Kitchen exhaust ventilation on the Central Coast

A kitchen exhaust system captures cooking heat, steam, smoke and grease-laden air at the source, usually under a canopy or rangehood, and carries it through ducting to the outside. Lilac Air Conditioning installs and looks after these systems for commercial kitchens and for family homes in Central Coast and Lake Macquarie suburbs.

Replacement air matters as much as the extraction. Pull air out of a kitchen and the building has to draw it from somewhere. Without a planned supply you get doors that are hard to open, smoke rolling back into the room, and a fan labouring against a vacuum.

A cafe or restaurant needs more than a bigger fan. Airflow has to suit the cooking equipment under the canopy, the ductwork needs sensible access for inspection, and the fan has to be somewhere its noise and exhaust won't annoy the neighbours or the people eating next door.

Australian Standards and local requirements apply, and what's needed depends on the type of cooking and the premises. At the free on-site assessment Gary Lui looks at your equipment and layout and explains what's likely to be needed, so you can confirm it with your certifier or council before anything is ordered.

Most home rangehoods come in two kinds. A ducted rangehood sends steam and cooking smells outside. A recirculating one filters the air and returns it to the room, which helps with odour but leaves the moisture behind.

If you've got a recirculating hood and damp windows above the cooktop, converting to a ducted outlet through a wall or the roof is often worth discussing. The duct should end outdoors, not in the roof space or eaves, where the moisture just finds somewhere else to settle.

If a kitchen has never quite worked, one of these is usually the reason.

Once Gary has seen the problem you get a written fixed-price quote to correct it. Sometimes that's a small adjustment. Sometimes it means re-running the ducting properly. You'll know which before any work starts.

Kitchen exhaust also needs looking after. On a maintenance visit Gary checks filters, the fan and its motor or belts, and the accessible ductwork, and tells you plainly if the system needs a deeper clean. How often depends on how heavy the cooking is, and he'll suggest a schedule once he's seen your kitchen.