SAN JOSE, PLACENTIA AND LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA-There are few conditions that are more uncomfortable for your restaurant kitchen staff than working in smoky, hazy kitchens.
Knowing some troubleshooting tips may help you get to the bottom of the issue quickly and restore comfort to the kitchen when that happens, says Massoud Farazandeh, chief executive officer of APS-Hoods, a Placentia and San Jose hood sales company that operates a fabrication plant in Placentia.
If there is smoke around your commercial hood range and elsewhere in your restaurant kitchen, the first piece of equipment to check is the fan, as this is almost always the reason behind the smoke.
You need to check to see if the fan is working by turning it off and back on.
“If it doesn’t turn on, you have an electrical problem, or you could have a torn fan belt,” says Farazandeh, a San Jose hood installation expert.
If your fan turns on and makes any odd sounds, such as a tick-tick-tick sound, that could indicate that there is something in your fan obstructing the fan blades.
“It could be that a small branch has fallen into the blades and become wedged, or perhaps a bird is trying to build a nest in the fan,” says Farazandeh, who also is a San Jose hood cleaning specialist.
In instances where fans are on solid platforms and one of your restaurant employees can safely reach them, Farazandeh recommends doing a visual inspection to see if the obstruction can be cleared. If it can’t, or if the fan is in an area that requires a ladder or other equipment to access it, it is best to call a professional to remove the obstruction.
Fans that make ticking noises also could be doing so because they are loose, and that can diminish the fan’s suction power. If this is the case, a company such as APS-Hoods, a San Jose commercial hoods manufacturer, should be called to repair it.
Torn or belts can prevent your fan from properly exhausting smoke. If that is the case, you need to have the belt replaced.
“That’s probably the most frequent cause of the problem when it comes to fans not working properly,” Farazandeh says.
How often belts should be replaced depends on a variety of factors, including the quality of the belt and the cooking volume in your restaurant.
“We recommend that restaurants have their hood cleaner check the belt every six months to ensure that it’s in proper working order,” says the San Jose hood sale expert. “It’s a good idea to always keep spare belts on-hand, and to order a new one each time an older belt must be replaced.”
Smoky kitchens also can be caused by an increase in the volume of cooking.
“Sometimes business takes off and the restaurant is cooking more, so it might just need a stronger fan” Farazandeh says.
Filters that haven’t been cleaned sometimes can prevent fans from working properly because the fan can’t draw smoke from the air if filters are stopped up.
If you are an owner of a new restaurant that is getting smoky in the kitchen, this could be a sign that the fan you had installed isn’t sufficient for the level of cooking volume. Another potential problem could be that the system has too many curves in it to properly draw out the smoke, Farazandeh says.
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