Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all. It has been a very exciting 2012 and I look forward to an even better 2013. For 2013, I have been elected to the IKECA Board of Directors. Thank you to all that voted for me. I will work hard for everyone in the organization including those who did not. I am hoping to make a bigger difference in the organization and in the way KEC is done world wide. Apathy for the exhaust system getting properly cleaned is simply a matter of ignorance on how dangerous the situations improper cleanings present and what the minimum standard is. All combustable material, IE: grease and burnt on grease removed every cleaning. Working closely with both your AHJ's and also the restaurant staff themselves can help open everyone's eyes on how proper cleanings are not only safer, but they also can reduce maintenance costs for the exhaust fans and the exhaust systems along with potential health benefits. Properly trained and certified KEC staff can find many issues and deficiencies with the exhaust systems before they become a bigger, more dangerous, and costlier issue. Grease leaking out of ducts attract pests and can go rancid. Fans shaking from uneven or thick grease buildup can ruin a perfectly good fan. Rooftop grease can cause tens of thousands of dollars when the acids in the grease compromise the roofing material. Grease and chemicals in the storm water from fly by night cleaners pollute our water ways and even our drinking water. Plugged filters cause the air quality in the facilities that can cause health concerns. And that is not even mentioning the grease buildup leading to potential catastrophic fires that burn at over 1700-2000 degrees!   Just imagine if it was one of our's or anyone else's loved ones are injured or killed in a major grease fire that could have easily been prevented.  We all have the power to make catastrophic grease fires pretty much a thing of the past. Think of the many areas with residential units close to the restaurants or even connected to them that are becoming more commonplace. Cleaning to less than the minimum standard or  using the cope out of cleaning only "Accessible Areas" that many KEC vendors use can no longer be acceptable. All area must be made accessible for all exhaust systems. There is no excuse not to. I am also working on a white paper with recommended contract language(see previous posts) that puts money behind whatever guarantees that the KEC vendors give. If they do not not clean to the minimum standard of ALL grease and combustable material removed INCLUDING CARBONIZED GREASE BUILDUP, (2 microns is pretty much the same as bare metal to me and everyone else as it is unmeasurable), they will be monetarily responsible for whatever cleanup costs are required to bring he system into compliance. I have seen many systems requiring thousands  and even tens of thousand of dollars of initial cleanup that are 100 percent the result of the KEC vendors not removing all of the grease every time and letting it build up over the years. With the new digital cameras, we now have ways to see the entire system. We also need to crack down on the fraudulent pictures many are sending their customers showing their systems cleaned but carefully avoiding the areas they did not clean. If any area was not cleaned, the job is not done and there should not be a hood certification sticker applied. Every single job I have seen shortcut (WITH AND WITHOUT PROPER ACCESS) had a hood sticker stating it was cleaned to NFPA96 standards and some with a hood sticker that it was cleaned to IKECA standards. No where in those standards does it say you can skip or miss areas that require it and are accessible. That is simply fraud when it is not left free of grease and carbon. The companies and crews involved with this fraud should be treated as criminals if it becomes the norm for those KEC companies and crews. Unfortunately,  I have just completed numerous inspections in the past couple of months where apathy definitely exists and will comment along with showing the pictures. As I saw the cleanings and talked to the facilities and management staff, it was almost depressing listening to the attitude of cost above all else and again the apathy for the proper exhaust system cleanings when they could clearly see where the just completed kitchen exhaust cleaning had stopped. We still have a long ways to go.  However, I did just have some great conversations with some large concepts moving toward national inspections and proper KEC requirements. Those conversations gave us hope that at least we are moving in the right direction. Please feel free to contact me with any questions, concerns. of suggestions for all of us moving forward. I will be posting more this week and hope to see a good crowd in Utah for the Winter Fire School program on Grease Ducts that I am presenting on Friday.  -Don
 http://www.uvu.edu/ufra/training/winterfireschool.html