Kitchen hood fire suppression systems are frequently used in restaurants and hotels where major kitchen hoods are deployed. However, they are also installed in various apartment buildings and condos as part of fire safety regulations. The major advantage of these systems is they are quite inexpensive. And in Singapore, approved kitchen hood fire suppression systems are mandated to install for most of the commercial kitchen hoods.

These kitchen fire suppression systems are also designed for protecting a wide range of kitchen appliances. The nozzles of these systems are installed in the kitchen hood exhaust, so that the wet chemicals are discharged straightaway without coming in contact with the fire source.

How the system works
Now let us discuss how the system works. One must remember that in order to thrive, fire basically needs three things – oxygen, fuel and heat. Hence, once the system picks up a fire, the overhead nozzles that are placed above the appliance will start discharging wet chemicals. These chemicals are specially developed to douse the fire, by not letting the flames come in contact with oxygen. The moment the system trips the gas connection, the appliances is automatically shut off so that the fire does not get any fuel to reignite.

So, fire safety equipment companies came up with systems that take a two-pronged approach, to quickly put out the kitchen fire without interfering with the cooking stations. When there is a fire, there will invariably be smoke in a huge volume. In these situations, the kitchen hood exhaust fan will free the kitchen from the smoke. On the other hand, the kitchen hood fire suppression system reacts automatically to the outbreak of a fire in the kitchen in a timely manner, thus minimizing the loss. The system basically uses a pressurized tubing system or a fusible link which bursts whenever there is a fire breakout. Whenever that happens, the system automatically ejects the fluid through the diffusers in such a way that it comes in contact with the fire. The discharge, on the other hand, is also sensed by an autonomous pressure valve, which immediately cuts off the supply of gas to the appliance to make sure the fire is not fueled by gas. Besides, there are additional gaseous systems, which are available to protect the extraction mechanism and the associated ductwork.

 Technically speaking, this system targets a wide range of appliances, for example, a deep fat fryer or an oven hob. It then instantly discharges any wet chemical to douse the flames. There are various types of fire extinguishers available to take care of various categories of fire – starting from the ones originated from oil to the ones caused due to electrical short circuit. Then again, when it comes to putting off fires on a chip pan fan, the system designed to put out burning oil or grease comes into play. A Saponification fluid, which is based on an alkaline solution, can help do this. However, the system needs just a small amount of the fluid to do its work, which involves creating a blanket over the flames to prevent oxygen from coming in contact with the flames. This fluid is non-toxic, non-corrosive, and can be easily cleaned later on, to make sure the kitchen is not damaged too much because of the mishap.