LOOKING INTO THE HORIZONTAL WE SEE THAT
THE KEC HAS BEEN AVOIDING PICTURES OF THIS AREA
THIS JOB HAD BEEN PASSING AS THE
AJH HAD NO IDEA ABOUT THIS DUCT RUN.
BASELINE PICTURES WOULD HAVE
PREVENTED THIS.
AN OTHER JOB WITH A GAYLORD HOOD,
THIS WAS JUST CLEANED BY A NATIONAL VENDOR,
THE INSPECTOR WAS NOT GIVEN PICTURES OF
THIS AREA. HE DID CATCH IT AND FAILED
THE JOB DUE TO LACK OF PICTURES. HE
WAS SHOCKED AT THE CONDITION LEFT.
Jack and I are doing a picture program overview at the IKECA technical seminar to go over proven programs and technics. Even after 40 years of using pictures and video for job verifications, we are still learning, evolving, and improving almost daily ways to implement and use pictures for jobs. There are two primary uses for your pictures. One is to verify the job was done properly along with preexisting pictures of deficiencies found. I also like to have a couple of before pictures to show customers where their systems are in excellent shape as far as deficiencies go before the job starts. You always want everything to be extremely thorough and objective with a proper program. The other is for sales use to show the customers how good of a job you are actually doing. Of course from the sales perspective, the more buildup at the start, the better it looks when the system is spotless in the end. When I view inspection pictures however, I do not really like before pictures mixed in unless requested to view normal buildup in the system. What happens is that the pictures can become confusing. The more confusing pictures are, the more likely you are not seeing the actual overall condition of the system. I had several kitchen exhaust cleaner actually bragging to me that they breath on the lenses of the cameras to "Fog" the pictures up so their bosses and customers cannot see what they misses. I require fuzzy pictures to be retaken. All pictures other than the most simple straight up systems do need a picture description. This does not mean renaming the pictures as that can compromise security. I require the original camera numbers on the pictures and in order. A fast way for picture descriptions is to have a word file with generic names already listed that you can copy and paste from in your e-mail or attached PDF file that goes with the pictures and simply use what you need from the list and change the picture numbers to match your actual picture numbers. I also require a dated work order picture IN SEQUENCE. This is another good security measure to help avoid staff using fake or duplicated pictures. New technologies are now including GPS coordinates with the dates imbedded in the pictures which will lead to greater picture security. I highly recommend using a waterproof and shockproof digital camera for grease exhaust pictures. Standard digital camera simply do not hold up and are difficult to keep clean. You will end up with grease and moisture on the camera that will have to be removed. For longer systems, you may even need to use a video camera in addition to the digital camera. No matter what, you will need baseline pictures of the complete system to verify that future cleaning pictures are complete and actually of the same system. Even honest staff can mix up picture when doing several jobs a night. Adding the work order picture are we require helps separate jobs and keeps the confusion down. Remember that we are not in a perfect world and camera chips can and do go bad or pictures are accidentally erased. There are several good picture recovery programs out there, (I use KLIX),but they often re-date the pictures that are recovered. Without the embedded work order with the job and date, you might not have any idea which job is which. Finally, you need to actually view each and every single job. I just received pictures from a job with some colorful language written into the grease. The KEC owner was extremely embarrassed. I think they will be checking their pictures more closely before sending next time. I have viewed numerous web based programs and it is obvious not one is looking. The posted pictures are often very incomplete and many include pictures with vast areas of grease buildup. Maybe leaving grease in the system is acceptable to them, but it is NOT acceptable to NFPA96 standards nor to most AJH. (inspectors). I have just assisted going through several jobs in a current picture program for and inspector and it was appalling what was getting missed. We did find out that there are no baseline pictures built into the program so the inspector really had no idea what they were looking at. The unscrupulous KEC vendors(unfortunately that is almost all of the KEC vendors) know this and carefully avoid taking pictures of areas they do not clean. Remember, you really should take you own baseline pictures so you know exactly where the system goes and what the inside looks like. Clean duct picture are best as you can see spots, welds, other things in the metal to match up with the pictures that are sent to you. Finally, unless the pictures are obvious, you need a good picture description list so you know what you are looking at. This and a drawing if the system is complicated. Here is a typical list we use for one concept.
(Picture number-description)
1- Work order
2- Hood overview Showing all front hoods before
3- Hood overview Showing all rear hoods before
4- Up riser from Wok 1 hood before
5- Up riser from Wok 2 hood before
6- Up riser from Pantry hood before
7- Up riser from Prep hood before
8- Roof overview showing all fans and roof area around fans
9- Wok 1 Fan before
10- Wok 2 Fan before
11- Pantry Fan before
12- Prep Fan before
13- Wok 1 Fan bowl(outlet side) after
14- Wok 2 Fan bowl(outlet side) after
15- Pantry Fan bowl(outlet side) after
16- Prep Fan bowl(outlet side) after
17- Wok 1 Fan intake after
18- Wok 2 Fan intake after
19- Pantry Fan intake after
20- Prep Fan intake after
21- Back of Wok 1 fan blades after
22- Back of Wok 2 fan blades after
23- Back of Pantry fan blades after
24- Back of Prep fan blades after
25- Down Wok 1 vertical from roof after
26- Down Wok 2 vertical from roof after
27- Down Pantry vertical from roof after
28- Down Prep vertical from roof after
29- Roof overview after showing all fans and roof clean
30- Up riser from Wok 1 hood showing all 4 sides of duct including connection with
hood.
31- Up riser from Wok 2 hood showing all 4 sides of duct including connection with
hood.
32- Up riser from Pantry hood showing all 4 sides of duct including connection with
hood.
33- Up right riser from Prep hood showing all 4 sides of duct including connection
with hood.
34- Up left riser from Prep hood showing all 4 sides of duct including connection with
hood. (only one riser picture needed on systems with straight up verticals)
35- Inside of horizontal plenum for prep system from either side. (where applicable)
36- Wok 1 Hood filter trough (lower)
37- Wok 2 Hood filter trough (lower)
38- Pantry Hood filter trough (lower)
39- Prep Hood filter trough (lower)
40- Wok 1 Hood filter rail back side behind filters with bottom of riser
showing(Upper)
41- Wok 2 Hood filter rail back side behind filters with bottom of riser
showing(Upper)
42- Pantry Hood filter rail back side behind filters with bottom of riser
showing(Upper)
43- Prep Hood filter rail back side behind filters with bottom of riser showing(Upper)
44- Outside of Front hoods complete with stickers
45- Outside of Rear hood complete with sticker
