with the team and write down every surface that carries grease. In a typical restaurant kitchen the register looks like this:
| Surface | Access needed | What collects there |
|---|---|---|
| Canopy / hood interior and filters | Ladder or step, filters removable | Loose grease film, dust matting on filter mesh |
| Filter frames and canopy plenum | Filters out | Thick grease along seams and rails |
| Duct interior (accessible length) | Inspection ports, access hatches | Grease film, drips on the invert of horizontal runs |
| Grease containment / trough under the hood | Removable tray | Pooled grease and water mixture |
| Fan housing, impeller and motor casing | Hatch open, motor isolated | Grease and dust on blades and casing |
| Discharge louvre and terminal | Roof access or platform | Grease sealing the louvre blades |
| Fire damper and access panel | Panel open | Grease on the blade and around the frame |
| Adjacent wall, ceiling and equipment tops in the capture zone | Working platform | Airborne grease settling out of the plume |
Next to each line, record the manufacturer's guidance for that component — especially whether water washing is permitted — and the nearest electrical isolator. That single column prevents the most common extraction mistake: spraying water at a fan assembly or a light fitting because the checklist said "clean the fan".
Step 2: set frequency by risk, not by the calendar habit
Frequency follows cooking load. A grill line throwing grease-laden vapour all day loads a duct far faster than a steaming or boiling line. Rather than copying a date from another site, set frequency against what the register shows and then review it from the inspection findings.
| Cooking profile | Hood and filters | Duct, fan and terminal |
|---|---|---|
| Heavy grilling, frying, chip ranges, wok work | Frequent — filters washed each shift or daily | Short interval, and inspect at every clean |
| Mixed frying and roasting, moderate volume | Weekly to fortnightly on filters, hood as part of the deep clean | Interval set from inspection findings |
| Baking, steaming, boiling only | Lower grease load; still clean the canopy surfaces | Longer interval; keep the inspection step unchanged |
Two rules keep the schedule honest. Filters are checked and cleaned on the shortest cycle, because a blocked filter drops capture efficiency and pushes grease into the duct. Inspection is never skipped even when the interval has not come round; a short look through an access port tells the kitchen manager whether the interval should be shortened before the next clean.
Step 3: name a method per surface, and a mode per method
This is the part most checklists leave blank, and it is the part the crew needs. Write the method against each register line so the second shift repeats the first shift's result.
Hood, filters and grease containment
Filters and removable trays tolerate immersion and pressure washing, so they carry the heaviest method: degrease, allow contact time, then hot water or steam to lift the film, then rinse and drain. For the fixed canopy interior and its seams, [restaurant exhaust hood steam cleaning](https://www.powerde.net/qingjiehangye/41.html) is the practical route, because heat softens the baked layer before pressure moves it, and the vapour keeps the crew from flooding the room with hose water.
Where the plan calls for a machine, state the mode against the task. On a [dry and wet steam cleaner](https://www.powerde.net/qingjiehangye/41.html) such as the PowerDe HW02, the drier mode puts heat into a hardened deposit with minimum water, and the wetter mode is used afterwards as a rinse once the film has released. The HW02 is a fixed unit plumbed to a tap supply, which suits a kitchen where the extraction run sits beside a wash point; the HW03 is listed in the same category as a 220 V fixed machine, and where the model designation on the page differs from the category title, buy against the parameters rather than the name.
Duct interior and terminal louvre
Duct work needs access ports and, for long runs, specialist contractor equipment. The checklist should say what your own team does and what belongs to a contractor, because a duct clean done wrong leaves grease behind and can damage a lining. What the in-house team can do is keep the accessible length, the ports and the louvre blades clear, and record what was seen through each port. Louvre blades are external, greasy and usually straightforward: degrease, heat, wipe, confirm the blades move freely.
Fan housing and dampers
Isolate and confirm the motor is dead before the hatch opens. Blades and housing can be wiped and cleaned with a damp cloth after degreasing; the motor casing, its wiring and any light fitting are wipe-only. The checklist must say "wipe" for those parts, because a wet steam wand near a motor terminal enclosure is how an extraction system stops working the night before service.
