What is TR19?

TR19 was developed by the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) almost 20 years ago. If you run a commercial kitchen TR19 is the standard that you need to keep your kitchen held to, to avoid hazards, including dangers to the general public and your employees.

The TR19 Guide details specific considerations for the cleaning of Kitchen Extraction Systems and outlines requirements for the maintenance of each section of the ventilation equipment, i.e. the canopy, canopy prenum, extractor fan and discharge duct. Some of the areas which are covered in the cleaning process of a TR19 include all of the ducting, which is required to be cleaned to a point where throughout the whole system there is no grease along the ducts that exceeds a thickness of 500um, this is to prevent fire hazards from occurring, due to the heat, airflow and flammability of the grease in a kitchen it is paramount to make sure the grease does not exceed this thickness.

Over time your extraction fans will also build up a dust and grease deposits which can be very harmful to your entire kitchen, not only will the ducting be effected, but your entire establishment due to the air not being extracted. It is harmful to your kitchen because the clearance of the fan blades is significantly reduced between the blade edges and the inner casing, the reason this happens is down to the fact that the dust and grease combined forms a thick layer which over time builds up reducing the gap over time.

Why is it Important?

Around a quarter of the accidental fires in UK non-domestic buildings each year are caused by cooking appliances. Fires are an occupational hazard in commercial kitchens, but their impact is made far worse by the rapid spread of the fire through poorly maintained grease extract systems and ductwork. If grease deposits in uncleaned ductwork are ignited they will spread the fire rapidly to other parts of the building.

Many insurance companies now make it a condition of cover that building managers have a planned maintenance strategy in place and, before paying out following a fire, they will insist on seeing evidence that ductwork cleaning had been carried out.

Since it was first developed in 1998 by BESA, TR19 has been widely accepted by the building engineering services sector and British insurers as the standard to which ventilation systems should be cleaned. The guiding principle of TR19 is that a defined, measurable level of cleanliness should be achieved to improve safety and comfort in buildings.

Canopy Fan Cleaning are fully compliant with the TR19 standard and use this as a baseline for all extraction cleaning completed. Contact us today to book or read more about our services here.