After a yummy oily dish is cooked, it releases a lot of steam and smoke. No doubt, this smoke goes into the air and thankfully it happens because of kitchen chimneys. But the only drawback is that it leaves greasiness on the filters.
As much as looking into the cleanliness of kitchen essentials is needed, even your kitchen chimney needs to be given that importance and be kept spic and span. Don’t let the dirt stay, wiping it out is mandatory for the chimney to function well. Right now, even if you don’t have a proper chimney, aim to buy the right chimney that has advanced features or an auto-clean option to keep the grease and dirt away.
Needless to say that cleaning your kitchen chimney can take hours but ultimately the job needs to be done. If you wish to save money and clean it independently, here is an article giving you the right tips to effectively clean the chimney at home.
Why Is It Necessary To Clean Your Chimney Regularly?
A kitchen chimney is not a simple device, it has multiple functions of eliminating smoke, grease, vapors, steam, and fumes from your kitchen. You can imagine if it has so many functions it perhaps has many components that co-ordinate for its smooth functioning.
A list of components in kitchen chimneys are meshes, filters, and baffles. These little components do a major task of collecting grease droplets, particles, and steam. With so much happening, if these kitchen chimneys are not cleaned, thick layers of these particles get stuck to the grime and damage the chimney.
Damaged or an unclean kitchen chimney calls for double trouble in your kitchen. At one end, lot of bacteria and fungus forms on the grime areas and it goes without saying that bad smell lingers in your kitchen. On the other end, not letting the steam out is suffocating.
6 Ways to Clean A Kitchen Chimney At Home
It is better to clean a kitchen chimney yourself than appointing a professional to do it for you. All you need are a few ingredients and home remedies to wipe out the grease and steam on the grimes of the chimney.
Things you will need
- Caustic Soda
- Baking Soda
- Dish Washing Liquid
- Hot Water
- Paint Thinner
- Vinegar
Listed below are the steps on cleaning a kitchen chimney on your own!
1. How To Clean A Kitchen Chimney With Caustic Soda
Sodium hydroxide is a potent ingredient in caustic soda. It effectively clears every kind of clogged dirt or greasiness on the filters. Since it is quite powerful and you need to be safe, it is better to wear a pair of gloves and protect your hands from getting damaged further
Follow these steps to clean the kitchen chimney with caustic soda
- Take out filters from the kitchen chimney
- Over these filters, sprinkle the caustic powder
- Let it remain on these filters for 4-5 hours
- Now pour boiling water on these filters
- Allow them to dry well before you fit it back
2. How To Clean A Kitchen Chimney With Baking Soda
To clean the steam, dirt, and grease, it is necessary to use an effective home remedy like baking soda. This ingredient has anti-bacterial and cleansing properties.
Follow these steps to clean the kitchen chimney with baking soda
- Fill a tumbler of warm water
- In this water, add 1 cup, baking soda, salt, and lemon juice
- Leave these ingredients in water and immerse the filters in it for a few hours
- Scrub these filters, wash them with plain water and dry them well before fitting it back
3. How To Clean A Kitchen Chimney With Dishwashing Liquid
Dishwashing liquids are fighters that have the ability to battle against greasiness, dirt, and steam. Forever we have all relied on detergents and dish washes to clean our utensils and clothes.
When it could work on cleaning the stains on your clothes and greasiness in your plate, why wouldn’t it clean the greasiness on the filters of your kitchen chimney.
Follow these steps to clean the kitchen chimney with dishwashing liquid
- Separate the filters from your kitchen chimney
- Take a sponge, dip it into a dishwashing liquid and rub it on the filters
- Fill a tumbler of warm water
- Place these filters soaked in dish washing liquid in warm water
- Allow it to stay for an hour or two
- Remove it from water and gently scrub it another time
- Wash this filter with plain water, allow it to dry for a while and fit it back
4. How To Clean A Kitchen Chimney With Hot Water
Any impurity or dirt is eliminated if you soak it in warm water. So, use steaming hot water to get rid off excess steam and greasiness.
Follow these steps and clean the kitchen chimney with hot water
- Fill a tumbler of steaming hot water
- Separate filters from the kitchen chimney
- Put these filters in the hot water
- Soak it for a few hours, wash it with cold water and dry it for a while before you fit it back
5. How To Clean A Kitchen Chimney With Paint Thinner
Paint thinners are quite strong and powerful. It works the best in cleaning oil stains and grease. If you don’t have a paint thinner, you can use nail polish to clean all the dirt.
Follow these steps and clean the kitchen chimney with paint thinner
You cannot directly apply the paint thinner or nail polish on the filters. You will need to dip a cloth into the thinner and use it to clean the thinner
- Separate the filters from the chimney
- Clean it well with the cloth
- Use water and wash the filters, let it dry for a while and fix it back
6. How To Clean A Kitchen Chimney With Vinegar
Vinegar is acidic in nature and it is a natural cleanser. It easily eliminates all the steam and greasiness on the kitchen chimney. You can either use vinegar as it is or mix it with baking soda. Higher the acidic properties better will be its cleansing properties.
Follow these steps and clean the kitchen chimney with vinegar
- Separate the filters from the kitchen chimney
- Pour vinegar on the filters
- Leave it that way for a few hours
- Wash the filter with cold water, dry it well and fix it back
How Often to Clean Kitchen Chimney
Usually, every kitchen chimney needs to be cleaned once in two months. Apart from this, if you tend to cook too much and your chimney gets used more than required, you might have to clean it once more.
Every chimney cannot be cleaned the same way as the fliter in every kitchen chimney is different and its physical properties of the way of functioning is different. Agree?
So let us look at a few points to see how often should kitchen chimneys with different filters be cleaned.
#1 – Frequency of cleaning a chimney with charcoal filters
There is no option to clean a charcoal filer, you need to change these filters once in 3-6 months depending on how much often you are in the kitchen and how much oily food you cook.
Usually, the nature of charcoal is to take in all the grease, smoke, and smell. Thus, changing it once in a while is the only way to keep it clean.
#2 – Frequency of cleaning a chimney having baffle filters
Baffle filter is the most convenient among the other filters. You don’t have to break your head too much over cleaning these filters as it has a different space for letting smoke and grease out.
It is enough to clean it only 2-3 times in a week.
#3 – Frequency of cleaning a chimney having cassette filters
Cassette filters are the toughest to maintain. These filters have many layers of aluminum and grease easily clings to every bit of this filter.
Therefore, it is necessary to clean these filters once in ten days.
Conclusion
Whenever you clean your kitchen, don’t miss out on cleaning the chimney. If you go to see, the kitchen chimney is an important spot and needs to be looked at on priority as food is cooked every day, and a lot of smoke, grease, and steam is released. When all of it sits on chimneys, grease and dirt is accumulated causing a disruption in the suction power and finally impacts the efficiency of the kitchen chimney.
It is undeniable that cleaning these chimneys is time-consuming but it is any day much better than spoiling your kitchen. The tips mentioned in this article is enough to keep your kitchen chimney clean. Based on the filter installed in your kitchen chimney, regularly clean it with the required remedies and ingredients.