Silent Fans, the Silent Killer of Foodservice Equipment

Clogged and new Foodservice equipment fan filters
By the Editor and Joel Block, Certified Technician

We are often asked by our foodservice customers what they can do to minimize equipment breakdowns and therefore reduce costs. The answer is routine maintenance. Not all maintenance is the same; some are straightforward, and some should only be attempted by a trained individual. Therefore, our top recommended maintenance tip that can be done internally is one of the most straightforward and most accessible, and that is the cleaning of the air guards protecting your commercial kitchen equipment’s fans.

It is vital that your equipment can breathe to maintain its correct operating temperature, and you might be surprised just how many fans there are in equipment, coolers, freezers, ovens, combi-ovens, microwaves, the list goes on. These fans are protected by air guards which sometimes have additional filters. The guards clean the air being pulled through the unit by the fan. Without maintenance, over time the fan can become clogged, which may result in damage to the fan or if the fan fails, a breakdown of the equipment itself. It is important to remember that it is now quite common for a piece of equipment to contain digital control boards which are also being cooled by fans. Failure of these boards can be a very expensive repair. One other thing we should point out here, and not wanting to be a downer, but we do see warranty repair claims on new equipment rejected due to lack of routine maintenance, so let’s avoid that situation!

We recommend that you clean your air guards at least once every two months, monthly is better. To clean, remove the guard and filter if present, and soak in a mild detergent with warm water to loosen any build-up, then gently scrub/rinse with clean water, dry, and replace. If the filter is beyond cleaning, replace it with new. If you have any doubt about how to clean these guards, you can refer to the manufacturer’s cleaning guidelines or call your foodservice equipment service company for advice.

If you are already cleaning your air guards as part of your routine maintenance and you notice that they are very quickly becoming clogged again, then this may be a sign of an issue with your kitchen extraction system. In this case, we recommend contacting your service company to check if there is an issue.

Lastly, if you do not have the resources to complete this task, consider talking to your service company about what planned maintenance programs they offer. Most service companies, General Parts Group included, will customize a program to suit your needs. For more information visit us at generalparts.com or call us at 888-498-1238.