Protect your commercial kitchen fire protection system from grease ingress with the new Amerex Greaseout Detection Seal. Since the beginning of preventing fires in commercial and restaurant kitchens, grease ingress into mechanical detection lines has been the Achilles’ heel of the most common mechanical kitchen fire suppression systems. The grease-laden vapors from cooking operations travel into the detection conduit, and
as those vapors cool, they coagulate at the bottom—slowing the reaction time for proper detection or even disabling the automatic detection required by NFPA and UL 300/1254.
Over the years, many solutions have been attempted, but no product has gone through the required steps to become UL 300/1254 listed within a system that’s already listed and approved—until now!
UL and Commercial Kitchen Fire Protection
UL 300/1254 mechanical detection circuits are built with stainless-steel cable inside half-inch electrical metallic tubing (EMT) conduit, link detectors, pulleys and a spring that applies tension to the cable. Adding any product to the automatic detection line of a UL 300/1254 listed pre-engineered system requires that system to pass a 500-cycle test using the maximum number of detectors, corner pulleys and cable. The 500-cycle test determines if the detection circuit and the control mechanism can successfully reset 500 times in a row without any type of failure when maxed out and tripped. This critical UL test ensures system operation continues in grease-laden environments like a commercial kitchen.
Only products subject to UL audits that have successfully passed a 500-cycle test and the UL 300/1254 listing process are acceptable for use in UL 300/1254
listed systems. Any additional products added to the circuit that have not specifically been tested will add resistance to the detection line, reducing capability and response time. What might seem like small or insignificant contact with the cable, when multiplied 60 times, becomes a significant problem. When you cycle that significant problem 500 times, it takes its toll on the survivability of the control mechanism and detection line.
Amerex’s KP 500-cycle testing revealed a need to reduce the maximum parameters of the KP detection line when the Amerex GreaseOut Detection Seal is used. When the Amerex GreaseOut Detection Seal is in place, the maximum parameters of the Amerex KP detection line is reduced from 30 detectors, 30 corner pulleys and 200 feet of cable to 20 detectors, 25 corner pulleys and 175 feet of cable. This size detection line had excellent performance throughout the entire 500-cycle test and accommodated the extra
drag on the detection cable.
We know through experience that rubber or silicone parts used in commercial cooking environments will lose their shape and effectiveness over time due to frequent
temperature changes, cleaning solutions and grease buildup. For these reasons, a semiannual replacement of the silicone insert is required to ensure it remains snugly fit within the metal collar.
The Amerex GreaseOut Detection Seal can only be used with the Amerex KP spot detection and linear fusible link detection. Do not use it with the lanyard-style
detection—that has carabiners and eye bolts rather than conduit.
The kitchen fire suppression industry has been asking for a product like this for a long time, and we are proud the Amerex GreaseOut Detection Seal is finally available. It’s the result of a strong partnership between Amerex and Evergreen Tool, a company that’s been bringing innovation to the kitchen fire suppression industry for decades. Evergreen has an impressive list of products, many of which were industry firsts that have become industry essentials. We are confident that the AmerexGreaseOut Detection Seal will become a product our KP systems will nevergo without.
For a video on how to use the Amerex GreaseOut Detection Seal, click here.
