Hood filters due for service?
Dirty filters out, clean ones in.

Hood filter exchange is a recurring maintenance service designed to keep the first line of the exhaust system — the grease baffles inside the hood — consistently clean without disrupting kitchen operations. On a scheduled visit, a technician arrives with a set of professionally cleaned replacement filters matched to your hood configuration, removes the soiled filters currently installed, and replaces them immediately. There is no downtime: the kitchen has clean filters before the technician leaves. The soiled filters are transported to a licensed cleaning facility where they are immersed in heated industrial degreaser solution and processed through commercial washing equipment before being returned for future exchange. This process removes the full grease load from the filter media — something neither dishwasher cleaning nor manual scrubbing can achieve — and keeps the filters performing at rated efficiency between full hood cleanings.

Hood filter exchange frequency should be set by how fast your specific kitchen loads grease into the filters — and that rate varies significantly by cooking type and volume. Kitchens running continuous fryers, charbroilers, or wok stations load grease into filters rapidly; bi-weekly exchange is standard for these operations. Full-service restaurants with moderate frying and a mixed menu typically run monthly exchange cycles. Lower-volume kitchens may find 6 to 8-week intervals appropriate. The practical test: if filters appear visibly saturated — coated with dark, heavy grease — at the time of each exchange visit, the interval is too long. Filters loaded beyond their capacity stop capturing grease effectively, passing vapor into the ductwork and accelerating accumulation in the sections that are far more expensive to clean. Major hood manufacturers estimate that properly functioning filters capture 30 to 90% of grease vapor before it reaches the duct — maintaining that capture rate requires keeping filters within their operating range.

Hood filter exchange and professional hood cleaning are complementary services that operate on different schedules and address different components of the exhaust system — one does not replace the other. Filter exchange maintains the grease baffles — the removable filters inside the hood — at effective capture performance on a frequent cycle, typically weekly to monthly. Hood cleaning is the comprehensive service required by NFPA 96 that covers the entire exhaust system: the hood canopy interior, all ductwork from the hood through the ceiling and walls to the rooftop, the exhaust fan housing and blades, and the rooftop grease containment system. No matter how frequently filters are exchanged, grease vapor bypasses the filters and accumulates in the ductwork — hood cleaning is what addresses that accumulation. Regular filter exchange does, however, reduce the rate of ductwork accumulation between hood cleanings, and in some cases can support a longer interval between full cleanings for lower-volume operations. Both services are required; the documentation from each serves a separate compliance purpose.