Looking into the back of the fan blades, we can clearly see where
the cleaning was done and where it was not done.
Looking into the steam system hood, it is very clean.
In this system, there should be almost no buildup
as there is little or no grease production here.
In this system, there should be almost no buildup
as there is little or no grease production here.
However, we take a picture into the ductwork above the hood
and see the only area their pressure washer or scraper reached
was the small clean patch on the lower left of the picture.
This amount of grease appears to be years of accumulation
as there are only steamers under this hood and ductwork.
as there are only steamers under this hood and ductwork.
Another picture looking toward the right shows that none of this
duct has been cleaned in a very long time.
duct has been cleaned in a very long time.
Note the access plate in the background is not being used.
Looking up from the front hood, you can see the clear line where the cleaning stopped in the
vertical riser from the hood.
Looking up the vertical from the broiler hood you can
see the areas cleaned and the start of the areas missed. When
looking into the duct above the hood however...
We see clearly that although the hood sticker states the system
was clean, this amount left in the duct is hundred of times the
amount of grease that can sustain a fire long
enough to cause catastrophic damages from a grease fire
The attached pictures are a prefect example of a complete lack of accountability on a state contract job. This project has been going to the low bidder for many years with automatic renewals. The contract is actually well written requiring full compliance to NFPA96 standards PLUS cleaning to bare metal. What the government agency's and also restaurant chains fail to understand is the lack of accountability for the kitchen exhaust cleaning vendors. Even with a well written RFP scope of work, which most of these contract have, they do not have provisions in the contract on how non performance of the cleanings will be handled. What needs to be in the contracts are both the ability for monetary recovery and the possibility of criminal charges when these companies do not clean to NFPA96 standards. Remember that NFPA96 is the MINIMUM standards for cleaning. Also, there needs to be accountability on the customers end to verify proper cleaning as NFPA96 is clear that the ultimate responsibility for the exhaust system is the owner of the system. These kitchen exhaust cleaning vendors rely on the complete lack of accountability and rely on no one really looking. What ends up happening is that the well written scope of work and job specifications is not worth the paper that it is written on. This is particularly true at larger government entities(like the one in these pictures) and even large chains with hundreds of restaurants where there are different priorities, lack of time, and sometimes the lack expertise for the grease exhaust. Some of the recent restaurant grease exhaust fires are a direct result of this. Keep in mind when doing any type of bidding, these low bid companies count on no one looking farther than a little ways into the duct. Many even have picture programs that do a very good job at only showing the parts that were cleaned and not the entire system. You must have baseline pictures to compare to and follow a proper picture program with the pictures showing all areas, not just one or two side of an area of ductwork. One KEC vendor crew leader recently was "teaching" me tricks of the trade at a meeting not knowing who he was talking to. He actually told me that sometimes he breaths on this camera lens and "fogs" it so it is hard to see where he stopped cleaning or see areas he could not get clean. He even went as far as telling me almost pictures he takes at the larger chains where his company does subcontract work for national companies are taken from the top looking down carefully avoiding the areas around the duct to hood connections or any jogs in the duct. I was not surprised. I have seen pictures (even from contracts well written) showing grease and carbon buildup throughout the systems. On some of these, when the national KEC vendor was confronted, they simply went to the bag of excuses and the twisting of what the standards state. Some of these KEC vendors state that the buildup of grease is now less than 2000 microns. They neglect to tell the customer that there is NOTHING in NFPA96 about cleaning down to 2000 microns. That is only an inspection point for when cleaning is required. NFPA96 actually states that the all combustable material is to be removed to 2 microns or less than the thickness of a human hair. That means grease AND carbonized buildup. I try to have all contracts and RFP's add "All interior air flow areas of the grease exhaust are to be cleaned to bare metal" to the scope of work in addition to following NFPA96 standards. This takes care of the other smoke and mirrors excuse these unscrupulous companies use to avoid actually cleaning the system properly. That is that they claim there are inaccessible areas in the duct. All RFP scope of work contracts must also include making all areas of the exhaust system accessible and that this is to be verified by the KEC before or at the start of the contract. Any company that is not visiting all of the sites before bidding generally are NOT planning on cleaning the systems properly as they do not really have any idea on what they will run into. This is true even with large chains with Cookie cutter systems. I do not believe in inaccessible areas, only areas that are not accessed. There are UL listed access plates out there that are very easy to field install. Just make sure they are UL listed for Grease exhaust and not the "F2 sandwich doors" some are passing off for grease duct access doors. They are cheap and they leak which does not conform to NFPA96 standards or to UL for grease ducts. The only doors I know of with a United States UL listing for grease ducts are the Ductmate Ultimate door and the Flamegard grease duct access door. Let's make sure we state this clearly. "BUYER BEWARE" All low bids are NOT the same no matter what the scope of work and contract states. You must hold all KEC contractors accountable with proper inspections along with severe and rapid consequences for non performance. There are some chains that are facing possible hundreds of thousands of dollars of first time in cleanup if their current KEC contractor walks on the contract as they are NOT getting properly cleaned and will have a catastrophic grease fire in the near future(or another fire in some cases)