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On the job

Wet floors, hoses and stainless steel

A food plant is a garage floor with a hose running on it. The Code treats it that way, and the equipment on the floor has some rules of its own.

Commercial kitchens

NEC 210.8(B) has required GFCI protection for every 125 V, 15 and 20 A receptacle in a commercial kitchen since 2008; the 2017 and 2020 editions broadened the non-dwelling list to sink areas generally, 250 V receptacles, and indoor wet locations. Read the edition your jurisdiction adopted.

Appliances that bring their own

NEC 422.5 lists vending machines (since 2005), drinking-water coolers and bottle-fill stations, high-pressure spray washers, and others: the appliance must be GFCI-protected wherever it stands, which the maker usually meets with a factory cord carrying an in-line or plug-head GFCI. That cord is a listed part of the appliance; replace it with the same.

Wash-down equipment

Where hoses run, the receptacle and the plug need a rating for it: NEMA 4X or IP66 enclosures on the equipment, watertight plugs and in-use covers on the wall, and a GFCI whose housing can take a spray. An in-line device in a sealed housing partway down the cord, with the plug and receptacle in a dry zone, is a common answer; a breaker in the panel is the other.

Reset behaviour matters here

Refrigeration and display cases must not stay dead through a trip caused by a wash-down cycle; a slicer or a mixer must not restart on its own. Automatic reset for the first group, manual for the second — and separate circuits so a trip on one does not take the other down.

The inspector's two questions

Is every receptacle in the area protected, and is the protection tested? A monthly log of TEST-button checks answers the second (how often).

Where to buy

Portable protection for equipment cords

Manual- and automatic-reset in-line and plug-head GFCIs, 120 V and 240 V, on the plugs commercial equipment uses. Sold on worldcordsets.com.