You Can’t Legally Operate Without Working Extraction
When your commercial kitchen extraction system fails, you don’t have the option to “work around it.” Without working extraction, you cannot legally operate your kitchen. The law requires adequate ventilation to remove heat, smoke, and cooking fumes. Operating without it exposes your staff to health hazards and your business to prosecution.
This means extraction failure equals immediate closure. Every hour your system is down is an hour your kitchen cannot operate.
Calculating the Real Cost of Downtime
Most restaurant owners significantly underestimate the true cost of extraction failure. Consider a typical London restaurant with average covers of 80 per service and an average spend of £45 per head.
Lost Revenue: Missing a single dinner service costs £3,600 in direct revenue. A full day’s closure could mean £5,000-£7,000 or more in lost sales. A weekend breakdown? The numbers become painful quickly.
Staff Costs: Your team still needs paying, even if they can’t work. The front of house might be sent home, but kitchen staff may need to stay for prep or cleaning. Either way, you’re paying wages for limited or no productive output.
Food Waste: Prepped ingredients that can’t be used, proteins that won’t keep, and produce that will spoil before you reopen all add to losses. Depending on when failure occurs, this could run to hundreds of pounds.
Reputation Damage: Cancelling reservations damages relationships with customers. Bad reviews from disappointed diners have lasting impact. Regular customers who can’t get their table may try competitors and not come back. The long-term revenue impact of reputation damage is real, even if it’s hard to quantify precisely.
The Emergency Response Difference
The difference between a repair service that can respond in 2 hours versus one that can only come next day is substantial. At £3,600 per missed service, getting back up and running for evening service rather than waiting until tomorrow is worth a considerable premium on the repair cost.
This is why 24/7 emergency availability matters. Breakdowns don’t wait for convenient times. Saturday afternoon failures happen. Bank holiday weekend problems occur. Having access to engineers who can respond when you need them, carrying common spare parts, is essential protection for your business.
Prevention: The Most Cost-Effective Strategy
While emergency repair capability is essential, preventing emergencies in the first place is far better economics. A planned maintenance visit that identifies a failing bearing costs a fraction of an emergency callout plus lost revenue.
Regular servicing catches problems before they become failures. Components can be replaced during planned maintenance windows rather than emergencies. Systems run more efficiently and last longer with proper maintenance.
What a Good Maintenance Contract Includes
An effective maintenance contract should include regular scheduled inspections with documented reports, cleaning and lubrication of fan components, belt inspection and replacement in belt-driven systems, electrical connection checks, filter inspection and replacement recommendations, and identification of developing problems before they cause failure.
The cost of regular maintenance is typically recovered many times over through avoided emergency callouts and extended equipment life, quite apart from the revenue protection from avoided downtime.
When Emergency Happens, Response Speed Matters
Despite the best maintenance, emergencies still sometimes occur. When they do, you need a service that can respond immediately, at any time, any day. Engineers who carry common spare parts and complete fans can often complete repairs on the spot. Those who need to order parts add days to your downtime.
Fan Rescue provides 24/7 emergency response across London, typically arriving within 2 hours. Our engineers carry spare parts and replacement fans to enable same-visit repairs wherever possible. We understand that every hour matters when your kitchen is down. We also offer maintenance contracts that reduce the likelihood of emergency failures in the first place. Combining regular planned maintenance with emergency backup gives you the best protection for your business. If you’re currently without maintenance cover, or you need emergency assistance right now, contact Fan Rescue. We’re here to keep your kitchen running.
