Commercial kitchen equipment maintenance: the basics and the legal checkpoints

In a commercial kitchen, maintenance usually starts with an oven that dies in the middle of service, and ends there: someone calls a technician, the job gets done, and it is forgotten. Yet some kitchen equipment carries statutory inspection duties, and the rest follows manufacturer or industry practice. Knowing which is which takes the surprises out of both audits and budgets.

This guide walks through the main equipment groups in a restaurant, hotel kitchen or catering facility in Turkey.

This is not legal advice. Check the current text of each regulation at its source, and your municipality’s fire regulation for local rules.

Start with an inventory

A maintenance routine starts with a list of equipment. Every site has at least these groups:

Group	Examples
Cooking	Combi oven, range, fryer, griddle, steam kettle
Warewashing	Undercounter, hood-type or conveyor dishwasher
Refrigeration	Cold room, reach-in fridge, undercounter fridge, ice machine
Ventilation	Exhaust hood and duct, grease trap
Fire and gas safety	Hood suppression system, gas detection and shut-off, extinguishers

Give each item a number and a place: “Combi oven 2, hot line”. Fault reports, service records and photos all attach to that number.

Cooking equipment

On gas equipment, the core of maintenance is safety. A typical preventive service covers:

• Soap-testing the gas joints.
• Burner, ignition and flame safety (thermocouple) test.
• Gas pressure, judged against the appliance’s rating plate; typically 20 mbar for natural gas and 30/37 mbar for LPG.
• Thermostat verification: measure the oven temperature and compare it to the setting.
• Door seals and hinges; electrical connections and earthing.
• Scale on combi ovens and kettles.

None of these intervals is set by law. Every six months is common practice, while combi oven descaling may be needed far more often depending on water hardness. The manufacturer’s manual comes first.

The steam kettle is different. Annex III, Table 1 of Turkey’s Regulation on Health and Safety Requirements for the Use of Work Equipment lists steam cooking kettles among pressure vessels, with a maximum interval of one year between periodic inspections. An authorised person registered in EKİPNET carries it out, and the report is kept for as long as the equipment is in use.

Dishwashers

Two numbers matter on a dishwasher: wash and rinse water temperature. They come from the manufacturer, not from a regulation. Typical figures are 55–65 °C for washing and 80 °C or more for rinsing; take your machine’s values from its manual. The service list also covers clean wash and rinse arms, detergent and rinse-aid dosing, descaling and the water softener. A quarterly service is common practice.

Measuring and recording those temperatures at every service is the first place to look when someone says the dishes aren’t coming out clean.

Exhaust hoods and ducts

This is the most misunderstood item. Turkish national law sets no cleaning interval for kitchen hoods and grease ducts. The Regulation on Fire Protection of Buildings requires kitchen exhaust to be independent, but does not say how often to clean it.

Local rules may. In Istanbul, the İBB Chimney Cleaning and Inspection Regulation requires every chimney system used for cooking and frying in hotels, restaurants, eateries and catering facilities to be cleaned at least every 4 months. An authorised contractor does the work, fills in the form and keeps it for 5 years. This applies to Istanbul only; elsewhere, check your municipality’s fire regulation.

Where there is no local rule, the US standard NFPA 96 is a useful reference. By cooking volume it suggests monthly checks for solid fuel, quarterly for high volume (24-hour, charbroiling, wok), every six months for moderate and yearly for low volume. It is not mandatory in Turkey.

A good cleaning record includes before and after photos, whether any section was inaccessible, and the contractor’s certificate or form number.

Hood suppression and gas detection

The same fire regulation, Art. 57/1, requires an automatic hood suppression system plus gas detection, gas shut-off and alarm installations in shopping centres, kitchens in high-rise buildings, catering plants and kitchens serving more than 100 people at a time. Art. 109/5 requires an audible gas leak detector in large industrial kitchens using LPG.

Hood suppression systems fall under fire extinguishing systems in Annex III, Table 3 of the work equipment regulation and need a periodic inspection once a year. In between, checks cover cylinder pressure or weight, nozzle position and caps, the detection line, the manual pull and the gas shut-off interlock.

Gas detection has no statutory test interval; manufacturer practice applies. A test confirms that detectors alarm with test gas, the audible and visual alarm works, the solenoid valve shuts off the gas, and the calibration date is still valid.

Fire extinguishers

Art. 99/7 of the fire regulation is clear: extinguishers get a general on-site check every year, and refilling and a hydrostatic test at the end of the fourth year. The service company needs a refilling and service competence certificate. The check takes about a minute per unit: gauge in the green, pin, seal and hose intact, no body damage, in place and accessible, tag updated. Writing the fill date on the unit’s record is the simplest way not to miss year four.

Cold rooms and fridges: temperature logs

The Food Hygiene Regulation requires temperatures to be monitored and recorded where necessary, but sets no numeric limit. 0–4 °C is common HACCP practice; for frozen food, −18 °C or colder is set by communiqué. Kitchen staff usually keep the daily log. The maintenance team’s job is to make sure an out-of-range reading turns into a service call. We cover the F-gas side of refrigeration in a separate guide.

Law versus practice: a summary

Equipment	Interval	Basis
Hood suppression system	Yearly periodic inspection	Law (Annex III, Table 3)
Steam kettle	Yearly periodic inspection	Law (Annex III, Table 1)
Fire extinguisher	Yearly check; refill and hydrotest in year 4	Law (fire reg. Art. 99/7)
Hood and duct cleaning	At least every 4 months in Istanbul	Local (İBB); elsewhere check your city
Gas detection test	Per manufacturer	System required (Art. 57/1, 109/5), interval is practice
Cooking equipment, dishwasher	Commonly 3–6 months	Practice; manufacturer’s manual first
Cold room temperature	Per your HACCP plan	Monitoring and records are law, frequency is practice

Where Saha fits

When you pick the Commercial Kitchen template in Saha, equipment types such as combi oven, range, fryer, dishwasher, steam kettle, exhaust hood, suppression system, gas detection, extinguisher and cold room are set up with fields like energy source, fill date and cooking volume. The checks above come as ready lists: cooking equipment service, dishwasher service, hood cleaning (with required before and after photos), suppression system check, gas detection test and extinguisher check. Measurements outside their limits are flagged.

Temperature logs don’t need a work order: staff record readings straight on the cold room or fridge, a reading is expected every 12 hours, and a late one shows on the equipment. An out-of-range value opens a service request for that unit. With a QR label on each item, a waiter or chef without the app can report a fault with a photo. Technicians finish the job on their phone, even without a connection, and raise a part request when they need one. Everything builds up in the equipment’s service history and can be exported as CSV.

Saha is not a HACCP system and doesn’t file anything with authorities; your limits and duties stay yours, and Saha keeps their records in order. To try it with your own kitchen, start for free.