01
Hoods and filtration
Hood sized and positioned for the equipment line underneath it, with baffle filters that can be pulled and washed by kitchen staff.
Kitchen ventilation
Commercial kitchen ventilation in Chennai
Hoods, extract, make-up air and the pressure balance between the two. Get it wrong and the whole dining room smells of the range — which is the complaint that usually brings people to us.
- Scope
- Hood to discharge
- Includes
- Make-up air
- Key point
- Pressure balance
- Access
- Designed for cleaning
Commercial kitchen ventilation is its own discipline, and it is the part most fit-outs get wrong. An extract rate is picked for the hood, nobody works out where the replacement air comes from, and the kitchen ends up pulling air backwards through the dining room and the front door.
We design the two together. The extract over the range line sets the make-up air requirement, and the make-up air sets what the dining room air conditioning has to hold against. Balanced properly, the pass stops blowing kitchen air at the guests.
We also design for cleaning. Grease ducting that cannot be accessed does not get cleaned, and grease ducting that does not get cleaned is a fire waiting to happen.
Where this applies
Restaurants and cafés, hotel and banquet kitchens, cloud kitchens and QSR chains, canteens and institutional catering.
Kitchen ventilation
Scope
What the work covers
This is what goes into the quote. If something on your job is not on this list, it will be written in rather than assumed.
02
Extract ducting and fan
Grease-tight ducting routed to a discharge point that does not put the smell back into the building — or the neighbour's window.
03
Make-up air
Replacement air brought in deliberately, tempered where it needs to be, so the kitchen is not stealing conditioned air from the dining room.
04
Access for cleaning
Access doors at the bends and the runs, positioned where a cleaner can actually reach them.
Common questions
Questions we get asked
Why does my restaurant smell of the kitchen?
Nearly always a pressure problem, not an extract problem. The kitchen is under negative pressure with nowhere to draw replacement air from, so it pulls it through the dining room. Adding more extract usually makes it worse.
Can you work in a running kitchen?
Yes. It means night work between service and the morning prep, in stages, with the line back in use each day. We plan it around your covers, not the other way round.
How often should grease ducting be cleaned?
Depends on the cooking, but a busy Indian kitchen with heavy frying needs it far more often than the general guidance suggests. We will set an interval for your kitchen and hold you to it.
Do you handle the dining area cooling too?
Yes, and it is better if the same people do both — the kitchen ventilation and the dining room air conditioning are one system, whatever the drawings say.
Tell us what needs cooling.
Send us the drawings, the tonnage, or just a photo of the plant room. We will come out, measure up and give you a written quote — no charge for the visit anywhere in Chennai.