Nice PAT test fail

[tabbypurr]

where 'a great many voluntary workers in many fields' = a small minority of the workforce. The same is true for PAT testers.

NT

[Andrew Gabriel]

A couple of mins, plus one more if it's a rewirable plug, and assuming nothing needs fixing to make it pass. There's also the management of PAT testing (record keeping, pass/fail labels, etc), then add that on top, although some PAT testers will do some of that for you, which can be a big time saver if you are doing a lot of items.

Other things can vary with the quality of the tester. Better ones will use 25A for the earth continuity test, in which case it's done in a fraction of a second. Others will use

200mA, in which case it takes longer as you need to flex the cable along its length to verify no partial earth connection whilst it's passing 200mA.

Maybe you can. The training is a day - I think the exam was somewhere between 30 and 60 mins. You could in theory just do the exam if you can find a testing centre which will enter you for it without doing the training.

The certification is to make sure you understand the principles and also the legal requirements you need to meet. Some PAT tester vendor training just concentrates on how to use the tester, but that is only a small part of PAT testing, as explained earlier.

[whisky-dave]

low voltage) and it's IEC lead.

Sounds reasonble so if you need to test something like 3000 items... and it takes that person about a month to do it because he has other jobs a nd can ony test the items when they aren't being used. So when he retires you decide to get a company in that charges £1.19 (or

1.29) I can't remmeber and then check everything in two nights between 6pm and 9am. And they check every lead and put a sticker on every item with the next dat e PAT test daye as March 2017.

they emailed me last years PDF of the items tested.

What if they don't do that and just put a sticker on it indicating the next test date.

hours or days.

ss or fail by giving a bleep or visual signal.

Theere are NO legal requirments for PAT testing.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Well, sure. Being able to test an item in 3 minutes doesn't equate to being able to do 20 per hour.

What items are they saying need retesting annually? Most things around an office don't need that frequent testing. Suitable record keeping can be used to justify this. You may be able to justify never testing some items. OTOH, some things may need more frequent testing, such as a cheap domestic kettle used on a heavy office duty cycle (and from memory, the most frequent test recommendation is daily for a children's fairground ride).

Well, it's a good sign that they recorded that at all.

There is a duty on the company directors to ensure the people they engage to perform such tasks are compitent to do so. Requiring their staff to present their C&G 2377 certificates on arrival plus photo ID would be the minimum I would expect in this case, that having been made clear when they were engaged. You should take copies and put them on file, in the event of an HSE investgation.

There are no legal requirements that mention PAT testing. There are legal requirements for maintaining safe workplaces (the procedure encompasses requirements from 5 Acts) and you (as a company and/or employer) need to think about how you are going to meet them. The PAT testing procedure is accepted by HSE as meeting one particular aspect. You can devise a different way to meet the requirements if you want to, but then you might be required to prove it does so in court, which is not the case if you use a procedure already approved by HSE.

[whisky-dave]

ly low voltage) and it's IEC lead.

bs and can ony test the items when they aren't being used.

Well no we have tea breaks traditionally.

19 (or 1.29) I can't remmeber and then check everything in two nights betwe en 6pm and 9am.

date PAT test daye as March 2017.

EVERYTHING, well they dont; say anything really just that EVERY sticker giv es a next test date for march 2017.

Yes I know I'd test things every 3 years if I wss in 'charge';-)

Whatever that means can you say ?

Personally I wouldn't want that to happen.

We don;t allow such things in the lab.

I don;t consider our benches a childrens ride although I occasionaly have to tell the studetn that we provide chairs for them to sit on so please use them rather than they tables.

Hopefully this is a way for them to tell how many items they have tested an d can then charge us.

next test date.

That's a managment job not a technicains one. I get told that the PAT teste rs are coming in and that means I put some of my equipment out for testing, I don;t want them going through my draws/cupboards so everything that is e lectricla I put out on a bench for them so they don't have to get keys off anyone.

an hours or days.

pass or fail by giving a bleep or visual signal.

What if someone dies tomorrow due to a faulty cable tested in march and pa ssed in march what then ? Remmeber the cables haven't been tested well I don't think they have.

[charles]

I deliberately use stickers that don't have a retest date. Someone else should have done a Risk Analysis and decided on the test frequency. That's not the testers job.