Certified hood cleaning company doing shoddy work

Weren't the Chili's being serviced by Dunnwell?

Is Dunnwell certified? If so, who are they certified by?
 
Was it a KEC company cleaning the Hood? So you know if you want to ad to the mess the industry in corporation are getting into self cleaning.

Guess what? They are also getting certified.

I'm with you that something needs to be done, together educating the Brass might be the way to go.
 
Ron Musgraves said:
Was it a KEC company cleaning the Hood? So you know if you want to ad to the mess the industry in corporation are getting into self cleaning.

Guess what? They are also getting certified.
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I have seen the in house cleanings done by restaurants and I must say that on the whole it is better than 90% of the work done by actual kitchen exhaust cleaning companies. I'll see if I can find some pictures.
 
As an owner of a company who services KEC only. This conversation regarding certification is a no win argument. As owners we are given choices on many different things. We must decide on what road to travel. Education, training and good tools are most important along with those basic venue one must decide how to market those assets.

Certification is all of those in one basic word. The holder has taken the time, money and effort to better his marketing & education with level of workmanship. The holder of that document has demonstrated competence and knowledge to service the accounts in a manner that should reflect positive on the instructor base. In much the same thing as a student in college who graduates with a Bachelors Degree and goes out and creates an issue that reflects negative on the institution that gave him the degree. Do we blame the college? NO.

The holder of that document reflects the positive along with the negatives. We as owners check work and recheck-what we service. Do our people make mistakes and clean less than we desire – YES. We as owners must limit those exposures as much as possible. That is all that is possible, & anyone who says that they don’t come across this is less honest.

Shoddy work is not limited to people who have certification and I am sure that the non certification people have all the best training and all but they still do shoddy work. We must take care of our own company and make sure that our customers gain a positive experience with our service. When we fall short-get up and try again and regain the customers good faith.

:)
 
Excellent points David.
 
This kitchen exhaust system was serviced by a certified individual one month before these photos were taken.

The hood

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Up the duct

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Duct above the hood (the rectangular object in the middle of the picture is an access panel)

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Nobody is perfect. But why not strive for perfection? Nobody expects anyone to get a kitchen exhaust systems spotlessly shiny every time. But at least open access panels and remove the combustible materials to the depth that NFPA 96 requires so that if a fire should get in to the kitchen exhaust system, it wont spread to the rest of the system.

Any certified cleaner should know this. They should know to look for access panels and know how to clean out the grease through them.

This is the kind of stuff I am talking about. If it happening here in Los Angeles, I am sure it is happening across the country.

Certification of kitchen exhaust cleaners gives absolutely no guarantee that they will perform their jobs correctly.
 
Video response coming matt, Matt could we have a debate tele forum live for this topic. maybe invite some VP's from brinker and Darden. I have some guys i could get to the tele conference. As long as we stay professional, I have a link to MCDOnalds and Wendy also. Western region PA's
 
We would have to agree on a set topic and format, and there should be a moderator. By moderator I mean an unaffiliated third party.

Unfortunately from the last two conference calls, it seems like I am the only one who has anything to say. Several guys were given an opportunity to speak and only on other guy chimed in. I guess you could count the guy that was pushing the buttons on his phone while I was talking as one more.

I would agree to this if I could get a big gun on my side. If you can get Don Pfleiderer from Enviromatic to join in I will do it. 10 against one is not a fair number. I would take 10 against 2 if he was the second.
 
AMEN Matt .... I see them all the time .. Just cleaned a Mexican Restaurant last week .. The hood and filters were clean but as for the duct and fan .. well lets just say I had to pry the fan off with a crow bar and it took 1 hour to clean the fan, 30 minutes to scrape the duct and another 20 minutes to clean the duct with the pressure washer... I cleaned the hood and filters in about 20 minutes... They just had it cleaned 3 weeks before I cleaned it... this was just unproffesional...I also have an account to clean at a store thursday night ...same thing .. he says I just had my hood cleaned 4 days ago and the maint crew said my fan was dirty on the roof , he also said I cant get the guys out here to reclean my hood , when can you come and clean it and how much...
 
