GFCI in Kitchens

[Jim W in Tampa]

If it were not there, then where would I keep all the beer?

Charlie, I have a friend just like you. He acquired an old refer and gutted all the shelves out of the inside, keeps a 1/2 keg inside the refer section, ran the tap handle through the door and keeps frosted mugs in the freezer section !!! His $30K car stays in the driveway. Go figure !!!

Sounds like my kind of guy.Has his priorities in tact.

 

[james wuebker]

James that sounds like a decent solution.

Depending on how many refrigerators or freezers and how critical it is to the owners you can also find refrigerator monitors that can actually dial out on a phone line to notify someone when the temp rises.

This one can handle up to 8 units.


http://www.temperatureguard.com/vm505.htm

iwire, thanks for the good information.
Jim

 

[goldstar]

Thanks Bob. I'm still having some problems with the commercial kitchen-refrigerator GFI situation. When you come down to it, if we wire and install a GFI and we do everything correctly and the restaurant owner continues to have problems with his refrigerator I believe he will go to the extent of running an extension cord to another non-GFI area just so that his refer will run. I also believe that he would put the onus on his electrician rather than the refer mfr. to correct the problem.

If your pool pump shuts off because of a GFI problem - no big deal. But if you continue to lose food because of a GFI tripping problem - that becomes a big deal. I'm not insinuating that we place more value on food than on human life but again I say that the refer mfrs. have to step up to the plate. I also know a lot of these restaurant owners don't necessarily buy new refers. There are many wholesale outlets that refurbish refers and sell them at a discount.

Regards,

Phil

 

[iwire]

again I say that the refer mfrs. have to step up to the plate. I also know a lot of these restaurant owners don't necessarily buy new refers. There are many wholesale outlets that refurbish refers and sell them at a discount.

Again I agree entirely with that, the used food equipment business is a large one and much of this used equipment is in tough shape.

As time goes on this will get worked out.

Restaurant owners will have to buy equipment that is in good enough condition to operate on a GFCI.

It is just another expense of doing business just like needing a water heater that can kick out 180 F water.

If a refrigerator was working fine than started tripping it's breaker on overload we would not blame the breaker we would look to fixing or replacing the refrigerator.

We have to start thinking the same way with GFCIs, if they trip they are doing their job and the equipment is the problem.

JMO, Bob

 

[George Stolz]

If a refrigerator was working fine than started tripping it's breaker on overload we would not blame the breaker we would look to fixing or replacing the refrigerator.

We have to start thinking the same way with GFCIs, if they trip they are doing their job and the equipment is the problem.

That's an excellent analogy! 8)