Annual
12 monthly service
Full service on a fixed annual date. Suits school and college labs, light teaching use and units on a stable duty cycle.
Typically: education, low-throughput labs
Servicing & maintenance
Fume Cupboard Servicing & Maintenance
Planned servicing that keeps units performing between tests. Filters, fans, sashes, monitors and controls, on any make or model, ducted or ductless.
Someone else tests your cupboards?
Plenty of our clients have testing carried out by their insurer or an in-house team, and bring us in for the servicing and repair work that follows. That is a perfectly sensible split, and we are happy to work to another party’s report.
What a service visit covers
A test tells you whether a cupboard is performing today. Servicing is what keeps it performing, and it is the part most often left until something breaks.
Fan belts slacken, sash mechanisms stiffen, filters load up, monitors drift out of calibration. None of these announce themselves. All of them will eventually fail a test, usually at the least convenient moment.
Our engineers work through the mechanical and electrical condition of the unit and the extract behind it, correct what can be corrected on the visit, and quote for anything that needs parts ordering. See fume cupboard repair for reactive breakdown work.
- Fan, motor and belt Bearing condition, belt tension and alignment, impeller cleanliness, drive replacement where wear is found.
- Sash and mechanism Counterbalance, cables, runners and stops adjusted so the sash moves freely and holds its set position.
- Filters and consumables Carbon and HEPA condition assessed, replacement fitted and old media disposed of correctly. See filters.
- Monitors and controls Airflow monitor recalibration, alarm and interlock function, lighting and service taps checked.
- Ductwork and extract Duct condition and dampers, discharge point, and decontamination of the extract system where required.
- Service record Work carried out, parts fitted, anything left outstanding and the next visit date, held against the unit's asset number.
Maintenance contracts
Six or twelve monthly, depending on how hard the unit works
A teaching prep room and a solvent-heavy research bench do not wear at the same rate. We set the interval against actual use rather than selling everyone the same contract.
Most common
6 monthly service
Two visits a year, with the interim check catching filter loading and belt wear well before they affect performance.
Typically: universities, hospitals, pharmaceutical
Bespoke
Multi-site programme
One schedule across an estate, sequenced around term dates, shutdown weeks and clinical access, with a single asset register.
Typically: academy trusts, NHS estates, industrial groups
Every contract includes reminders ahead of each due date, so a service or a COSHH test never quietly lapses. Where a site does not fit any of the three, we will build the plan around it — a mixed estate on staggered intervals is normal rather than awkward.
All makes and models
We service what you already have
We work on fume cupboards manufactured in the UK, Europe and the US, whoever supplied or installed them. We hold a large range of spare parts and consumables for our own equipment and can source parts for other makes and models.
Where a unit is genuinely beyond economic repair we will say so, and can handle removal and disposal or supply a refurbished replacement.
- Ducted fume cupboards
- Ductless recirculating cupboards
- Recirculating filtration units
- Benchtop safety cabinets
- Laminar flow units
- Balance enclosures
- Ventilated containment enclosures
- School and college fume cupboards
- Laboratory extract systems
- Dust and particulate extraction
- Recommissioning after modification, by arrangement
Where servicing fits
Testing, servicing and repair are three different jobs
They are often bought together, but they answer different questions. Knowing which one you need saves time on the phone.
Focus on education
A large part of our maintenance work is in education
Schools, colleges and universities have the tightest access windows and the least tolerance for a cupboard out of use in exam season. We plan around that.
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School or college science block
Schools & Colleges
Consistent maintenance timed to half terms and summer shutdown, with records a governing body or inspector can be shown on request.
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University research laboratory
Universities
Whole-campus programmes across research and teaching labs, sequenced department by department so work continues around us.
The regulation
COSHH 2002: why maintenance is not optional
The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 place a duty on employers to protect people from exposure to hazardous substances. In a laboratory, that duty runs directly through the fume cupboards and the LEV system behind them.
Regulation 9 requires that control measures are maintained in efficient working order and in good repair, and that they are thoroughly examined and tested at least every 14 months. High-risk processes may warrant a shorter interval.
Note the wording. Testing proves the state of the equipment on the day; maintenance is what discharges the duty to keep it in efficient working order for the rest of the year.
EFFICIENT WORKING ORDER
Fans, belts, filters, sashes and monitors kept serviceable, not merely functional at the moment of inspection.
GOOD REPAIR
Faults corrected rather than logged. Deterioration caught on a planned visit instead of by an alarm.
RECORDS KEPT
Service history held against each asset number and retained, so the paper trail exists when someone asks for it.
See testing for the 14-month examination itself, and COSHH Regulation 9 for the detail.
Yes, and we do it regularly. Send us the most recent test report and we will work to its findings. There is no requirement to move your testing to us.
In practice, nothing. A service visit is the unit of work; a maintenance contract is a schedule of those visits at a fixed interval with reminders and agreed rates. This page covers both.
Clear the working surface and remove any live experiments or open containers. Anything stored in base units can stay. We will tell you in advance if a unit needs decontaminating before we can work on it.
A unit is normally out of use for under an hour. We sequence multi-unit labs so you always have working cupboards, and can attend during shutdown weeks or outside teaching hours where that suits better.
Filter condition is always assessed as part of the visit. Replacement media is quoted separately, since interval and cost depend entirely on the unit and its usage. Contract clients can have filters included at a fixed annual rate.
Book a service
Book your fume cupboard service
Tell us how many units you have and what type they are. We will come back with a price and an available date.