Air Conditioning, Ventilation and Refrigeration
Commercial Kitchen Ventilation
Every service pushes heat and grease-laden steam into a commercial kitchen’s extract system. Let it fall behind and grease collects where a fire can reach it, while gas appliances lose the ventilation they need to burn safely.
Robinsons Facilities Services coordinates planned maintenance and business-hours repairs for commercial kitchen ventilation across Yorkshire and the Humber, from canopies and extract fans to supply air. The work is carried out by specialist partners, and we manage the scheduling and the records so you deal with one contractor.
- PPM contracts from £385+VAT/year
- TR19 hygiene cleans from £450+VAT
- Repairs from £80+VAT/hour
Get a quote for commercial kitchen ventilation →
Prefer to speak to someone? Call us on 01423 226578 →
Food hygiene law requires adequate ventilation in commercial kitchens, and regulation 5 of the Workplace Regulations 1992 requires mechanical systems to be kept in efficient working order. On new installations with gas appliances, a ventilation failure should cut the gas supply. Extract ductwork is normally cleaned to BESA TR19 Grease.
Your legal obligations for commercial kitchen ventilation
Four sets of rules overlap in a commercial kitchen.
Food hygiene: Regulation (EC) No 852/2004
Annex II says food premises need suitable and sufficient natural or mechanical ventilation, built so that filters and other parts needing cleaning or replacement are readily accessible.
Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992
Regulation 6 requires every enclosed workplace, kitchens included, to have sufficient fresh or purified air. Under regulation 5, mechanical ventilation must be maintained in good repair, including cleaning where appropriate.
Gas safety and ventilation interlocks
HSE’s guidance on gas safety in catering says that on mechanically ventilated kitchens, losing the ventilation should stop gas reaching the cooking appliances, with no manual bypass. BS 6173 sets this for new installations but isn’t retrospective, so an older kitchen without an interlock needs its risk assessed instead. Our gas interlock page covers testing and repair.
Fire risk and insurance
Grease in canopies and ductwork is a fire risk your fire risk assessment should cover under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. Many insurers also make extract cleaning a condition of cover, and claims have been refused where cleaning couldn’t be evidenced.
Commercial kitchen ventilation services
Planned maintenance
Scheduled visits cover canopy and grease filter condition, extract and supply fans, belts and bearings, controls, and airflow at the canopy. Our article on kitchen canopy maintenance explains what the canopy side involves.
Repairs
We arrange business-hours attendance for problems such as:
- Extract fans that won’t start or keep tripping out
- Noisy or vibrating fans and worn bearings
- Smoke and steam not clearing from the cooking line
- Draughts and doors pulling shut, both signs of too little supply air
TR19 Grease cleaning
Canopies, plenums, and extract ductwork are cleaned to the BESA TR19 Grease standard, certified by our specialist partners. How often depends on kitchen use, and the full guide is on our commercial kitchen extraction system page, and ductwork-only cleans are on commercial kitchen duct cleaning.
Catering equipment
Cooking appliances themselves are looked after under commercial catering maintenance.
Pricing
Most kitchens combine a contract with TR19 cleans at the interval their use requires, and call on repairs between visits.
PPM contract: from £385+VAT a year
Planned visits at an agreed frequency, with priority attendance and preferential rates on repairs and parts. Contract customers get the customer portal for visit reports and site documents. Terms run from 12 months to five years.
Find out more about PPM contracts →
TR19 hygiene cleans: from £450+VAT
A clean of the canopy, plenum, and extract ductwork to TR19 Grease, with a certificate and report from our specialist partner. Larger kitchens and longer duct runs cost more, and the price is fixed before work starts.
See kitchen extraction cleaning →
Repairs: from £80+VAT an hour
Pay-as-you-go attendance during business hours, with the rate confirmed before anyone comes out. Follow-on work and parts are quoted before they go ahead.
How we support you
Kitchen ventilation spans several specialist trades, from fan engineers to grease cleaners. We coordinate them under one contract and keep one set of records, so certificates and maintenance reports are in one place when an inspector or insurer asks.
Work is planned around service where possible, before opening or after close. Robinsons Facilities Services is SafeContractor approved, CHAS accredited, and holds UKAS-certified ISO 9001, with kitchens looked after from Leeds and Wakefield to Scarborough and Hull.
Get a quote for commercial kitchen ventilation →
Prefer to speak to someone? Call us on 01423 226578 →
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Commercial Kitchen Ventilation FAQs
PPM contracts start from £385+VAT per year, TR19 hygiene cleans from £450+VAT, and repairs from £80+VAT per hour during business hours. A contract price depends on the size of the kitchen and how many systems it runs. Send us an enquiry or call us on 01423 226578 for a quote.
Usually a canopy with grease filters over the cooking line, an extract fan and ductwork carrying the air outside, and a supply air system replacing what’s extracted. Kitchens with gas cooking may also have an interlock that cuts the gas if the ventilation stops.
Food hygiene law sets the requirement for adequate ventilation in food premises, and the Workplace Regulations add a duty to maintain mechanical systems. Gas appliances bring HSE’s catering guidance on interlocks into play, and grease build-up belongs in your fire risk assessment.
An extract canopy removes a large volume of air, and without enough coming back in the kitchen runs under negative pressure. That shows up as doors that are hard to open, cold draughts, and smoke escaping the canopy, and it can affect how gas appliances burn.
With an interlock fitted, the appliances lose their gas supply until the ventilation is running again. That’s deliberate, and HSE guidance rules out manual bypasses. If an interlock keeps tripping, the cause is often on the ventilation side, such as a failing fan or a blocked filter. See commercial gas interlock systems.
TR19 Grease sets the cleaning interval by how heavily the kitchen is used, from every three months for heavy use to once a year for light use. Grease filters need cleaning far more often, usually by kitchen staff. See kitchen extraction for the full guide.
It records that the canopy, ductwork, and fan met BESA TR19 Grease after cleaning, with before-and-after photographs and a note of any sections that couldn’t be reached. It’s issued by the company that carried out the clean, which for our customers is one of our specialist partners.
Smoke or steam hanging over the cooking line, a kitchen running hotter than usual, grease dripping from the canopy, and a fan that’s noisier than it was are the common early signs.
In most cases, yes. Routine visits are booked before service or after close, and larger jobs such as TR19 cleans are usually done overnight or on a closed day.
Last updated: 06/10/2026
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