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Expert Exhaust Repairs for El Paso Commercial Kitchens
When an exhaust fan quits in the middle of dinner service, you are not running a kitchen anymore. Heat and smoke stop leaving the building, the dining room fills, and in most El Paso kitchens you are shutting down the line until it is fixed.
Kitchen Guard of El Paso repairs the whole exhaust system — fans, access panels, hinge kits, belts, curbs and ductwork — with UL-listed parts and technicians who know what the El Paso Fire Marshal’s Office looks for. Whether you failed an inspection and need components installed before your next cleaning, or your fan died at 9pm on a Friday, we handle it.
Call 915-297-9393 or request a quote below. We serve commercial kitchens across El Paso County, including Downtown, the West Side, the East Side, Northeast El Paso, Mission Valley, Horizon City, Socorro, Canutillo, Fort Bliss and Sunland Park.
Exhaust Fan Replacement in El Paso
Fans fail for predictable reasons. Grease accumulates on the blades and throws the wheel out of balance, which chews through bearings and belts long before their rated life. Motors run hot, draw more amperage each month, and then stop.
Kitchen Guard replaces both upblast fans — the rooftop units on most restaurant hood systems — and utility-set fans used in inline and makeup air configurations. We size the replacement to your actual CFM requirements rather than swapping in whatever matches the old nameplate, because an undersized fan leaves grease in the duct and an oversized one pulls conditioned air straight out of your dining room.
Every replacement uses UL-listed equipment, is installed to manufacturer specification, and is documented with photos for your compliance file. If your existing curb does not match the new unit, we handle the curb work in the same visit instead of sending a second crew.
Exhaust Fan Access Panel Installation
Access panels are how a cleaning crew actually reaches the inside of your ductwork. Without them, horizontal duct runs cannot be cleaned to bare metal — which means grease stays in the system, and your hood cleaning certificate does not reflect reality.
NFPA 96 requires access openings at every change of direction and at intervals along horizontal runs. El Paso kitchens in older buildings, particularly Downtown and in the Mission Valley corridor, are frequently short several panels because the duct was installed before the requirement was enforced.
We install both curved panels, which follow the radius of round duct, and flat panels for rectangular duct and plenum sections. Panels are grease-tight, gasketed, and positioned so a technician can actually get a brush through them. Most kitchens need panels added once; after that, every future cleaning is faster and more thorough.
Hinge Kit Installation with Grease Containment
A hinged fan base lets a technician tilt the fan up to clean underneath it and service the motor without a crane or a second person on the roof. Without one, cleaning the fan base properly is difficult enough that it often gets skipped.
We install hinge kits paired with grease containment — catch basins and absorbent systems that keep runoff off your roof membrane. That second part matters more in El Paso than most operators expect. Grease that pools on a hot roof degrades the membrane, and a grease stain running down the side of a building is a fast way to hear from your landlord or a health inspector.
Exhaust Fan Belt Replacement
A belt costs very little. A belt that snaps during Friday dinner costs you the night.
Belts stretch, glaze and crack on a schedule you can plan around — roughly every six months in a typical commercial kitchen, sooner in high-volume operations running long hours. We inspect tension and alignment on every visit and replace belts before they fail rather than after. Belt replacement is included in our Fan Maintenance Program below at no additional charge.
Curb Extensions and Reductions
The curb is the raised frame the fan sits on where it penetrates the roof. When it is the wrong height or the wrong footprint, two things go wrong: the fan does not seal, and exhaust discharges too close to the roof surface or to a fresh-air intake.
NFPA 96 sets minimum discharge heights above the roofline. If your fan sits too low, an inspector can flag it even though the fan itself is working perfectly. We fabricate curb extensions to raise the discharge point to code, and curb reductions to fit a correctly sized fan onto an oversized existing opening — common when a previous owner replaced equipment without matching the curb.
Custom and Additional Repairs
Not every problem fits a category. We also handle duct sealing and grease-tight repairs, damaged or missing filters and filter tracks, wiring and disconnect issues at the fan, makeup air adjustments, and fabrication for non-standard hood configurations.
If you are not sure what is wrong — the hood is not pulling the way it used to, there is a new noise on the roof, or the kitchen is hotter than it should be — call us and we will diagnose it. 915-297-9393
NFPA 96 Compliance Repairs: Failed an Inspection? Start Here.
