This is the fix in practice. The sockets that used to sit right next to the fryers have been blanked off — capped and dead. The working sockets are raised well above the grease line, with cables dropping down to the equipment. Simple, and it makes a real difference to how long the installation lasts.
Getting the height right matters. The higher above the cooking equipment, the less grease accumulation over time — and the less risk of the kind of faults that bring a kitchen to a standstill mid-service.
We get called to Mayfair restaurants more than you'd think. Not always for dramatic emergencies — sometimes it's a circuit that keeps tripping for no obvious reason, or a socket that's been running warm for months and someone finally decided to do something about it. Nine times out of ten, when we trace it back, the answer is the same: grease.
It sounds almost too simple. But commercial kitchens produce an extraordinary amount of airborne grease — fine particles that settle on every surface, including the electrics. Sockets behind fryers, switches near the pass, trunking that runs along the back wall. It all gets coated, slowly, over years.
The problem is that grease does three things to your electrics that you really don't want. First, it conducts electricity — not well, but enough to create unwanted pathways between components that should be isolated. That's what causes the erratic behaviour, the circuits that trip for no reason you can find. Second, it's flammable. If a connection starts to overheat and there's a layer of grease residue nearby, you're moving from an electrical fault to a fire risk faster than you'd like. And third — it insulates heat in the wrong direction. Sockets need to dissipate heat. Grease stops that happening, so they run hotter and hotter until something gives.
In older buildings — and Mayfair has plenty of those — the situation is worse. Georgian and Victorian construction wasn't designed with three-phase commercial kitchen loads in mind. Induction hobs, combination ovens, refrigeration running continuously. The wiring was never meant for this, and years of grease on top of that is a bad combination.
What does it actually look like? The early signs are easy to miss. A socket faceplate that's slightly warm to the touch. A faint burning smell that you've half convinced yourself is coming from the kitchen. A circuit that trips once, gets reset, and everyone forgets about it. Yellowing or blackening around sockets is further along — that's heat damage, and if you're seeing that, there's already been a problem for a while. Melted plug pins are the point at which most people finally call us.
When we arrive, we don't just reset the breaker and call it done. We find out why it tripped. That means pulling the affected sockets, inspecting the contacts and the wiring behind, and checking the surrounding area for further damage. We carry commercial-spec replacement fittings — IP-rated where they should have been IP-rated from the start — so most of the time we can sort it in one visit. That matters when you've got a lunch service in three hours.
The honest fix for most Mayfair restaurants is an EICR — an Electrical Installation Condition Report. It's a legal requirement for commercial premises anyway, but plenty of places let it slide. Done properly, it'll show you exactly which parts of your installation are at risk before they become emergencies. Combined with sockets that are actually rated for kitchen environments, and a cleaning regime that includes the electrics, most of these callouts are entirely preventable.
If you've got a socket that feels warm, or a circuit that's tripped more than once without explanation, don't leave it. We're on call 24 hours and we can usually get to central London fast — the electric motorbikes help with that. Give us a ring on 07723 007 198.
