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Ran a drop through a restaurant kitchen in Portland last week and learned why we always use plenum rated cable
Got a call to run a new line for their POS system. The run went right over the fryers and grills. My usual Riser cable would have melted or given off toxic smoke if there was a fire. The kitchen manager told me they had a grease fire 2 years ago and the old cable smoked up the whole place. Switched to plenum on the spot. Has anyone else had a close call with running non-plenum in commercial kitchens?
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logan2365d ago
That thing about the grease fire and the old cable smoking up the whole place really hits home. I've noticed this pattern where people treat building codes as just annoying red tape until something actually goes wrong. It's like wearing a seatbelt your whole life without ever crashing then one day you do and you're glad you had it on. I feel like with plenum cable it's the same idea, you don't realize how important the fire rating is until you're standing in a kitchen full of smoke from a cable that shouldn't have been there. So many times I've seen contractors grab whatever spool is cheapest and just run it anywhere without thinking about what happens if things get hot. The whole internet runs on plenum rated stuff in the ceiling spaces for a reason and it's not just to charge us more.
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joseph_ellis851d ago
Man it's crazy how that applies to so many things in life though. I swear people treat maintenance like it's optional until something breaks and costs ten times more to fix. Like changing your furnace filter every few months. Nobody does it, but then your unit dies in the middle of winter and you're stuck paying for a whole new system. Same with cleaning dryer vents. Everyone thinks it's a scam until their house almost catches fire. It's just human nature to ignore stuff that hasn't hurt us yet. We all think we're the exception until we're not.
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