Restaurant Fryer Circuits

We had a job this week for a local restaurant that had gotten a new fryer to replace the old one that quit working properly. The old fryer was on a 240 volt/30 amp, and the new fryer had 2-120 volt/20 amp circuits. It is very important to note that commercial kitchens fryers are required to be protected by shunt trip breakers. This means that the breakers are controlled remotely by the fire suppression system. The result is that the breakers operate as a normal MCB breaker, tripping when there is a short, or when the breaker gets too hot from too much current going through the circuit, but they also can be tripped by a signal from the fire suppression system. This allows them to be disabled if a fire is detected, thus preventing electricity from making a bad situation (FIRE!) worse. We replaced the 30 amp double pole shunt trip breaker with a 20 amp single pole shunt trip breaker, and put a spare 20 amp breaker in the panel for future use. For the second circuit we replaced a 14 gauge wire setup with 12 gauge, and added a cap and plastic bushing to the EMT conduit going through the floor. Both receptacles were replaced with GFCI's, per code. We added another 20 amp breaker for a device in a different part of the facility that didn't need shunt trip protection. We also took the old fryer back to our shop to troubleshoot it. Testing showed that the heating element was good, and that the thermostat needed replaced. Unfortunately, the cost of a new thermostat was too high to make it worth replacing, so the customer opted not to repair it. We appreciate the opportunity to work on all of this interesting equipment, and look forward to doing more work for them in the future.

The GFCI that replaced the 240 volt/30 amp receptacle.

The GFCI we ran the new 12 gauge wire for.

The 12 gauge wire, plastic bushing, and connector we added, with a bit of trash stuck to it, unfortunately.

An, unfortunately, blurry picture after I removed the piece of trash.

The 20 amp shunt trip breaker we replaced the 30 amp with.

The other 20 amp shunt trip breaker.