A refrigeration rack with pressure gauges, copper lines and a compressor

Red Seal certified Commercial kitchens

Commercial kitchen hoods, fans and make-up air

The canopy over the cook line, the fan and duct behind it, and the make-up air that replaces what the hood pulls out.

Red Seal certified technicians 24/7 for commercial refrigeration Owner-operated by Mark Griffin Based in Qualicum Beach, BC

What a hood job actually includes

Four parts, sized against each other, and a kitchen feels it when one of them was not.

Restaurant refrigeration

Most kitchens call us about the hood, because the hood is the part you can see from the pass. The job is usually wider than that: a fan up on the roof, the duct that connects the two, and an opening somewhere that lets the same volume of air back into the building. Get any one of those wrong and the other two stop doing their work properly.

The hood over the cook line Wall canopy, island canopy, or a condensate hood over the dish machine, sized to the equipment underneath it. Grease filters and the housing they sit inLights, wiring and the switch panelGrease trays and drains that still drainReplacing a canopy the line has outgrown

The fan and the duct behind it The upblast fan on the roof, the duct run that reaches it, and the hangers and curb it all sits on. Fan replacement, bearings and beltsDuct routing out through the roof or the wallA fan that no longer pulls what it used toNoise and vibration carried into the dining room

Make-up air The unit that puts back what the hood takes out, tempered so the kitchen is still workable in February. Make-up air units, installed and replacedSupply measured against the exhaustInterlocks so the two run togetherTempering, so the line is not standing in outside air

The rest of the kitchen Ventilation, heating, cooling and the refrigeration on the same line, from one contractor instead of three. Details

The air has to come back in

A hood moves only as much air as the building lets back through the door.

An exhaust hood pulls a fixed volume out of the kitchen every minute it runs, and that air leaves whether or not anything is replacing it. A kitchen short of make-up air ends up working against the outdoors, and you feel that long before anyone measures it.

The back door pulls hard. The front door whistles. Smoke rolls out from under the canopy instead of going up into it, and an appliance on a flue nearby stops drafting the way it should. Fitting a bigger exhaust fan makes every one of those worse.

Sorting it out means measuring what the hood moves, finding what is genuinely getting back in, and sizing a make-up air unit against the gap. Tempering counts here too, because untempered winter air lands straight on the cook line and the staff turn the supply off.

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Exhaust quit in the middle of service?

A kitchen that cannot clear smoke and grease usually has to stop cooking. Call the shop and say what the fan is doing, whether the hood lights are still on, and what is running on the line, and you will get a straight answer about what happens next.

Call 250-797-2829

How we plan a hood install

Three things we work out before anyone puts a price on equipment.

01 What is going under it The cook line decides the hood: which pieces of equipment, how many, how they are laid out, and whether that changes when the menu does. A canopy sized for the old line is the most common reason a new one underperforms.
02 What the building can do Where the duct can run, what the roof or the wall will carry, where a make-up air unit can sit, and what power and gas are already there. In an older room this is usually what sets the shape of the job.
03 How the kitchen keeps trading Some of the work needs the line off and some does not. You hear which parts are which, and what has to stop, while the job is being priced. Tell us the windows that suit, a closed day, an overnight, a quiet stretch in the week, and we will say plainly what fits in them.

Send it through the contact form Commercial HVAC

What the rules say, and where our trade stops

Three things worth knowing before a kitchen gets drawn or altered.

Ventilation is a construction requirement. The Food Premises Regulation requires food premises to be equipped with ventilation equipment adequate to prevent the accumulation of smoke, grease, water vapour and objectionable odours (B.C. Reg. 210/99, section 4(1)(h)). The wording names no equipment and sets no dimension, so what counts as adequate gets judged against the kitchen in front of it.

The plans go in before the work does. The same regulation says plans and specifications for the construction or alteration of food premises must be approved by a health officer first (section 3(1)). Island Health asks for floor plans and equipment specifications to be submitted for review and approval by the Environmental Health Officer prior to construction, and its environmental health officers carry out more than 7,000 inspections of restaurants, food facilities and stores a year.

