Today a contractor questioned me about the location of a safety switch for a dish washing machine and a small baking oven (like Subway uses) in a new restaurant that I am inspecting.
The disconnect for the dishwasher would be (as per the plans) directly over a stainless steel sink used to rinse dishes and the disconnect for the oven would be over another small stainless sink and counter.
He knew that the disconnects should not be there, so he contacted me for guidance and an acceptable location.
Seeing that space was very limited in the areas in question, I brought out my 2005 code book and did some research.
I found that 422.31(B) was revised allowing the circuit breaker to act as the disconnecting means so long as a permantly installed lock-out device is installed on the circuit breaker.
I instructed him to eliminate the safety switches in both locations, install a cord and plug for the baking oven and install the lock-out hardware on both circuit breakers.
Do you all agree that this meets the requirements of the NEC?
