Commercial Range Hood Cleaning in Brampton
A commercial range hood is four components pretending to be one: the canopy shell over the cook line, the baffle filters set into its face, the grease troughs and collection cups along its lower edge, and the plenum chamber hidden behind the filters. Brampton Hood Cleaning Pros cleans all four to the NFPA 96 limit of 0.078 inches. This page is about the hardware itself, because most kitchens have never seen the inside of the plenum and it is the surface that decides how the system is really doing.
The four parts of a range hood and what each one does
Cleaning a hood without knowing which part is failing produces a shiny canopy and an unchanged risk.
The canopy is the stainless shell that captures rising vapour and holds it long enough for the fan to pull it away. It is the part everyone sees and the part that matters least to fire risk, because grease on a visible surface gets wiped. It still gets degreased inside and polished outside, since a canopy nobody wants to touch is a canopy nobody inspects.
The baffle filters are the working part. Vapour forced through their offset channels loses momentum, and the grease drops out onto the metal and runs down into the trough. Filters only do that while their channels are open. Once they clog, the airstream carries the grease straight past them into the plenum and the duct, which is precisely how a well-scrubbed kitchen ends up with a loaded riser. Filters are pulled and soaked on every visit, because scrubbing the visible face while the backs stay coated is the most common shortcut in this trade.
The grease troughs and collection cups catch what the filters shed. An overflowing cup drips onto the equipment underneath and, in a busy Brampton kitchen, refills within days. They get emptied, washed and rehung rather than tipped out.
The plenum is the chamber between the filters and the duct opening, and it is the surface that tells the truth. It loads faster than anything a line cook can see and it is where the after-photograph carries the most weight. If a contractor's photo report has no plenum shot, the plenum was not cleaned.
Type 1 vs Type 2 hoods: which one is over your line?
The distinction decides whether NFPA 96 applies to the hood at all, and Brampton kitchens frequently have both in the same room.
| Question | Type 1 hood | Type 2 hood |
|---|---|---|
| What it is over | Grease-producing equipment: fryers, griddles, charbroilers, ranges, tandoors, woks. | Heat and moisture only: dishwashers, steamers, some ovens and kettles. |
| What it handles | Grease-laden vapour, plus smoke and heat. | Steam, condensation and heat, with no meaningful grease. |
| Filters | Baffle filters, required, listed for grease removal. | Usually a simple mesh or no filter at all. |
| Fire suppression | Required over the cooking equipment. | Not required. |
| Does NFPA 96 cleaning apply? | Yes. Scheduled inspection and cleaning of the whole exhaust path. | Not under the grease provisions, though it still needs cleaning for hygiene and airflow. |
The trap is a Type 2 hood installed over equipment that has since changed. A dish area that gained a small fryer, or a steam line that now carries a flat-top, is running grease through a hood that was never built for it. The walk-through checks what is actually under each canopy today rather than what the drawings said.
How much does range hood cleaning cost in Brampton?
Hood-only cleaning in Brampton starts at $385 per visit for a single canopy up to ten feet, and $725 for two to four canopies cleaned in the same visit.
Canopy length is the first variable, since a sixteen-foot island canopy is a different job from an eight-foot wall canopy. Grease loading is the second: a system that is badly overdue needs longer dwell time and more passes, and that is measured on the walk-through rather than discovered on the night. Filter count and condition matter too, because filters that have gone past soaking and need replacing are flagged in the report rather than reinstalled to look tidy.
Booking the hood on its own is a legitimate choice when the duct was cleaned recently. As a standing habit it is a false economy, because the grease leaving the canopy is going somewhere. The ductwork and rooftop fan page covers what sits behind the collar, and the cost guide lists every factor that moves a quote.
Questions about hoods and filters
Can the kitchen staff just clean the filters instead?
Running filters through the dishwasher between visits genuinely helps and is worth doing. It is not a substitute for the service. A dishwasher does not reach the plenum behind the filters, the trough ends, or the canopy interior above the filter rack, and those are the surfaces NFPA 96 is concerned with. Treat in-house filter washing as maintenance between scheduled cleanings.
How do I know if my filters need replacing rather than cleaning?
Baffle filters are replaced when the baffles are bent, split, corroded through, or so deformed that they no longer seat flush in the rack. A filter with a gap around it is letting the airstream bypass it entirely. Brampton Hood Cleaning Pros photographs and flags filters in that condition rather than reinstalling them, since a clean but failed filter is worse than a dirty one that still seats.
What is the 0.078 inch limit?
It is the grease depth at which NFPA 96 requires a system to be cleaned, roughly two millimetres. It is a useful number because it is measurable rather than a judgment call, and it is the standard the work here is performed to. A surface at or beyond that depth is not a housekeeping issue, it is fuel.
Will polishing the canopy scratch the stainless?
No. Canopy exteriors are cleaned and polished with the grain using products intended for food-service stainless. Abrasives that leave swirl marks are not used, and the after-photographs show the finish so there is a record of the condition the hood was left in.
Do you clean the fire suppression nozzles?
Suppression nozzles inside the hood are wiped and protected during the clean, and the caps are left as found. Inspection, testing and recharging of the suppression system is licensed work belonging to a suppression contractor, and it is not offered here. A clean hood is what lets that contractor sign off on theirs.