If you are a owner or manager of a commercial kitchen in or near Fort Lauderdale, Florida you are mandated by the city to have your kitchen hood and exhaust maintained and cleaned on a regular basis.
All restaurants will of course need to have kitchen cleaned routinely by professional hood cleaners. Hotel kitchens, hospitals cafeterias, schools, snack bars, food trucks, churches and any place that serves food to the public should keep up with having their hoods and ducts cleaned.

No matter how big or small your commercial kitchen is or even how often you cook with grease or use the hood above the stove, it is very important that you keep in strict compliance with the NFPA's code for fire safety pertaining to commercial kitchens

Even if you don't use your hood and exhaust to control grease odor but use steaming methods or other types of cooking without oils, you should still have your hood and exhaust serviced and inspected from time to time. Hood will still experience build up even if there isn't a lot of grease used to cook foods in your kitchen.

It's Mandated
Florida has a mandated requirement that all commercial kitchen have their hoods and
exhaust cleaned by the NFPA's code for fire safety and health purposes. If you don't have your hood and exhaust cleaned on a timed basis your insurance will not need to help you cover a claim in case of a fire since your are not following the codes set in place for your commercial kitchen. Fire marshall's are also aware of this mandated code for commercial kitchens and this is something they will also be very concerned about so your kitchen is not creating a fire hazard in your community.

Health Reasons
Hood and duct cleaning is something that your health inspections will also make sure you are keeping up so they will continue to let your keep your restaurant running and open to the public. If grease is building up on your hood, ducts, and exhaust system this can cause your vent fans not to work properly from all the grease clogging the system. This can cause the air not to filter out properly from your kitchen and those toxic grease vapors will stay in your kitchen. If your exhaust system isn't working properly its will be hard to keep your kitchen sanitary and clean for making food due to the sticky residue. Also your employees could experience respiratory problems because of the vapors from the grease and become sick over time. This is something you can avoid by having your hoods and ducts cleaned on a maintained basis. It is hard to keep your commercial kitchen running if your customers and employees get sick and the health board could shut your restaurant in Fort Lauderdale down all together.

Grease Ridden Hoods Are A Massive Fire Hazard
Letting your hoods build up with grease is an extreme fire hazard! Do not let this happen! Grease fire are over fifty percent of the reason of fires in commercial kitchens. No matter what form grease is in is very flammable. If your grill flames up underneath your hood, those vapors can ignite and the built up grease will catch within in a matter of seconds and your entire vent, hood and exhaust system could be engulfed. Cleaning your hoods and ducts can help you prevent this from happening in your kitchen and keep your work family and customers in Tampa safe. Don't try to be cheap and clean the hoods yourself. This should only be done by a professional hood cleaner! If you would just try to clean up the grease with hot water this could actually cause grease to build up worse than ever. You need the correct chemical to break up the grease particles. Keep central Florida free from fires and call us today!

Depending on what kind of food your restaurant serves is going to make a difference on how often you need your hood and exhaust cleaned. Different types of food can even create different types of grease build up or consistency.

High grease volume restaurants that serve hamburgers and french fries daily will need to have its hood cleaned more often than a low grease volume bistro type of kitchen that serves soups and salads. Places that stay open for more than the average restaurant will also need a more frequent cleaning due to heavier traffic and kitchen hood and exhaust use.

The NFPA recommends kitchens that use char-broiling methods or have a brick oven or wood fired stove will need its exhaust and hood system cleaned up to every 30 days to stay on top of build up that can lead to high risk fire hazard.

Most average restaurants, cafeterias and hotel kitchens need to be serviced every 3 to 6 months.

Places that use oils and woks like an Asian buffet or cuisine need to be cleaned at least every month to stay on top of the grease build up. Contact us if you are unsure of how often your commercial kitchen should be cleaned due to the type of food you serve! Fat Free Systems can also help you with keeping your ducts maintained.

Top to Bottom

We always clean and inspect your hood and exhaust system from top to bottom to ensure a thorough kitchen cleaning. Don't be worried about us making a mess in your kitchen because we cover everything around the hood areas with plastic. If you have some heavier grease that has accumulated on your hoods we scrape that off with special scapers that won't scratch your hood and duct surfaces.

Caustic Chemicals

We used chemicals that are food safe to break down the grease. This is applied with a garden like sprayer so we can get in the hard to reach areas and corners. The chemicals are then made to sit for awhile so even the toughest grease can be broken down and washed away. This should only be applied with professional expertise.

Pressure Washing

Before we begin to pressure wash the grease away, we clip on heavy plastic tarp to the hoods and vents and run these like a funnel into large trash cans used to discard the grease and water. We run hot water thru pressure washers and power wash your hoods and exhausts from top to bottom. All the grease and water will be disposed of as it flows down the tarps into the barrels.

A Final Shine

Our final step is to shine up your hoods surface till they look brand new! We alway leave behind a certification sticker with our name , number and the date your hood was cleaned. This helps the health inspector, fire marshall, and insurance agency to know that you are being responsible and having your commercial kitchen cleaned by professional hood cleaners in a routinely manner.

We Work Around Your Schedule

We mostly work at night. This means you won't have to open or close early and mess your schedule up to have your hoods cleaned. Having a hood cleaning crew in your kitchen while you try to prepare food for customers would be a complete disaster, so we service your kitchen at night while your sleep so you can have a better daytime kitchen experience. Call us today to get your hoods and ducts cleaned from one of our locations in Fort Lauderdale, Tampa, or Fort Myers!

Fat Free Systems has been in business for over 28 years and knows what it takes to remain in business by having professional crews.

Fat Free is a Certified Company who follows the strict guidelines of the NFPA 96 standard.

As a Certified Company we are thoroughly tested on the entire NFPA 96 standard, OSHA standards, and Mechanical codes. The NFPA 96 standard simply states that the hood exhaust system is to be cleaned from the hood area through the ducts to the fan system. By having these codes in place, we are able to thoroughly clean the area and prevent horrible accidents, such as fire.

We currently have $3,000,000 of liability, workers compensation, and automobile insurance.

It would be an honor to provide anyone with our references.

If your company qualifies we will be happy to offer open billing terms.

Our uniforms include but not limited to: protective hats, printed shirts with logo, gauntlet gloves, and water proof boots.

We use a computer tracking program in Outlook that keeps accurate information about when your company is due for service. We call you so you don't have to worry about when it is time to clean.

At Fat Free Systems we have tracking files that indicate to our staffed crew where your overhead ducting runs, where your clean-out areas are and any other information that is essential to cleaning your system properly and promptly.

We always try to send at least two staff members with two pressure washers to do the job. Besides the fact that it could be dangerous to send only one person to do this type of job it could also take twice as long to complete the job with only one person.

We don't want to be an inconvenience to you, therefore we want to have the job done efficiently.

We will give you a quote for any kind of cleaning needs you may have that we currently offer.

We have a fan repair man available to make repairs. Also our staffed crews are equipped with tools and testers that are necessary to make on-the-spot repairs if needed.

We do offer many services and the ones provided on this page are just a few. Remember when receiving a bill check to see what you are actually paying for. Some companies only quote hood cleaning while we quote the whole package. Be aware of what exactly you are paying for.