Guide - TR19 Grease - UK-Wide
Grease runs as one path from filters to fan. Cleaning the parts on separate cycles leaves gaps at the joins. Here is why a single coordinated visit cleans and certificates the whole system properly.
The short answer
Grease does not respect the boundaries between components. It travels from the filters and canopy, along the ductwork, to the extractor fan - one continuous path. Cleaning those parts on separate cycles, by different people, leaves joins in the path untouched. A single coordinated visit cleans the whole run and certificates it as one system:
The hazard is the path, not any one part of it - so the clean has to follow the grease from end to end.
Why piecemeal fails
It is common for the visible parts to get attention while the hidden ones are left. Kitchen staff wipe the canopy and swap the filters; the ductwork and fan, out of sight, get forgotten. The problem is that the forgotten parts are the ones that matter most for fire - the duct is the long fuel path and the fan is where grease concentrates. A spotless canopy above a greasy duct looks clean and is not compliant, because the fire risk sits in the section nobody cleaned.
Splitting the work between providers or cycles creates the same gap in a different form. One contractor does the canopy, another the duct, on different dates, and the handover between them - the join where grease bridges from one section to the next - belongs to nobody. The only reliable way to clean a continuous path is to treat it as continuous: one team, one visit, following the grease from the filters through to the fan.
What makes it possible
Cleaning the entire run in one visit depends on being able to reach all of it. That is what access panels are for, and the standard is specific: panels positioned so that all of the ductwork can be reached, with guidance pointing to provision roughly every couple of metres along the run and at both sides of bends, where grease is hardest to clear. Panels should be on the side of the duct where possible, of the same material as the ductwork and on quick-release catches so the system can actually be opened and inspected.
Where access is missing, the duct cannot be fully cleaned and you are back to a partial clean - a gap in the path by another name. So a coordinated visit often includes flagging or fitting access, precisely so that the next clean, and this one, can follow the grease the whole way rather than stopping at the first sealed section.
Why it matters
Coordinating the clean is not just tidier - it is what produces an honest result. When the filters, canopy, ductwork and fan are cleaned together and verified together, the certificate describes the actual state of the whole system, not one favourable section of it. That is the document an insurer and a fire risk assessor can trust, because it covers the path the fire would take rather than the part that was easy to reach.
The efficient approach is a single coordinated visit - usually overnight - that strips and degreases the filters, cleans the canopy, runs the ductwork through its access points, degreases the fan, reassembles and tests, and certificates the lot. One team, one path, one piece of paper that means what it says.
Questions
Because they are one continuous grease path. Cleaning them on separate cycles, or by different providers, leaves the joins between sections untouched - and those joins, especially the hidden ductwork and fan, are where the fire risk sits. One visit follows the grease from end to end.
No. The canopy and filters are the visible parts, but the duct is the long fuel path and the fan is where grease concentrates. A spotless canopy above a greasy duct looks clean and is not compliant, because the hazard is in the section that was not cleaned.
Access. The standard calls for panels positioned so all the ductwork can be reached - guidance points to roughly every couple of metres and at both sides of bends, on the side of the duct where possible, same material, quick-release catches. Without them, parts cannot be reached and you get a partial clean.
Then a coordinated visit usually includes flagging or fitting access so the run can be opened and cleaned properly. Otherwise the sealed sections are left greasy, which is a gap in the path and leaves you with a partial clean rather than a compliant one.
Yes. Cleaning and verifying the filters, canopy, ductwork and fan together means the certificate describes the actual state of the whole grease path - the document an insurer and fire risk assessor can trust, because it covers the route a fire would take.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Filters, canopy, ductwork and fan cleaned and certificated together in one coordinated visit to TR19 Grease. No-obligation quote, UK-wide.