Step 4: isolation, cooling and protection in the same line as the task
- Switch off and, where the site runs a permit system, lock and tag the fan isolator before any hatch opens.
- Let the line cool. Steam onto a hot canopy or duct surface produces an immediate flash of vapour that scalds the operator and hides what they are doing.
- Cover or remove dry goods, packaging and open chemicals in the room before steam is generated; vapour travels and settles on everything in the kitchen.
- Cover cooking equipment below the hood so degreaser and run-off do not land on food contact surfaces.
- Sign the area and assign one person to keep the area clear while a wand is live.
Step 5: run-off, drainage and water supply
Greasy run-off from a hood or filter clean belongs in the site's waste route through the grease interceptor. It does not belong in a prep sink or a floor drain. The checklist needs a line for the interceptor: who inspects it, who empties it, and at what interval, because a full interceptor turns a compliant clean into a flooded kitchen and a drainage blockage that costs more than the cleaning ever saved.
Water supply decides which machine the plan can rely on. A fixed unit fed from a tap supply keeps the crew from dragging hoses across an aisle to reach a hood. Where several servery areas share one cleaning team, a mobile machine from the [Cleaning Equipment Series](https://www.powerde.net/qingjiehangye/) travels to the work instead. State in the checklist where the water comes from and where it goes for every task; that constraint should choose the machine, not the catalogue.
Step 6: acceptance criteria the crew can check in seconds
"Clean" cannot be enforced. Write checks that need no discussion:
- Filter mesh visibly open, no matted film, no sagging panels.
- Canopy interior shows metal through the deposit at the seams and rails, not a smeared brown film.
- Grease containment empty, rinsed and refitted.
- Through each access port: no pooled or dripping grease on the invert of the duct.
- Louvre blades free to move, no grease sealing the edges.
- Fan hatch closed, isolator restored, and the fan confirmed running after reassembly.
- No detergent residue on any surface that touches food, and floor dry around the work area.
Add one functional check every time: run the extraction after the clean and confirm airflow at the hood. Improved capture is the visible proof that the work was done, and a fan that sounds different after a clean is a fault caught before service.
Step 7: ownership, records and review
Assign each task a named owner and a realistic duration. An unclaimed forty-minute job on a canopy at close will not happen; "two people, thirty minutes, after the last service, filters to the wash point" has a chance of being done on a Friday. The owner signs the completed row. Keep the signed sheets with interceptor emptying records and any contractor certificates for duct work, where an inspector or a fire risk assessor can be shown them. Grease in cooking equipment and in extract lines is a fire issue as much as a hygiene issue, so the record is worth as much as the clean.
Machine upkeep belongs in the plan too. Record the service interval, the spares to hold — seals, nozzles, hoses, brushes — the descaling routine where the supply water is hard, and who to call when the unit stops heating. The HW02 product page lists leakage, short-circuit, high-temperature, high-voltage and water-shortage protections; the crew needs to know they exist and also that a machine tripping one has to be reported, not reset repeatedly during a shift.
Review the checklist on a set date, using the signed sheets and a walk of the extraction run. If a task keeps slipping, the frequency or the duration is wrong and the fix belongs in the document. If a canopy seam still needs heavy scrubbing after the stated method, that is a finding about the method — usually heat applied too briefly, or too much water before the deposit released.
Putting the checklist on site
Print the register as a two-page sheet: surfaces and method on one side, signed frequency and acceptance checks on the other. Laminate it and put it beside the hood, not in the office drawer. Where the extraction run is long, shared between several operators, or has no wash point nearby, a checklist written around that site works better than a template.
Shenzhen PowerDe Automation Precision Equipment publishes parameters for each machine in the cleaning range, and [customized cleaning equipment](https://www.powerde.net/diaocha/) can be specified against your hood layout, duct access and duty cycle. Send the surface register and photographs of the worst deposits through the [contact page](https://www.powerde.net/contact/) and ask for a method and a configuration matched to the kitchen.