The suppression system is somebody else's trade. The wet chemical system over the cook line belongs to a fire protection contractor. We do not install it and we do not service it. What we do is work to the canopy and nozzle layout that contractor needs, and sequence the two visits so neither of you is waiting on the other.

The two rules above are the regulator's, read again on the official page before this was written. Neither is a promise from us that any given installation will satisfy an inspector, because that call belongs to the health officer.

Kitchens and cook lines we cover

From Campbell River to Duncan, up Highway 4 to Port Alberni, and out to Tofino and Ucluelet.

Parksville

Thirty-four Food Primary licences, the largest count in the Oceanside towns, and behind every one of them a canopy, a fan and a roof penetration.

Details

Qualicum Beach

The shop is here. Village kitchens, resort dining rooms, and the care home kitchens that cook every day of the year.

Details

Nanaimo

Down Highway 19 from the shop. Restaurant, pub and grocery kitchens, with the hood and the make-up air on the same visit as the refrigeration.

Details

Port Alberni

Thirty-three Food Primary and nineteen Liquor Primary licences up the valley. The town has piped natural gas, which changes what can sit under a canopy.

Details

Tofino

Twenty-three Food Primary licences against a population the last census put at 2,516. Small rooms and a long season are hard use for an exhaust system.

Details

Ucluelet

Thirteen Food Primary licences around the harbour, and salt air working on every fan, damper and fastener up on the roof.

Details

Also covered Nanoose Bay French Creek Coombs Errington Bowser Qualicum Bay Deep Bay Lantzville Ladysmith Chemainus Duncan Courtenay Comox Cumberland Campbell River

Hotel kitchens, care home kitchens and grocery delis sit in these towns too. Outside them, ask and we will tell you straight whether we can cover the work.

Questions kitchens ask about hoods

What is make-up air, and why does it come up when we change the hood?

A hood can only move the air the building lets back in. Make-up air is that supply side: a unit that brings in about the volume the hood takes out and tempers it so the kitchen is workable in winter. It comes up on a hood change because a larger canopy or a larger fan moves the balance. The Food Premises Regulation requires food premises to be equipped with ventilation equipment adequate to prevent the accumulation of smoke, grease, water vapour and objectionable odours (B.C. Reg. 210/99, section 4(1)(h)), and in our experience a hood that cannot pull its rated air, because nothing is replacing that air, stops doing that job.

Can you replace just the exhaust fan?

Often, yes. Where the canopy and the duct are sound and suit the line under them, a failed upblast fan is a fan job. We check what the hood needs to pull and what the current fan actually moves before anything is ordered, because a like-for-like swap onto an undersized system buys back the same problem.

We are changing the cook line. Does the hood have to come out?

It depends on what the new line is and where it sits, because a canopy is sized and positioned for the equipment beneath it. Moving a fryer or adding a charbroiler can put part of the line outside what the hood covers. Worth knowing either way: the Food Premises Regulation says plans and specifications for the construction or alteration of food premises have to be approved by a health officer first (section 3(1)), and Island Health asks for floor plans and equipment specifications for review and approval before construction. A layout change goes in front of an environmental health officer whatever happens to the hood.

Do you work with our fire suppression contractor?

Yes. The wet chemical system over the cook line belongs to a fire protection contractor, and we do not install or service it. On a hood replacement we work with whoever holds that contract so the new canopy and their nozzle layout suit each other, and so the two visits happen in the right order rather than a month apart.

How disruptive is this to a kitchen that is still trading?

Much of it happens while you are still cooking: the survey, the measuring and the ordering never touch the line. What needs the line off is the canopy swap, the duct connection and the roof work, and you hear which of those apply to your room while the job is being priced. We would rather tell you early what has to stop than have it land on you on the morning.

Tell us what is over the cook line

What is on the cook line, what the fan on the roof is, and what the kitchen is doing wrong tell us most of it. Put those in the contact form. We reply within 24 hours.

Request a quote Call 250-797-2829