MC in commercial kitchens

S

snoogins1236

Member
Location
Colorado
Occupation
Electrician
Hi all,

I was contacted today by an inspector informing me of an illegal mc install in a commercial kitchen. Apparently, at least in the state of Colorado, MC is not permitted to be installed on surfaces in these type of spaces. Upon further investigation i found mc in damp or wet locations must have a "corrosion-resistant jacket" (330.10(a)(11)) and must be, what my inspector termed "scrubable." This includes jboxs, which i now have to convert from 4sq into bellboxes, and likewise any MC run either has to be in pipe, sealtite, or has corrrision resistant jacket. However, i was never called out for not having in-use covers(waterproof exterior outlet covers).

Has anone run into this dilemma? Apparently its not really in the NEC and more so in building codes.

Lucky for me it is techinically a temp install for the season so the establishment could get up and running and i will correct it in the fall.
 
It's not a NEC issue or building code issue. However, (there's always a however in life), it could be a health department issue.
IMO, the electrical inspector should have no say in this. Good luck!

Ron
 
In my experience the health dept would have never allowed it in commercial kitchen. Major germ catcher
 
petersonra said:
Anything surface mounted would have the same problem.

Is a kitchen considered a damp location?
Click to expand...
Which is why you won't see many things mounted on the walls of commercial kitchens, and what is allowed can be easily cleaned. Considering the sheath coils and gap behind it MC can not make that claim
 
It's Department of Public Health Code, not Electrical or Building Code.

Usually, at least in my area, the DEH has a "Code Book" they will hand out. Here, it's about 30 pages or so, not too complicated, but if you've never worked in commercial kitchens, meat packing plants, slaughterhouses, etc, there are some very specific rules that they have, that are separate from what we are normally used to.
 
Thank you all for your timely responses!

I will hope and pray that the health inspector doesn't show up. As mentioned earlier, its a temp install and will be re-vamped in the fall, ill just cross my fingers until then.
 
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