Kitchen Hood Cleaning in Markham, ON
Kitchen hood cleaning is the removal of accumulated cooking grease from the canopy, the baffle filters, the plenum behind them, and the duct collar above a commercial cook line. Markham Hood Cleaning sets that schedule against what the line actually cooks rather than against a calendar, because a wok or high-heat frying line puts far more airborne grease into a canopy per hour than a griddle or oven line does. Pricing starts at $385 per visit, and every job ends with photographs and a signed certificate.
Why a wok line changes the whole schedule
Grease reaches a canopy as an aerosol, not as a splash. Heat drives oil off the cooking surface as fine droplets, the exhaust fan pulls them upward, and they condense on the first cold metal they meet. How much arrives depends on temperature and on how much surface area the food presents to the heat.
A wok changes both variables at once. The burner runs hotter than a standard range, the pan is tilted and agitated so oil is thrown into the airstream rather than sitting in a pan, and service is continuous rather than batched. The same is true of a high-heat deep-fry line or a charcoal-style grill. The result is a canopy and plenum that load in weeks rather than months, on a system nobody would look at twice on a written schedule.
This matters in Markham more than almost anywhere. Wok cooking, high-heat frying, and roast-meat lines are ordinary here, in independent restaurants, in supermarket hot-food counters, and in food court stalls. A quarterly interval copied from a generic template will be too slow for a good share of them, and the first sign is usually not an inspection. It is a hood that stops capturing, or grease finding its way back down the canopy onto the line.
Cooking style vs cleaning interval in a Markham kitchen
What the line cooks is the strongest single predictor of how fast a canopy loads.
| Line type | Grease load vs a standard range line | Where the deposit lands first |
|---|---|---|
| Wok range | Substantially higher. Hotter burner, agitated oil, continuous service. | Filters and the plenum immediately behind them, then the duct collar. |
| High-heat deep fry | Higher, and the deposit is thinner and stickier. | Filter faces and the canopy lip directly over the fryer bank. |
| Roast meat and rotisserie | Higher, with heavier drip as well as aerosol. | Canopy troughs and grease cups, which overflow long before the duct does. |
| Charbroil and solid fuel | Highest, and it carries combustible particulate as well as grease. | Everything, including the duct run. NFPA 96 treats solid fuel as its own case. |
| Griddle and range | The baseline most schedules are written for. | Filters first, plenum gradually. |
| Bakery, steam and combi oven | Lower, but not zero, and moisture makes deposits harder to shift once set. | Filters, with the plenum staying light for far longer. |
Not sure where your line sits? Call 289-806-9117 and describe what comes off the pass. The interval falls out of that conversation.
Top-rated kitchen hood cleaning in Markham: what to look for
Four checks that separate a real service from a wipe-down, all of them things a buyer can verify without technical knowledge.
Ask what the certificate names. A certificate listing only "hood" is a certificate for the part visible from the floor. One naming the canopy, the filters, the plenum, the duct sections and the fan is a record of a system. If a section could not be reached, that belongs on the certificate too, in writing, with the reason.
Ask for photographs of the plenum. Anyone can photograph a shiny canopy. The plenum sits behind the filters and is where the grease actually collects, so a before-and-after pair of the plenum is the single most useful piece of proof a kitchen can hold.
Ask whether the filters come out. Filters cleaned in place are filters that were rinsed. Filters that leave the kitchen, get soaked, and come back are filters that were cleaned. The distinction is covered on the hood filters page.
Ask for proof of coverage before the visit, not after. WSIB coverage and liability insurance should arrive with the quote. A contractor who produces it only when asked at the door is a contractor whose paperwork the kitchen has not actually checked.
How much does kitchen hood cleaning cost in Markham in 2026?
Markham Hood Cleaning prices a single-hood kitchen up to ten feet from $385 per visit and a multi-hood kitchen of two to four canopies from $725 per visit, with production, shared and campus systems quoted on site after a free walk-through and the written number back within 24 hours.
Canopy length and canopy count set the base. What the line cooks sets the interval, and the interval is what determines the annual figure, so a wok kitchen paying a quarterly rate is often spending less per year than a griddle kitchen that let the system go and now needs a heavy first clean to get back to baseline.
A first visit on a system that has been neglected costs more than the visits that follow it. That is normal and it is quoted as such rather than hidden. Once the system is back to the standard, the recurring number settles. Full scope options are listed on the services page, and the standard itself is explained on the NFPA 96 page.
Next step: call 289-806-9117 or request a written quote. Mention what the line cooks and how many hours a day it runs. That is enough to price it.
Kitchen hood cleaning in Markham: frequently asked questions
Does a wok kitchen need cleaning more often than a regular restaurant?
Usually yes. A wok range runs hotter than a standard range and throws oil into the airstream rather than holding it in a pan, so the canopy, filters and plenum load faster on the same hours of service. Markham Hood Cleaning sets the interval from the line rather than from a template, which in practice means many wok kitchens sit tighter than the quarterly baseline while a bakery line sits looser.
My hood has stopped pulling smoke away. Is that a cleaning problem?
Sometimes, and sometimes not. Loaded filters and a coated plenum both reduce airflow and are fixed by cleaning. But a hood can also stop capturing because the building is not feeding enough replacement air back into the kitchen, which no amount of degreasing will change. The walk-through checks both and says which one it is in writing. The airflow side is covered on the exhaust ductwork and make-up air page.
Can a food court stall or supermarket counter be done during mall hours?
No, and it should not be attempted. Degreaser, water and open filters do not belong beside a serving counter with the public present. Markham Hood Cleaning schedules food court and supermarket work after the centre closes, which is also when the exhaust system is cold enough to work on safely.
What is the plenum and why does it matter so much?
The plenum is the chamber behind the baffle filters, between the filter bank and the duct collar. It is the first place aerosolized grease condenses after the filters take out the heavy fraction, so it holds the deposit that matters most and it is completely invisible from the kitchen floor. A hood cleaning that does not include the plenum has cleaned the part people look at and left the part that loads.
Who is responsible if the hood is in a leased unit?
The tenant almost always owns the canopy, the filters and the duct branch serving their own kitchen, and the landlord owns any shared riser and the fan on the roof. Markham Hood Cleaning documents where the tenant scope ends on the report and quotes the shared portion to the building separately, so neither party is relying on the other having handled it.