DOAS & Make-Up Air · Manufacturer
CaptiveAire Make-Up Air & Kitchen Ventilation Service in Phoenix, AZ
The hood, the fan, the make-up air unit and the controls that tie them together — in more Phoenix restaurant kitchens than any other name.
CaptiveAire builds commercial kitchen ventilation as a system — exhaust hoods, exhaust fans, make-up air units, fire suppression and the demand-control ventilation that modulates all of it to cooking load — and it is the most common name in Phoenix restaurant kitchens, from quick-service franchises to resort dining rooms. Its Paragon rooftop units extend the company into dedicated outdoor-air and packaged rooftop equipment for restaurants and other buildings with heavy ventilation loads. Bleuwave services CaptiveAire equipment as an independent contractor, without dealer affiliation or factory authorization.
A Phoenix kitchen is a hard place for ventilation equipment. The hood exhausts thousands of cubic feet per minute of grease-laden air, the make-up air unit has to replace it with air pulled in at 115 degrees, and the dining room's air conditioning suffers if the balance is wrong. When make-up air fails, the kitchen goes negative, doors are hard to open, pilot lights blow out and the cooks work in a furnace. The service that prevents it is scheduled and system-wide.
Product Families
CaptiveAire Equipment We Encounter
Families and designations that appear on nameplates in the Phoenix market. Capacities, refrigerants and configurations vary by model and year; we verify from the nameplate on site rather than from a catalog.
| Family | Category | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Paragon | DOAS & Make-Up Air | Rooftop dedicated outdoor-air units and packaged rooftop units with high outside-air capability. |
| CaptiveAire make-up air units | DOAS & Make-Up Air | Direct-fired, indirect-fired, tempered and untempered make-up air units for commercial kitchens. |
| CaptiveAire hoods, exhaust fans and controls | Unit Heaters & Radiant | Kitchen exhaust hoods, fans, fire suppression and demand-control kitchen ventilation systems. |
CaptiveAire Systems in Phoenix Kitchens
Exhaust hoods with grease filters and integral fire suppression, upblast exhaust fans on the roof, and make-up air units — untempered for mild climates, direct-fired or indirect-fired heated units for winter, and evaporative or DX-cooled tempered units for a Phoenix summer — connected by CaptiveAire's control panels and, increasingly, demand-control ventilation that varies exhaust and make-up air with cooking activity. Paragon rooftop units condition outside air or serve as packaged rooftops with high outside-air fractions.
Phoenix Wear Patterns
Make-up air units accumulate dust and grease on intake filters and evaporative media, scale on evaporative sections from hard water, seized intake dampers and, on heated units, burner and airflow-proving faults. Exhaust fans load with grease, wear bearings and belts, and vibrate mounts loose. Hood filters clog. Control panels and demand-control sensors fail from kitchen heat and grease. Paragon rooftops carry the extreme outside-air load and show it on cooling coils and condensers. The balance between exhaust and make-up air drifts as components wear, and the building's pressurization drifts with it.
Service, Repair and Replacement
We service kitchen ventilation as a system — hood, fan, make-up air, controls and building pressurization — measuring exhaust and make-up airflow, verifying combustion safety on heated units, servicing evaporative sections, and testing demand-control operation. Repairs cover fans, motors, belts, bearings, burners, dampers, media, controls and sensors. Replacement of make-up air units and Paragon rooftops is sized to the kitchen's actual exhaust and the building's ventilation requirement. Grease duct and hood cleaning are coordinated through commercial kitchen ventilation and grease duct service.
Straight Answers
Questions About CaptiveAire Equipment
Our kitchen is unbearably hot and the doors are hard to open. What is wrong?
The building is negative — exhaust exceeds make-up air. Usually the make-up air unit has failed, its damper is stuck, or its filters and media are clogged. We measure the balance and fix the cause.
Do you service CaptiveAire demand-control ventilation?
Yes — sensors, control panels, variable-speed fan drives and the sequence that modulates exhaust and make-up air to cooking load.
Is Bleuwave a CaptiveAire dealer?
No. We service CaptiveAire equipment as an independent contractor without dealer affiliation or factory authorization.
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