How Long Will It Take?

One of our technicians should complete approx 10 - 15 items per hour.

This depends upon any repairs encountered.

HOW OFTEN SHOULD IT BE DONE? 

The law does not state that you have to have your appliances PAT tested.

The LAW  requires employers to maintain electrical systems at work to prevent any danger. PAT Testing has now become the most recognised way of doing this.

Inspection and testing alone will not result in compliance with the Law.

Electrical systems refer to the installation as well as all the appliances connected to it. A qualified electrician should normally inspect the installation at periodic intervals.

The maintenance of the appliances can largely be carried out in-house. In many organisations, small repairs can be picked up at an early stage by one of our technicians and repaired on-site   where possible  which can limit costly   'downtime' to your business.

What is the best way to carry this out?

The HSE recommend a three-stage process for this.

User checks.

Advising the user of potential danger signs can result in problems being picked up before they can result in any danger. For example, if the power cable is frayed or the plug is cracked, users need to be advised NOT TO USE the appliance and report the fault to a supervisor. This information can be put across, say by the use of a poster or in a memo.

Formal Visual Inspections.

This is a process of simply inspecting the appliance, the cable and the plug for any obvious signs of damage.   This is the most important part of maintaining appliances.

Combined Inspections and PAT testing.

At periodic intervals, it is essential to test the portable appliances to measure the degree of protection and to ensure that   it is adequate. At these intervals, a formal visual inspection is carried out and then followed by PAT testing.

 What is a Formal Visual Inspection?

These are inspections carried out at planned intervals with formal recording of the results. According to the HSE, more than 90% of faults or damage can be found just by looking. Following is a checklist of items to look for.

                        Damage to power cable sheath.

                        Damage to mains plug, for example cracking to the casing, or bent pins.

                       Any taped joints to the cable.

                     Inadequate strain relief. This is when the outer sheath of the cable is not effectively secured where it enters the plug or equipment. Obvious evidence of this would be if the coloured insulation of the internal cable is showing.

                      Signs that the equipment has been subject to conditions for which it is not suitable, e.g. wet or excessively rusty.

                      Damage to external casing of the equipment, or loose parts or screws.

                      Evidence of overheating.

In addition, formal inspection should include removal of the plug cover and checking that :

        That the correct value fuse is being used.

                      That the cord grip is holding the outer part of the cable tightly.

                      The Live, Neutral and earth wires are attached to the correct terminals.

                      That no bare wires are visible, other than at the terminals.

                      The terminal screws are tight.

                     That there is no sign of internal damage, overheating or entry of liquid, dust or dirt.

These checks apply to the plugs and sockets of extension leads as well.

  Who can carry out PAT testing?

One needs to be a competent person to carry out PAT testing.   They need to be able to take sensible precautions,   and need to   know what to look for when carrying out testing.

Sometimes a simple PASS/FAIL   test instrument is not enough to test appliances which may fail the 500V dc   Insulation test by design   but may pass an alternative Earth Leakage test and be perfectly safe to use.

The frequency of the PAT testing is based upon the chance of the appliance being damaged in use. So this depends on the design of the appliance (Class I or Class II), on how easy it is to move (stationary, handheld etc) and also on where it is used (office, school, construction site etc). The table below gives some guidelines.

Table 1: Frequency of  PAT Testing (in months)

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 Which products do we have to PAT test?

Basically, anything that can be moved has to be tested or at the least Formally Visually Inspected by a competent person (depending on class of equipment and environment). The reason for this is that most of the damage occurs to the power cord or the plug and the chances of this happening are higher if the appliance can be moved. So one has to PAT test fridge freezers, washing machines etc. even though they are not portable.

Of course items that are handheld, such as drills, hair dryers etc. can suffer damage more easily. For this reason they are maintained more frequently than stationary items such as fridge freezers.  Home /  IEE Code of Practice  /Gallery/