A quote for degreasing a hood, a griddle or a fryer bank usually arrives as a number attached to the words "deep clean". The number is only defensible if the supplier knew what the equipment is, how thick the deposit is, what services the kitchen can offer, and when the line can be stopped. Send that information up front and the quote tends to hold; send a room name and you are buying an argument later.
Before you email an enquiry, collect the items below. Each one changes either the method or the machine, and several of them change both.
1. The equipment list, unit by unit
Do not describe the job as "the kitchen". List every unit that is in scope: name, make and model if the plate is readable, position in the room, footprint, and the fuel or power type. A deep-fat fryer, a gas griddle, an electric brat pan, a tilt kettle and a salamander each have different removable parts and different parts that must not get wet, so a supplier sizing central kitchen cleaning equipment from a room count will size it wrong.
For each unit, note which parts come off and how — hand knobs, hinged lids, splash panels, legs adjustable for cleaning — and whether the manufacturer's manual says the unit may be water-washed or only wiped. That line in the manual sets the outer limit on the whole method, so quote it in the enquiry if it exists.
2. What the deposit actually is, and how thick
"Greasy" is not a specification. Say whether the deposit is fresh oil, a baked-on varnish, or a laminated build-up that has survived several cleaning cycles, and say how long it has been there. Polymerised oil does not respond to cold water and detergent the way fresh oil does; it has to be softened with heat before pressure moves it, which is why central commercial kitchen degreasing machine selection depends on deposit age as much as on area.
The fastest way to communicate this is photographs: one straight-on and one close, taken with a work light, per unit, with a tape measure or a coin in frame for scale. Include the surfaces people forget — the underside of hinged lids, the drain spout and its handle, the element ends on an electric fryer, the plinth under the stand, the rear splashback where the unit meets the wall.
3. What is above and around the equipment
The extract system is usually the expensive half of the job. State whether the hood interior, the filters, the canopy exterior and the duct run are in scope, and how far the duct reaches and where the fan sits. Kitchen layout matters just as much: distance from the unit to the nearest door, whether the equipment is tiled to the ceiling or free-standing, and what has to be covered or moved because steam and run-off travel further than the surface being cleaned.
4. Utilities the site can actually provide
A supplier cannot specify a machine without knowing what the building offers. Send: available power and where the nearest suitable outlet is; whether there is a cold-water tap within reach of the line; whether the kitchen floor has a drain and where run-off is allowed to go; and where the grease interceptor is, when it was last emptied, and whether it can take greasy wash water at all. Water supply and drainage routinely decide between a fixed unit plumbed at a wash point and a self-contained mobile unit from the Cleaning Equipment Series.
Also state what the machine must run on without disturbing service. A 220 V fixed unit with a tanked water supply and a dry-steam mode puts far less water on the floor than a hose wash, which is the difference between cleaning the line overnight and closing it. Where the HW02 page publishes specifications — 6 kW heating power, 160° steam temperature, 0.8 MPa vapour pressure, 80 L SUS304 tank, tap-water inlet with a 4-point internal-tooth 1/2 inch joint, dry and wet steam modes with a vacuum cleaner, and 1,200 × 800 × 1,200 mm including handles — send your access widths and your power situation alongside them, and ask the supplier to confirm the fit rather than assuming it.
5. The windows in which work is permitted
Give the hours the kitchen can actually be stopped, per unit, and the notice you can give. A quote built for an overnight window is a different quote from one built for a Sunday shutdown. Say how long each unit may be out of service, whether the whole line can go at once or only one machine at a time, and which service nights are untouchable. This is also where the return-to-service time matters: state your reopening hour and ask the supplier to price a method that clears that hour, not just a method that cleans the surface.
6. Isolation, gas, electrics and who does it
Say what your site can isolate and who is allowed to do it. For electric units, state whether there is a local isolator per machine and whether the site operates lock-out/tag-out. For gas-fired equipment, state who shuts off the gas and whether the unit can be cooled long enough to work on safely. Steam onto a still-hot surface produces an immediate cloud of vapour that scalds the operator and hides the work, so the cooling time is part of the method and part of the price.
