Restaurant services · Springdale, AR
Make-up air and exhaust/hoods
The air that leaves through the hood and the air that has to replace it, kept in balance for a kitchen that stays workable.
Chapter 01
A hood that pulls hard and a door that will not open
A kitchen hood moves a lot of air. Every cubic foot it pulls out through the roof has to come back in from somewhere. When the make-up air is short, the building goes into negative pressure and tells you in ordinary ways: the back door is hard to pull open, the dining room doors whistle, the gas appliances flicker or smell, and the hood stops catching smoke at the cooktop even though the fan is running.
The opposite fault is just as real. A make-up air unit that dumps cold January air straight into the line leaves cooks working in a draft, and in July an untreated flow of outdoor air loads the dining room with heat and humidity that the rooftop units then have to fight.
Rooftop unit with a large condenser coil on a commercial roof, skylights and hills behind
How Trinity works hoods, exhaust fans and make-up air units
Trinity services the whole airflow chain in a restaurant kitchen: the hood and its filters, the duct, the exhaust fan on the roof and the make-up air unit that replaces what it removes. On the fan side that means motors, belts, bearings and the wheel itself. On the make-up side it means the burner or heat source that tempers cold air, the cooling section if there is one, the dampers and the controls that tie the unit to the hood.
We look at balance first, because most complaints come from the two halves disagreeing. A fan that was replaced with a larger one, a filter bank packed with grease, a make-up unit with a failed damper actuator: each of these changes how much air moves and where the kitchen feels it. Fixing the part without checking the balance can leave the original complaint in place.
Our Free Visual Equipment Check includes make-up air and exhaust and hoods, along with refrigeration, ice machines, HVAC and cooking and warming equipment. We walk the kitchen with no gauges and no disassembly, document what is visible, and give you written findings after every visit.
Chapter 03
Seasonal checks for the kitchen and the dining room
Hoods and exhaust systems run hardest in the same months the rest of the kitchen does, and they fail quietly. A belt slips and airflow drops a little at a time. A filter bank loads up with grease. A damper sticks half open. The kitchen gets warmer, the dining room smells like the line, and nobody can say when it started.
A visit at the change of each season, before the first hot or cold week, catches most of this. Maintenance and service agreements are available after an on-site assessment. Trinity answers at (479) 325-1075 day and night, which matters on the evening an exhaust fan fails in the middle of dinner service.
Trinity Air Conditioning and Refrigeration · AR HVACR #0003128 · Call (479) 325-1075, open 24/7.
Out of balance
What an out-of-balance kitchen feels like
- Exterior doors that are hard to open or pull shut behind you.
- Smoke or cooking odor drifting past the hood into the dining room.
- Gas flames that lean or flicker near the hood.
- A cold draft on the line in winter, or damp heat in summer.
- An exhaust fan that is louder than it used to be, or slower to start.
The rooftop side of the system is covered under restaurant HVAC. To book a walk-through, contact the shop, look at the membership plans, or call (479) 325-1075.