Hood Cleaning Frequency Calculator
NFPA 96 does not set one interval for everyone. It sets frequency by what you cook and how much of it, and operators routinely assume they are on an annual or semiannual schedule when their equipment puts them on a quarterly or monthly one. Answer two questions.
What the tiers mean
- Monthly: systems serving solid fuel cooking, such as wood or charcoal. This is the strictest tier and it applies regardless of how busy you are.
- Quarterly: high-volume operations, including 24-hour cooking, charbroiling, and wok cooking. Charbroiling in particular catches a lot of operators out, because a single charbroiler moves the whole system into this tier.
- Semiannually: moderate-volume operations, which covers most full-service restaurants.
- Annually: low-volume operations such as churches, day camps, seasonal businesses, and senior centres.
Three things this calculator cannot tell you
Your local authority can be stricter. NFPA 96 is the baseline. The authority having jurisdiction, usually your fire marshal, can require more frequent service, and some municipalities do.
Your insurer can be stricter. Policies frequently specify a cleaning interval and require documentation. A claim after a hood fire is a bad time to discover you were on a longer schedule than your policy allowed.
Frequency is not the same as thoroughness. NFPA 96 requires cleaning to bare metal through the entire system, ducts and fan included, by trained and certified people. A contractor who cleans the canopy and filters and leaves the duct has not met the standard, however often they come.
Keep the certificate
After each service you should receive documentation showing the date, scope, and who performed it, and a dated service label is normally affixed to the hood. Inspectors ask for it and insurers ask for it after an incident. Our printable maintenance log has a place to record it, and the full NFPA 96 guide covers what a proper clean includes and how to check the work.
Hood cleaning and fire suppression inspection are separate requirements on separate schedules, and it is common to be current on one and overdue on the other.
Put this on your own site
Free to embed, no attribution required in the widget itself, though a link back is appreciated and is how the free tools stay free. Useful for hood cleaning contractors, restaurant associations, and food safety trainers.
<iframe src="https://kitchenservicenow.com/embed/hood-cleaning-frequency/" width="100%" height="520" style="border:1px solid #e3e6e1;border-radius:12px" loading="lazy" title="NFPA 96 hood cleaning frequency calculator"></iframe>Calculator by Kitchen Service Now
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Browse companies that service hoods and exhaust systems. Note that many kitchen equipment companies do not clean hoods, since it is a distinct trade, so filter for it rather than assuming.