Guide - TR19 Grease - UK-Wide
Cafes run lighter than most kitchens, but brunch and paninis still load the canopy - and on a small footprint the real challenge is access. Here is what a compact system needs, and what catches it out.
The short answer
Cafes run lighter than most commercial kitchens, but "lighter" is not "none" - brunch, paninis, all-day breakfasts and a bit of frying all put grease into the canopy. On a small footprint the challenge is less about volume and more about access: short, awkward duct runs and fans tucked above neighbouring units:
The interval is usually generous compared with a takeaway or restaurant - but the clean still has to reach the whole system, which is where small premises get interesting.
The cafe load
It is easy to think a cafe barely needs an extract clean, and some genuinely light coffee-and-cake operations do sit at the quiet end. But the modern all-day cafe does more cooking than its image suggests - a cooked breakfast service, grilled paninis and toasties, halloumi and bacon, a fryer for chips or hash browns at brunch. Across a busy weekend that puts a steady grease load into the system, enough that a six-to-twelve-month interval is the norm rather than the exception, set by survey rather than assumed.
What a cafe usually does not have is the relentless fryer load that pushes a takeaway into monthly cleaning. So the frequency is gentler - but the duty to clean and certificate the system is identical, because grease in a duct is grease in a duct whatever the sign over the door says.
The real challenge
The interesting part of a cafe clean is almost always reaching the system. Small premises throw up some recurring obstacles:
None of this is a reason to skip the clean; it is a reason to survey first, so the quote and the method account for the access rather than discovering the problem on the night.
Why it matters
The trap for a cafe is assuming the small footprint and the gentle menu mean the rules do not really apply. They do. The fire-safety duty to manage the grease risk, and the insurer's expectation of a current certificate, do not have a cafe exemption - and a partial clean that quietly leaves an unreachable duct stretch greasy is a weak spot hiding behind a clean-looking canopy.
The sensible approach is to survey the system, confirm whether six or twelve months fits the actual load, sort out access so the whole run can be cleaned, and clean it on that interval with a certificate to show for it. It is a modest, low-cost job for most cafes - and doing it properly once is far better than a cheap partial clean that leaves the real risk in place.
Questions
If anything is fried or grilled - cooked breakfasts, paninis, halloumi, chips at brunch - grease reaches the canopy and duct, and the system needs cleaning. The fire-safety duty and the insurer's expectation of a certificate do not have a cafe exemption.
Typically every six to twelve months, depending on how much cooking happens. A genuinely light coffee-and-cake operation sits at the quiet end; a busy all-day brunch cafe nearer six months. A survey confirms the right interval from the measured load.
Compact systems often have short, sharply-turning duct runs and a fan on a roof shared with neighbours, frequently with few or no access panels. That can leave stretches of duct that cannot be reached without fitting access, which is why we survey before quoting.
Generally yes. Small, lightly-loaded systems sit at the lower end of the price range because there is less grease to remove and a smaller system overall - though awkward access can add to the work, which the survey identifies up front.
A partial clean that leaves an unreachable duct stretch greasy is a hidden weak spot behind a clean-looking canopy. It does not control the fire risk or fully satisfy a certificate, so fitting access and cleaning the whole run once is better value than a cheap clean that misses part of the system.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
We survey the access, clean the whole compact system to TR19 Grease and certificate it - sized and priced for a small footprint. No-obligation quote, UK-wide.