The Challenge

Located inside Riverside Market in Christchurch, El Quincho is an award-winning restaurant serving traditional South American dishes using an authentic Argentinian grill.

Due to excessive heat in the kitchen venting duct, the water sprinkler heads were activated and the Fire Department alerted. This resulted in restaurant closure for clean up as well as a knock on effect for other restaurants affected by the water sprinklers.

El Quincho and Riverside Market needed a solution that would provide advance warning if the venting duct temperatures were increasing to critical levels outside in order to avoid an expensive repeat. Advance warning of temperature increases would allow time for El Quincho to reduce the temperature.

The Solution

EDAC Electronics were consulted to provide potential solutions. After examination of the area and discussion with the owners and landlords, an EDAC 320-4G system was installed. The wireless remote alarm monitoring and control unit is ideally suited to measure humidity, water flow, tank levels, pressure, and in this case temperature. The EDAC 320-4G unit uses two temperature probes placed inside the venting duct. Each probe is preset to different temperature levels allowing two separate alarms to be sent.

The Outcomes and Results

El Quincho management now have a successful temperature monitoring system which will provide SMS and email notifications if critical levels are reached. Every 5 minutes the inbuilt data tracking system takes the temperature of the venting duct and sends 12 hours of tracking via email. This allows El Quincho to assess temperature trends over time and provides a tool to use for reporting to landlords and insurance companies, giving them peace of mind.