Exhaust Hood Cleaning in Markham
Exhaust hood cleaning is the cleaning of the hood assembly itself: the canopy surfaces, the capture edge along its lip, the grease troughs and cups, and the plenum chamber sitting behind the baffle filters. Markham Hood Cleaning treats the plenum as a named part of the scope rather than an optional extra, because it is where aerosolized grease first condenses once the filters have taken out the heavy fraction, and it cannot be seen from the kitchen floor. Pricing starts at $385 per visit.
Capture and containment: what a hood is actually for
A hood does two jobs, and they are separate. Capture is pulling the rising plume of hot air off the cooking surface into the canopy before it escapes into the room. Containment is holding that plume inside the canopy long enough for the filters to work on it. A hood can be perfectly clean and still fail at both.
Capture depends on the canopy overhanging the equipment far enough, and on the fan moving enough air. Containment depends on the canopy having enough depth and an intact capture edge along its lip. When a kitchen adds equipment without changing the hood, which happens constantly as menus grow, the canopy that fitted the old line no longer covers the new one, and the plume rolls out at the front edge whatever anybody does with a degreaser.
That is why the walk-through measures the hood against the equipment underneath it and says so in writing. A hood that cannot capture is a hood that puts grease on the ceiling, on the walls, and on staff, rather than into the filters where it belongs. The airflow half of the same problem is covered on the ductwork and make-up air page.
Wall canopy vs island vs backshelf hoods in Markham kitchens
Hood style changes how a kitchen loads, how it is cleaned, and how much trouble it causes when the menu changes.
| Hood style vs where it is used | Capture behaviour | What complicates the clean |
|---|---|---|
| Wall-mounted canopy, most restaurants | Best of the three. The wall behind blocks one escape route for the plume. | Little. The plenum is reachable once filters are out. |
| Island canopy, open kitchens and demo lines | Hardest. Air can escape on all four sides, so cross-draughts defeat it easily. | Two filter banks and two plenums, and the dining room is usually right there. |
| Backshelf or low-proximity, food court stalls | Good at close range, poor if equipment is moved forward even slightly. | Very tight working space and a shallow plenum that loads fast. |
| Eyebrow hood, ovens and rotisseries | Narrow by design, and only intended for the door of the appliance. | Heavy drip rather than aerosol, so troughs and cups need most of the attention. |
| Ventless or recirculating unit | Contained by design, with no duct to a roof at all. | Filter cartridges are the whole system, and manufacturer intervals govern. |
Unsure which you have? Send a photograph with the quote request and it gets identified before anyone visits.
Why the plenum matters more than the canopy face
The part customers judge a clean by is the part that matters least.
The canopy face is stainless steel a metre from a cook's eye line. It gets wiped daily by kitchen staff, and it is what anybody photographs. Behind the baffle filters sits the plenum, a chamber usually a few inches deep running the whole length of the hood, and nobody wipes it because nobody can see it.
Physics puts the deposit there. Filters strip the heavy droplets out of the airstream, but the fine aerosol carries through and meets the first cool surface past them, which is the plenum wall. Over a service cycle that surface goes from bare metal to a coating that thickens, then softens under heat, then runs. When a kitchen reports grease dripping back onto the line from somewhere above the filters, the plenum is almost always the answer.
Markham Hood Cleaning photographs the plenum before and after on every visit as a matter of course. It is the single most useful piece of evidence a kitchen can hold, because a clean canopy face proves nothing at all and a clean plenum proves the filters came out and somebody went in behind them. Filter condition is a separate scope, covered on the hood filters page.
How much does exhaust 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 the written quote back within 24 hours of a free walk-through.
For hood-only work the variables are canopy length, canopy count, hood style, and what the line cooks. An island canopy costs more than a wall canopy of the same length because it has two filter banks and two plenums. A backshelf hood over a fry bank is quicker to clean but needs doing more often.
Most Markham kitchens do not book hood-only work in isolation. The economics favour combining it with the duct in one overnight visit, since the setup, the covering, and the filter removal are shared. Full-path scope and pricing sit on the kitchen exhaust cleaning page.
Next step: call 289-806-9117 or request a written quote. A photograph of the hood from the front is enough to price most single-canopy kitchens.
Exhaust hood cleaning in Markham: frequently asked questions
My staff wipe the hood every night. Is that enough?
It keeps the canopy face presentable and it is worth doing, but it does not reach the plenum, the duct collar, or the inside of the grease troughs. Those are the surfaces the standard is measured on and the surfaces a fire would travel through. Daily wiping and scheduled exhaust hood cleaning do different jobs and neither replaces the other.
Why is smoke escaping at the front of the hood?
Three usual causes, in order of frequency. The filters are loaded, so airflow through the hood has dropped. The building is not supplying enough replacement air, so the fan cannot pull what it is rated for. Or equipment has been added or moved forward and the canopy no longer overhangs it. Markham Hood Cleaning checks all three during the walk-through and states which one it is in writing.
Can a hood be cleaned while the dining room is open?
Not properly, and it should not be attempted in an open kitchen. Degreaser, hot water and removed filters do not belong in front of guests. Markham Hood Cleaning schedules hood work overnight or after last service, which is also when the assembly is cool enough to work on safely.
What are the grease cups for and do they need emptying?
Grease cups collect what drains out of the troughs along the canopy. On a roast or rotisserie line they fill quickly and overflow long before the duct is anywhere near its limit, which puts grease onto the equipment below. Emptying them is a kitchen task between services, and the troughs feeding them are cleaned as part of the scheduled visit.
Does a ventless hood still need this service?
It needs servicing, but not this service. A ventless or recirculating unit has no duct and no rooftop fan, so its filter cartridges and internal surfaces are the whole system and the manufacturer sets the interval. Markham Hood Cleaning will say plainly at the walk-through if a unit falls outside scope rather than quoting work that does not apply.