Who Installs Commercial Kitchen Equipment, and Who Cannot

Almost everything written about commercial kitchen installation is written by somebody selling the equipment or selling the installation. This page answers the question those pages skip: which parts of the job need a licensed trade, which parts a service company can do, and who is holding the liability when an inspector says no.

The split that catches people out

“Installation” is at least four separate jobs, and one company rarely holds every licence for all of them.

• Setting and assembling. Getting it in, levelled, legged, stacked, walk-in panels assembled, doors hung and swung correctly. Any competent service company does this.
• Final connection to existing utilities. Connecting to a gas cock, outlet or supply that is already there and correctly sized. Most service companies do this, and many hold the licence for it.
• New or altered gas and electrical work. Running a new line, resizing a run, adding a circuit, changing the panel. This needs a licensed gas fitter or licensed electrician, and it is where a well-meaning “we can handle that” becomes an uninsured job.
• Commissioning. Firing it, setting manifold pressure, checking amp draw against the plate, calibrating, and demonstrating it. Skipped more often than any other step, and it is the one that decides whether the warranty holds.

In this directory, 92 verified companies list installation among the work they do, and 4 of those publish a licence number on their own site. 6 publish electrical work and 10 publish plumbing, which is worth knowing when a job crosses trades.

Get the utilities right before anything is delivered

Nearly every expensive installation problem is decided before the lorry arrives, at the point where somebody assumes the supply matches the equipment. Check against the data plate, not the brochure:

• Voltage and phase. Single phase against three phase is the classic, and it is not a swap. Confirm before ordering.
• Amp draw against the circuit. The plate gives the equipment’s demand; the panel has to carry it with the rest of the cookline running.
• Gas type and manifold pressure. Natural gas and propane need different orifices. A propane unit fed natural gas will not perform and a natural gas unit fed propane is dangerous.
• Water supply, pressure and temperature. Dish machines and boosters have minimum flowing pressure and minimum incoming temperature, and both are ongoing fault causes rather than one-off ones.
• The route in. Doorways, corners, floor level, and whether the thing fits through the entrance at all.

The interlock most operators have never heard of

Cooking equipment under a hood with fire suppression is normally required to be on shunt trip breakers. When the suppression system discharges, it signals those breakers to open and de-energise the cookline, and closes the gas solenoid valves. The equipment stays off until it is manually reset after inspection.

Two consequences worth knowing. First, this is wired work that must be coordinated between the electrician, the hood contractor and the suppression contractor, and it is a common inspection failure precisely because it crosses three trades. Second, if your cookline ever goes completely dead at once, this interlock is a candidate before you start calling it an equipment fault. Our fire suppression guide covers what happens after a discharge.

What actually fails an inspection

• Clearance to combustibles not met, or the equipment set tighter than the plate allows.
• Undersized gas line or circuit for the connected load.
• Shunt trip missing or wrongly wired under a suppression system.
• No backflow prevention where equipment connects to potable water.
• Equipment installed so it cannot be moved for cleaning behind and beneath.
• Grease-producing equipment not tied into approved grease management.

A failed inspection is not usually a bad installer. It is usually a job where nobody owned the coordination between trades.

What to settle in writing before work starts

• Who pulls which permits, named by trade rather than left implied.
• Whether the quote covers final connection or stops at setting the equipment.
• Who removes and disposes of the old unit, and whether refrigerant recovery is included.
• Whether commissioning and a demonstration are included, since the manufacturer’s warranty often depends on it.
• What warranty covers the labour, separate from the manufacturer’s warranty on the equipment.
• Whether travel and lift equipment are billed separately.

Installation is also a service relationship

Whoever installs it is usually the fastest to fix it, because they know how it was set and what the supply looks like. That is an argument for choosing an installer who also services what they install, rather than the cheapest set-and-go price. Our maintenance checklist covers what should be scheduled from day one, and the warranty guide covers how using the wrong company voids cover.

Every company above has had its website checked by a person. We have not inspected anyone’s installation work, and a listing here is not a recommendation: it means the company is real, reachable, and says it does this work. Ask for the licence, and ask which parts of the job it covers.