Commercial Kitchen Hood Upgrades: Standards & Safety in 2025

Commercial Kitchen Hood Upgrades: Standards & Safety in 2025

How many meals does your kitchen prepare each day? Commercial kitchens are bustling places with sizzling skillets, grills shooting up flames, boiling pots, and fryers spitting oil onto nearby surfaces. Your workers keep the pace, making sure dishes are in the waitstaff’s hands on time.

Planning and meticulous time management cannot override an important aspect of running your commercial kitchen. The appliances, surfaces, and sinks need to be clean and in satisfactory order. Meeting food safety codes isn’t enough. Your kitchen hood system needs to be up-to-date, working correctly at exhausting fumes, and doing so all within Illinois laws.

You need to make sure your kitchen hood system meets 2025 requirements. It’s not just removing cooking odors from the building; it’s about safety and food service laws.

Illinois Laws and General Rules on Commercial Kitchen Ventilation

Commercial kitchens must abide by several Illinois laws regarding health and safety. Flooring must be smooth, non-porous, and easy to sterilize. Food must be stored at the proper temperature and in ways that prevent bacterial growth and contamination. It must be cooked to the appropriate temperatures.

The owner and management of a commercial kitchen need to ensure that licenses and permits are up-to-date. You cannot avoid any required inspections to keep those permits and licenses. You need a certificate of occupancy, food handler’s licenses for every employee, and others, depending on whether you’re a caterer, shared kitchen, restaurant, etc.

Kitchen range hoods are required to be connected to airtight exhaust ducts. They need a damper to prevent backdrafts. Grease ducts need to be capable of preventing combustion. There are different types that we’ll take a closer look at in the next section.

There are other considerations. A canopy range hood must be larger than the appliance to ensure there’s an overhang of 6 inches. Non-canopy hoods must be within the required range of the appliance. Those appliances include fryers, grills, ovens, burners, and commercial dishwashers.

Commercial kitchen hoods cannot be more than 4 feet above the appliance. That’s another consideration when you have grills with flames shooting up.

In addition to having commercial kitchen hood systems, owners must ensure they’re operating correctly and are maintained to keep them clean and operational. This isn’t something that you can trust to anyone. You need to choose a professional kitchen hood installer who is licensed and insured and helps you secure any required permits.

There are also federal standards that apply. 

1. NFPA 96 (Standard for Ventilation Control and Fire Protection of Commercial Cooking Operations)

The 2025 changes enforce stricter cleaning routines and maintenance to prevent the build-up of grease. Electric appliances need to be checked twice a year, while gas or wood appliances need monthly inspections.

Also, exhaust hoods need to be operational if a kitchen doesn’t shut down when there’s a power outage. 

2. UL 710: (Underwriters Laboratories) Exhaust Hoods for Commercial Cooking Equipment Standard

In addition to fire safety, UL 710 looks at the effectiveness of ventilation and the integrity of the mechanical components. Exhaust hoods must have automatic fire suppression systems that are inspected and tested regularly.

Hoods have to be labeled with the minimum exhaust flow rate that’s defined by Cubic Feet per Minute (CFM). The ducts must lead outside and away from people and neighboring businesses.

Different Types of Commercial Kitchen Hoods

Two areas where it’s important to maintain working equipment are your plumbing fixtures and range hoods. There are two different range hoods you could need. Beyond them, there are other components required for the commercial hood.

1. Type 1 Hoods:

If you have fryers, grills, or other high-heat equipment, a type 1 hood is essential. These commercial hoods are specifically designed to extract airborne grease, heat, and smoke from your kitchen.

They have a grease filter that captures the grease that’s in the air. That filter is designed with non-combustible materials that prevent fires. They also have an automatic fire suppression system, which protects everyone in your building and helps you avoid costly damage.

Type 1 hoods need to be over cooking equipment, and placement is important. If you have a char broiler, you’d need the hood to be higher than the top of the flames. If you have fryers, they wouldn’t have to be as high. 

Generally, type 1 hoods are installed 18 inches above the flames or heat generated by an appliance. Again,  they cannot be more than 4 feet above the appliance.

They have to be easy to clean and have no gaps. Any gaps release the smoke and oil back to the air, which could lead to fines.

2. Type 2 Hoods:

Type 2 hoods extract heat, odors, and steam that don’t contain airborne grease particles. The appliances you’d put a type 2 hood over include ovens, dishwashers, and burners where you cook things like pots of pasta or steam vegetables.

The ducts that type 2 hoods are connected to have to be water-tight due to the steam that passes through them. They’re usually made from materials like stainless steel that are easily cleaned and resist rust.

Why Upgrade Your Commercial Kitchen Hood?

You have a commercial kitchen hood that works well enough. Why bother upgrading it? When you upgrade your kitchen hood, you’re ensured that you meet the newer 2025 requirements. It’s more than that, however. You gain benefits beyond meeting regulations, and those benefits ensure the safety of your staff, customers, and business.

The other benefits you gain include:

• Better air quality: Fumes like smoke and frying odors are removed from the air.
• Carbon monoxide safety: Gas appliances release carbon monoxide, an odorless, toxic gas, but ventilation prevents it from building up.
• Cleanliness: A clean starting point to help you pass kitchen inspections.
• Enhanced fire safety: Grease filters and a fire suppression system lower the risk of a kitchen fire within the ducts.
• Ensures you meet 2025 building and fire codes: Don’t worry about being fined or shut down for not meeting current laws.
• Extended lifespan of other kitchen appliances: Kitchen grease and heat don’t build up and create unnecessary wear on appliances like a refrigerator.
• Heightened energy efficiency: Newer kitchen hoods are more efficient and lower your energy bills.

Technology keeps bringing new, innovative features to commercial range hoods. Many have advanced sensors and monitors that continually check a fire risk. The smart detection alerts the kitchen staff to potential problems before they start.

If there are problems, smart systems can signal fire alarms and fire suppression equipment. They can also alert local fire departments without you having to make the call.

If there is a fire, systems now have environmentally-friendly fire suppression materials or water mists that won’t release harmful chemicals.

Questions to Ask When Scheduling an Upgrade Estimate

Once you decide it’s a good time to upgrade your commercial kitchen hood, use this list of things to consider when planning a kitchen hood installation.

• What appliances do you use regularly? Is your kitchen producing a lot of airborne grease?
• Is your current system meeting codes and regulations?
• What local codes is it not meeting, and what system is best for meeting or exceeding the requirements?
• How much space do you have? Is a space-saving commercial kitchen vent needed?
• What safety features and technology are most important to you?
• Are you prepared for the required maintenance? How will you remember?

Keep Up With Maintenance and Inspections

After having your commercial kitchen hood upgraded, stay on top of maintenance. It’s your or your kitchen manager’s responsibility to inspect kitchen hood exhaust systems each month visually. Make sure fire extinguishers are accessible and properly charged.

Air Blue is happy to inspect and service your kitchen exhaust hood every month or every six months, depending on the appliances you use each day. Ask about a maintenance plan that helps you save money and ensures you don’t forget to have your system maintained as required.