Matt, I have been doing it and raising the standards across the country for years now. Larger corporation now have PW in the annual budgets because my company has been educating and informing through lectures and literature.

I have tried to offer my expertise and help the KEC industry. It seems no one wants to listen, the educating need to be to the Hospitality industry at the university level. The insurance agencies need to be informed that certification can help; it however will not prevent hood cleaning errors. Humans will neglect and will always do a poor job. Even training our crews we find dead beats and we terminate them.

Internally we have ongoing training over and over again.

The company’s themselves need to keep standards higher and educate the customer to remove the filters and tell them what to check for. They need to climb on the rooms for more than one reason, check the HVAC guy the Hood guy and the roof all in one inspection.

Roofs can receive more damage from an improper hood cleaning and personally I have seen individuals hurt because roofs collapsed from the grease destroying them. I could tell the story about Don who resides in a wheel chair? I will save it for another time.

Kitchens have fires, it’s plain and simple and they will continue to have them. I believe the liability falling on the hood guys is wrong. The owners ultimately are solely the responsible party. They are the ones that will pay damages when someone’s hurt. Yes they will try to pass the buck to the Hack that didn’t clean the hood properly, one day it will all change and attorneys will see that neglect of not being educated and informed will surpass this.

You see matt when you educate the corporation and put them on notice to this problem. Liability changes direction. If you send the photos of those dirty ducts to a VP and he ignores his problem and the place burns and someone Dies? He will be liable and pay. This will change the industry and get the insurance company and others to listen.

I sure you might know this already… Keep it up. I have been doing it along time.
 
I got a couple of calls on this today from restaurant chains asking me if it means that their certified hood cleaner is doing a bad job. I can see know what all the hubub is.

I am in no way shape or form saying that if a company is certified they are doing bad work. And I absolutely agree that cleaners should be certified to get education on NFPA 96, All of my guys are certified down to the guy that puts up the plastic.

All I am saying is just because a company is certified, it does not give them a free pass. I don't think anybody should get a free pass. Every hood cleaning company in the US should be held up to the same scrutiny, certified or not.

The other point I am trying to get across is that just because one company holds the same certification as the next company, it does not mean that you will get the same product from both companies. But wouldn't it be nice if you did;)
 
Wouldnt it be nice... Well what kind of work do I do ?? all of my customers say I do great work.. Never had a complaint .. Except sometimes they ask why it takes me so long to clean the hood.. They say the other company cleans my hood in 2 hours why does it take you 4 hours and you have a bigger machine... Well Well , when I show them the before and after pictures they see why it takes so long... In Mississippi on an average I am probably one of the most expensive hood cleaning companies, but I am also one of the only ones that takes before and after photos, I also fill out a service report, and an after service follow up card.. We also offer with a vent hood cleaning a free fire extinguisher and fire suppression system inspection ( Not Including Fusible Link Charge) Everytime I do a great job I am always rewarded buy new accounts usually by word of mouth from my customers.. Also on the certification thing , thats nice but experience ( 16 years for me) plays a real key factor .. Knowing what , when, where and how might can be learned from a book but experience and determination is 99% of what make a great business..
 
The other point I am trying to get across is that just because one company holds the same certification as the next company, it does not mean that you will get the same product from both companies. But wouldn't it be nice if you did
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I have a driver license and you have one. I may have less points you may have less points. We both took similar test, it doesnt mean your a better driver because you scored higher on the written.

Matt, I think we get the point. I however think your leaving the human nature out of the picture.

I'm certain your company has cleaned a duct that was not bare metal.

I might also be certain that if it did happen you would terminate the guy. I sure it happens to the best of us, employees will fail you.

We as business owners have to put things in place to insure this doesnt happen. ( it will happen to the best of them)
 
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