Hood Filters: Clean Them, Exchange Them, or Replace Them?

Baffle filters do the first and hardest work in the exhaust system — they are where most of the grease is meant to stop. How you maintain them decides how much of that grease reaches the duct behind them.

Cleaning in place

At every professional hood cleaning, filters come out, soak in degreaser and are washed and reinstalled. For most kitchens on a proper cleaning frequency, this is sufficient: the filters are clean because the interval never lets them become the bottleneck.

When exchange makes sense

Very high-volume kitchens — fry-heavy lines running long hours — can load filters faster than any cleaning interval handles gracefully. A filter exchange rhythm (clean set in, loaded set out, on a short cycle) keeps the capture efficiency constant. It is worth discussing if your line cooks are wiping grease off the canopy face between professional visits.

When to replace

Filters that are warped, corroded through, or missing baffles stop working as flame arrestors and grease separators — cleaning cannot restore geometry. Damaged filters are a replacement item, and your service report will flag them with photographs rather than quietly reinstalling them.

Whichever route your kitchen needs, it shows up in the same place: your documentation package, with the filter condition recorded at every visit.