Would you consider this fire safe?
- Thread starter mbryan
- Start date
Douglas Hicks
Member
OK, I'll be the first, then every body else can take shots at me. Looks pretty good, of course I did not see the duct before you cleaned it. Horizontal ducts are not easy to do, usually because of the amount of build-up, & access problems. The far end of the duct looks to be greasy yet, or is that because the light does not reach that far?
Douglas Hicks
General Fire Equipment Co of Eastern Oregon, Inc
Douglas Hicks
General Fire Equipment Co of Eastern Oregon, Inc
Dave Olson
Workin North of 60
Hello mbryan,
In my area there used to be a fellow that would scrape and spray a white material in the duct. Was supposed to be a fire retardant. Of course NFPA banned that type of material a long time ago from being applied to the interior of kitchen grease exhaust ducts.
Your pictures remind me of what some of the ducts this guy did looked like.
I would need to see the balance of the system, but if it looked like this I would advise the customer of my findings and keep an eye on it. My advice would also need to take into account the length of time since the last cleaning, type and volume of cooking. At some point it needs to be cleaned just for basic mechanical hygiene.
Dave Olson
In my area there used to be a fellow that would scrape and spray a white material in the duct. Was supposed to be a fire retardant. Of course NFPA banned that type of material a long time ago from being applied to the interior of kitchen grease exhaust ducts.
Your pictures remind me of what some of the ducts this guy did looked like.
I would need to see the balance of the system, but if it looked like this I would advise the customer of my findings and keep an eye on it. My advice would also need to take into account the length of time since the last cleaning, type and volume of cooking. At some point it needs to be cleaned just for basic mechanical hygiene.
Dave Olson
David Saulque
Senior Moderator
Matt
What we need is a feel and smell tab so that we can get the real glow of the question. The cleaners artwork(right pic) with the wand is impressive. A true test would have been with the before pictures to determine what the start point was along with times. The artwork indicates that the manager was not managing.
Call Rusty!!!!
David
What we need is a feel and smell tab so that we can get the real glow of the question. The cleaners artwork(right pic) with the wand is impressive. A true test would have been with the before pictures to determine what the start point was along with times. The artwork indicates that the manager was not managing.
Call Rusty!!!!
David
It appears to have been scraped only, not powerwashed at all. To me this is a legitimate method to bring into a fire-safe condition. From that aspect it looks OK. Seems it could have been brought into 'pretty' condition with very little additional effort with use of a powerwasher.
Richard
Richard
kmjt1021
Member
I think I agree with Richard, it looks like it could be pressure washed now and cleaned fairly easily. Not having a complete picture makes it hard to give an answer, how bad was it before it was cleaned? What method was used to scrape it? Was someone able to crawl into it or was it scraped with a pole?
If I bid a system that is really bad I may tell them that it will take two cleanings done on a timely basis to get it cleaned, as most people are not willing to pay for a two nighter.
If your purpose were to get it to a point that it will be manageable for the next cleaning, I would say that's ok. Is it fire safe? That’s debatable, I tried to catch some grease on fire once to demonstrate a method of putting out a grease fire, and the stuff would not ignite, even with a blow torch, I had to put some kerosene on it to get it to burn.
If I bid a system that is really bad I may tell them that it will take two cleanings done on a timely basis to get it cleaned, as most people are not willing to pay for a two nighter.
If your purpose were to get it to a point that it will be manageable for the next cleaning, I would say that's ok. Is it fire safe? That’s debatable, I tried to catch some grease on fire once to demonstrate a method of putting out a grease fire, and the stuff would not ignite, even with a blow torch, I had to put some kerosene on it to get it to burn.