7. What must not get wet
List the parts on each machine that are wipe-only: thermostats and probes, control knobs and bezels, indicator lights, terminal enclosures, ignition assemblies on gas units, and the element terminals at the ends of electric fryer elements. If a manufacturer has issued a written warning against water washing on a particular model, attach it. A supplier who knows which parts are protected can specify a wand technique and a mode; a supplier who does not will quote the job as a wash and the reassembly will reveal the difference.
8. Existing equipment you already own, and what failed about it
If the kitchen already has a machine, say what it is, how it is used, and what the crew is unhappy with — no heat on a baked deposit, too much water left on the floor, too short a run, too heavy to move. If a contractor has cleaned the line before, say what they did and what still needed scrubbing afterwards. That information reorders the specification; hiding it invites the same purchase twice.
9. Access, storage and site rules
Give the route from the delivery vehicle to the kitchen with the widths and any steps, the door widths, whether the unit has to travel through a dining area, and where equipment and chemicals can be stored between tasks. Add the site's rules that bind the work: hot work or no-hot-work rules, the fire risk assessment, pest-control constraints, working hours for non-catering staff, and who signs a permit. For a fixed installation, the floor space the machine will permanently occupy has to be measured, not estimated.
10. Your standard of "clean", in words an operator can check
Write the acceptance criteria you intend to inspect against: no visible oil film on the wells and splashbacks, drain spouts clear, baskets not sticky to the touch, floor dry within a metre of each machine within a stated time, no detergent residue on food-contact surfaces, and each electric unit proven to heat to its set point after reassembly. State whether you require a signed record per task and whether you will keep it for an inspector or a fire risk assessor. Deep grease build-up on cooking equipment and in extract lines is a fire matter as well as a hygiene one, so the paperwork has to be part of the quote.
11. Budget shape and what you are comparing
Say whether you want to hire a contractor per visit or buy equipment your own crew runs, and give a rough budget band. Those two routes are priced completely differently, and a supplier who knows which one you are weighing will tell you when neither fits. If you are comparing quotes, send the same information to every bidder, otherwise you are comparing numbers that were calculated against different jobs.
12. Your contact and decision route
Name the person who can answer a technical question on site, the person who approves the purchase, and the site phone number. Ask for a named person back. A quotation exchange that goes through a shared inbox with no one able to confirm a power rating wastes a week.
What to ask the supplier for alongside the number
Do not accept a bare price. Ask for the method per surface, the machine and its published parameters, the expected water volume and where it goes, the time the line is out of service, the consumables and chemicals and the order they are applied in, the training your crew gets if you are buying equipment, and the service interval and spare parts you should hold. Where the fit is not obvious from the catalogue, ask for customized cleaning equipment specified against your layout and duty cycle rather than a standard model with a caveat.
A short list to attach to the enquiry
- Equipment list: type, make, model, position, power or fuel, removable parts, manual guidance on washing.
- Deposit: age and type, with two photographs per unit including one close-up with scale.
- Extract: hood, filters, canopy, duct length, fan position — in or out of scope.
- Utilities: power source and location, tap within reach, drain and permitted run-off route, grease interceptor status.
- Access and storage: route, door widths, steps, working hours, permit rules.
- Downtime windows per unit and your reopening time.
- Isolation arrangements for gas and electrics, and who performs them.
- Parts that are wipe-only, with the manufacturer's warning attached.
- Existing machine and its shortcomings, or the last contractor's method and what failed.
- Acceptance criteria, and the records you intend to keep.
- Budget band and whether you are comparing hire against purchase.
Before you send it
Read the list back against the photographs. If a bidder could guess an answer because you left it out, that blank becomes an assumption, and assumptions are what move the price after the work starts. Send the equipment list, the photographs and the utility information together in one enquiry, and ask for the method and configuration matched to your kitchen — you can submit them through the contact page, and restaurant kitchen heavy grease removal is a job where the specification does most of the work before the machine arrives.
