Your kitchen’s fire suppression system has a special way of detecting fires or excessive heat behind the vent hood filters. This important detection line is the only automatic way your vent hood wet chemical system knows when to kick in and keep your kitchen safe.
Trained technicians are the ones who keep an eye on things. They check for grease buildup in a small conduit where a wire cable runs. This happens when grease vapors travel through filters into the vent and out through the ducts. Over time, this grease can clog up the wire in the conduit. If this detection line isn’t working right, your fire suppression system might not react quickly or, in some cases, not work at all. Technicians usually test this line twice a year, but sometimes it needs more frequent checks, as shown in the pictures.
Here’s the tricky part: the grease in these pipes can’t be cleaned with pressure washing. Trying to clean them this way might even make things worse. Also, the rules say not to use degreaser directly on the links. Doing that could make the links weaker.
Let me tell you a story about a restaurant that had a heavy grease problem. The vent hood’s detection line got so clogged with grease that when a small fire broke out in the kitchen, the system didn’t trigger. The fire got bigger, causing a lot of damage before someone noticed. It turns out, regular inspections could have caught this problem early on. Now, the restaurant learned its lesson and makes sure to get those check-ups more often, keeping their kitchen safer and avoiding any more unexpected surprises.
So, if you see a lot of grease on your nozzles or links, it’s time to give Boss Fire Protection a call at 972-704-1821.
