A duct cleaning job rarely fails on the day it is done. It fails afterwards, when the fire officer, the insurer or the property owner asks when each duct section was last cleaned, who signed it off, and against what standard. Without a recording sheet, every one of those questions becomes a conversation you lose. Cleaning the ducts with a kitchen exhaust duct grease cleaning method is the practical part; documenting what you found, what you did and what you left behind is the part that protects the contract.
Set the inspection standard before the crew arrives
Decide, in writing, what counts as clean for each component, and put that wording on the job sheet rather than leaving it in the supervisor's head. For a hood interior that means bare metal visible along the weld seams and no soft or tacky film when a gloved finger runs the sealed edge. For a baffle filter it means the plates pass light evenly and sit square in the frame with no warping and no missing fasteners. For the first duct run it means no pooled grease in low spots and no film reappearing within days of the clean. The same checks belong on commercial kitchen steam cleaning work, because the kitchen surfaces and the extraction system collect the same grease and are judged by the same people.
Inspect at three separate moments, not once at the end
Before work starts. Photograph the access panel, the filter condition and the hood leading edge. This establishes the soil baseline and records pre-existing damage: a bent damper blade, a failed flange gasket, a duct run already patched by a previous contractor. Without that first photograph, any later complaint about what you did becomes your problem to disprove.
While the system is open. This is the only moment the first duct section can be judged properly. Work with a bright lamp and a mirror or borescope, and read each section against the standard you wrote. Grease that has been softened but not removed should be dealt with then, with a further pass, rather than discovered at the next cycle. Check the fan housing, the damper mechanism and the collection trough, and note anything unreachable. An inaccessible duct section belongs in the report as a named limitation, not as silence.
After reassembly. Confirm the surfaces are dry, filters are refitted the right way round, troughs are back in place, and the cook line carries no displaced residue or standing water. Restart the extraction and listen for noise or vibration that was not there before. That observation belongs on the sheet with a name against it.
Record by component number, not by room
Number the system on a kitchen plan first: hood 1 above the range, hood 2 above the grill, each accessible duct segment with its own identifier. A record that reads "kitchen cleaned in March" cannot be compared with next year's record. A record that reads "hood 2, duct segments 2A and 2B" can. Each entry should carry the component ID, the date and start and finish times, whether the work fell outside service hours, the method including dwell time and which sections were treated with steam, before-and-after photographs filed under the same ID, a pass or fail against each criterion with rework notes, and two signatures: the person who did the work and a second person who verified it. Self-verification is the most common reason a contractor cannot defend their own work to an inspector, an insurer or a fire risk assessor.
Record how the grease was removed, because that sets the re-soiling rate
Scrapers and solvents leave residue in seams and joints, and the surface collects oil again faster than it did before. Heat softens the deposit so it can be lifted from joints, filter plates and panel edges with less mechanical scrubbing, which is why central kitchen degreasing is usually planned around dwell time and heat rather than around how hard someone pushes. Note in the record which sections were treated with steam and what condition they were in once dry. If a film reappears within days, that points to seams that were missed rather than to a machine fault, and the record is the only place where that pattern becomes visible.
Where the work is done with fixed equipment on a permanent cleaning point, the equipment specification also belongs in the file. The page for the Fixed Steam Cleaning Machine PowerDe HW02 lists a 220 V machine with dry and wet steam plus a vacuum function, a 6 kW heating output, an 80 L SUS304 tank, a tap-water inlet with a 4-point internal-thread (1/2 inch) joint, and overall dimensions of 1,200 × 800 × 1,200 mm including handles. Figures of that kind should be confirmed in writing against the current product page for the exact model supplied before they are copied into your procedure, since published figures are not identical across every page on the site.
Use the record as a review, not as paperwork
Read the file once a month against three questions. Which components repeatedly fail the same criterion? Which locations take the longest? Should the interval shorten or lengthen? A hood that passes every time but needs a long soak each time is telling you the interval is too long. Adjust the window, the dwell time, or add a steam pass to the weekly routine, rather than adding people to the same monthly job. Keep the records, the component plan and the photographs stored together where an inspector can be shown them without a search.
A scope note to carry into every quote
The HW02 product page describes vehicle exterior cleaning at fuelling stations and parking areas, interior vacuuming and disinfection, and engine-compartment cleaning. It does not describe kitchen ductwork. If you intend to use this class of machine on kitchen extraction, ask the supplier in writing which nozzles, attachments and access tools apply, which surfaces and joints must be kept dry, and what the machine's published protections cover. The page lists leakage, short-circuit, high-temperature, high-voltage, water-shortage and high-voltage-explosion protection, and each item should be confirmed against the specific model you order, because the listed protections are not identical across every model in the range. A written answer turns a catalogue line into a method you can defend.
What to send when you ask for a proposal
Send the numbered component list, the photographs from your last inspection, your service windows, and the power and water conditions at the cleaning point. With those four items a supplier can answer with a machine configuration, an attachment set and a suggested inspection interval for your kitchen, rather than a product page. Shenzhen PowerDe Automation Precision Equipment lists customised configurations and technical support alongside its equipment, so send the conditions you actually have and ask for the configuration they imply. Contact the team with the component list and your cleaning window, and ask them to confirm the model, the attachments and the written method before you commit to a cycle.
