Kitchen deep clean: chimney grease, tiles, and behind the fridge

A kitchen deep clean is mostly a fight with grease. Tadka, frying, and the daily round of dosa and puri send oil vapour into the air; it settles on the chimney hood, the tiles, the cabinet fronts, the tops of the cylinder and fridge, and the wall behind all of them, and then it picks up dust and sets into a brown film. A regular wipe with a damp cloth does not touch it. A deep clean uses a degreaser, hot water, and scrubbing, in that order, and works from the top down so nothing is cleaned twice.

On our rate card a kitchen deep clean is ₹999. This is what it covers and what you can do yourself between visits.

What the team does, top to bottom

1. Chimney hood and filters. Filters out and soaked; hood body, baffles and the underside of the hood degreased. Grease cups emptied. The motor housing is wiped outside only — no one opens the sealed unit.
2. Tiles and backsplash. Degreaser applied, left to work, scrubbed, rinsed, dried. The grout between tiles gets a brush.
3. Hob and cooktop. Burners, pan supports and drip trays removed and soaked; the top cleaned and reassembled. Gas is turned off at the cylinder valve before anything is lifted.
4. Cabinets. Fronts and handles degreased; tops of wall cabinets, where the worst film hides, wiped down. Insides if you have emptied them.
5. Sink and taps. Descaled — hard borewell water leaves chalky deposits around the tap base and the drain ring — then polished. The drain trap is cleaned.
6. Behind and under the fridge, washing machine and cylinder. These are pulled out, the floor and wall behind them scrubbed, the back of the fridge brushed of dust (which also helps it cool).
7. Floor. Last, once everything above has been rinsed, so the drips do not matter.

What you can safely do yourself

• Filters monthly. Soak in hot water, dish liquid and a spoonful of washing soda for an hour; scrub; rinse; dry fully before refitting. Ten minutes of work, and the chimney pulls noticeably better.
• Hob after cooking. Wipe while still warm. Grease from tonight lifts with a cloth; grease from last month needs chemicals.
• Tiles behind the stove weekly. Hot water with a little dish liquid in a spray bottle, leave two minutes, wipe. This keeps the film from setting.
• Behind the fridge every three months. Switch off at the socket, pull it out, brush the back coils with a soft brush, wipe the floor. A clean condenser is one reason a fridge runs cooler in a Nellore summer.

What you should not do

• Do not spray degreaser into the chimney motor housing or onto the switch panel. Liquid in the electricals is a repair bill.
• Do not lift the hob or reach behind the cylinder with the gas valve open. Close the valve at the cylinder first.
• Do not use acid (bathroom cleaner, "harpic") on the kitchen tiles or the steel sink. It etches steel and lifts the glaze on some tiles. Kitchen work is alkaline: washing soda, dish liquid, a proper degreaser.
• Do not scrub a granite counter with a hard scourer. It dulls the polish. A soft pad and warm soapy water is enough.

Signs the kitchen is overdue

• The chimney filter drips, or the hood surface feels tacky to the touch.
• The tiles behind the hob have a yellow-brown tint that wiping does not change.
• Cockroaches appear near the hob at night even though you keep the counter clean — they are living on the grease film in the cabinet gaps.
• The kitchen smells of old oil when you open the door in the morning.
• The sink has a white crust around the tap and the drain.

When it is a repair, not a clean

If the chimney motor is loud, the light is out, or the suction is weak after a filter wash, that is a chimney service, not a kitchen clean. If the sink drains slowly after the trap has been cleaned, that is a plumbing job. Book the right one and the team arrives with the right tools.