Commercial kitchen deep cleaning
Fryers, ranges and char-grills carry the worst of the grease and carbon. A deep clean strips them inside and out - then moves them to clean the wall and floor behind.
Short answer
Fryers, ranges and char-grills carry the heaviest grease and carbon in the kitchen. A deep clean strips and degreases them inside and out - and, the part daily cleaning skips, moves them to clean the walls, floor and equipment sides you never see.
A proper fryer clean is a boil-out: drain the oil, fill with water and a fryer cleaner, bring it up to temperature, drain, rinse and dry before refilling. Baskets are cleaned separately, and the cabinet and the floor beneath - where spilled oil collects - are degreased. It is a job daily routines rarely do thoroughly, and it is where a lot of hidden grease sits.
Racks, walls, doors, burners and flattops are stripped and degreased, inside and out. The carbon that bakes onto the back and sides of a range is the stubborn part - it usually needs an alkaline degreaser to loosen it and manual work to lift it. Where parts come off to reach it, they are cleaned, dried and refitted.
Grates are soaked and scrubbed, ash and grease are cleared, and the drip trays beneath the burners - a classic neglected grease store - are emptied and degreased. Char-grills throw a lot of aerosolised grease, so the surfaces around and behind them get attention too.
Salamanders, griddles and flat-tops get the same treatment - stripped where they come apart, degreased, and the trays and catch-points beneath them emptied. The order matters too: the cookline is generally cleaned after the high-level work above it, so grease loosened from a canopy does not drop onto a range that has just been finished. And because fryers and grills re-soil fastest, they are the parts your team should keep on top of between visits - a weekly fryer boil-out and an end-of-shift wipe-down keep the deep-clean interval honest rather than letting carbon build back within days.
The biggest win is moving the cookline to degrease the wall, the floor and the equipment sides behind it. This is where the heaviest carbonised grease accumulates and where the fire load concentrates - and it is exactly what a daily wipe-down cannot reach, as covered in the hidden grease traps a daily wipe never reaches. Equipment is isolated before it is moved, per how deep cleaners protect your equipment. Clearing the cookline is necessary - it is where grease and fire risk concentrate - but it is not sufficient on its own; keeping it down depends on daily wipe-downs and regular boil-outs between deep cleans.
Questions
By boil-out: drain the oil, fill with water and a fryer cleaner, bring to temperature, then drain, rinse and dry before refilling. Baskets are cleaned separately, and the cabinet and the floor beneath, where oil collects, are degreased.
Because the heaviest carbonised grease and the biggest fire load sit on the wall, floor and equipment sides behind the cookline - out of reach of any daily routine. Moving the units is the only way to degrease those surfaces.
Usually an alkaline degreaser to loosen it and manual scraping to lift it - carbon rarely comes off with a wipe. Where parts come off to reach it, they are cleaned, dried and refitted, with the equipment isolated first.
Yes. The trays beneath the burners are a classic neglected grease store, and char-grills aerosolise a lot of grease onto surrounding surfaces, so the trays and the area behind the grill both get attention in a deep clean.
It clears where grease and fire risk concentrate, which is necessary - but it is not sufficient. Keeping the cookline down depends on daily wipe-downs and regular fryer boil-outs between deep cleans; the deep clean resets it, your routine maintains it.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Phoenix strips and degreases the cookline and the spaces behind it - fryers, ranges, char-grills and the wall, floor and sides you never see. Quoted on survey.