El Paso enforces the 2021 International Fire Code, and the El Paso Fire Department’s Fire Marshal’s Office reviews and inspects commercial kitchen hood and extinguishing systems as part of its Fire Plan Review program. When your system is written up, you generally have a fixed window to correct it.
- Assessment. We inspect the full system against what your notice actually cites and identify anything else that will fail on re-inspection.
- Written quote. Itemized by component, so you can see what is required for compliance versus what is recommended.
- Installation. UL-listed parts, installed to manufacturer standard.
- Documentation. Photographic records of the completed work for your file and for the inspector.
One thing operators often learn too late: many compliance repairs have to be finished before a hood cleaning can be performed. If your ductwork has no access panels, no cleaner can certify the system to bare metal. We sequence the repair and the hood cleaning together so you are not paying for two mobilizations or waiting through a second inspection cycle.
Fan Maintenance Program — $110 per Fan, per Month
Most exhaust fan failures are preventable. Our quarterly maintenance program covers the three parts that actually fail — motors, belts and bearings — for a flat $110 per fan per month.
- Quarterly service by trained Kitchen Guard technicians
- Lubrication of Zerk fittings and cleaning of the motor casing
- AMP draw testing to catch a failing motor before it strands you
- Fan belt replacement as needed, and at minimum every six months
- Lifetime warranty on covered parts — motor, belts and bearings — after the first 30 days
- If a motor replacement exceeds $400, you pay only the difference
Most commercial exhaust motors run $300–$400, which means for the majority of failures your replacement is fully covered. The program turns an unpredictable emergency expense into a fixed line item, and the fan gets looked at four times a year by someone who knows what a failing bearing sounds like.
24/7 Emergency Exhaust Repair in El Paso
Equipment does not fail during business hours. Kitchen Guard of El Paso provides 24/7 emergency exhaust repair so a dead fan does not become a closed kitchen.
Call any hour and we will diagnose the problem, get you operating if there is a safe temporary fix, and complete the permanent repair as quickly as parts allow. For restaurants, hotels, schools, hospitals and Fort Bliss dining facilities across El Paso County, that is often the difference between losing one service period and losing a weekend. Emergency line: 915-297-9393
What to Expect From a Kitchen Guard Repair
- Call or request a quote. Tell us what is happening. Often we can narrow it down over the phone.
- On-site assessment. We inspect the system, not just the part you called about — a failed belt is frequently a symptom of an unbalanced fan.
- Itemized quote. Written, by component, with compliance-required work separated from recommended work.
- Repair. UL-listed parts, installed to manufacturer spec by trained Repair Technicians.
- Documentation. Photos and records for your compliance file.
Kitchen Guard of El Paso also provides commercial exterior pressure washing for dumpster pads, patios, sidewalks, drive-thru lanes, loading docks and parking areas, and hood filter exchange to keep grease out of the system between cleanings.
Commercial Kitchen Exhaust Repair Questions — El Paso
Keeping your kitchen safe and compliant means staying on top of essential repairs—here’s what you need to know.
Call us at 915-297-9393 with your inspection notice in hand. We will assess the system against what was cited, quote the required components, install them with UL-listed parts, and document the work photographically for your file. In most cases we can also identify items that would fail on re-inspection but were not caught the first time, so you clear it in one pass.
It depends on fan type, size and whether curb work is needed, so we quote after seeing the unit. For context, most commercial exhaust motors alone run $300–$400. If you are on our Fan Maintenance Program, motor replacement is covered up to $400 and you pay only the difference.
Most straightforward upblast fan replacements are completed in a single visit once the unit is on hand. Jobs requiring curb fabrication, electrical work or a non-stock fan size take longer, and we will tell you the timeline in the quote rather than after we are on the roof.
Because without them, the inside of your horizontal ductwork cannot be reached. A cleaning is only certifiable to bare metal if the technician can physically get to the metal. NFPA 96 requires access openings at changes of direction and at intervals along horizontal runs, and their absence is one of the most common compliance failures we find in older El Paso buildings.
Yes — 24/7. Call 915-297-9393 any hour and we will get a technician moving.
We work on the exhaust system: hoods, fans, ductwork, curbs, access panels, hinge kits, belts and grease containment. We do not service fire suppression systems, gas lines, or cooking equipment itself. If your issue falls outside exhaust, tell us anyway — we will point you to the right trade rather than leave you calling around.
