PAT Testing WTF?

[www.GymRatZ.co.uk]

Lads 3 year old Marantz Amp. was being used and lad asks me to touch the RCA socket because he'd got an electric shock from it.

I vaguely remember him mentioning it previously but I suggested it was a static shock.

Anyway. I touched the terminal with the back of my hand and sure enough there was a high voltage present by the lasting sting it gave me.

Called up Richer sounds where he's always blowing money and they said drop it in we'll take a look.

3 weeks later the store manager said it they'd get it PAT tested to see if it was safe. Results came back and it had passed. N.F.F. Haven't picked it back up yet but if a PAT tester is testing equipment that only has a live(Line) and neutral feed and something like a chassis capacitor(?) breaks down and allows high volts to exposed metal parts presumably with no return path via PME I'm confused as to how this can be considered safe and no fault found.

To me it makes PAT testing even more pointless than I'd previously considered it to be.

Any ideas as to either the cause and why it's not considered a PAT failure?

Cheers - Pete

[Dave Plowman (News)]

But only if they have the PIN number for it.

[Adam Funk]

see also ISBN number

[whisky-dave]

why do they need a PIN number for it ?

[Bob Eager]

Whooosh.

[whisky-dave]

Why donlt you explain it then.

whooash

[Andy Burns]

See also RAS syndrome ....

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Could be because you choose not to understand the explanation either.,

[whisky-dave]

,

you've provided no explanation just said why we can;t say and instrument is PAT tested, but you;re wrong about that I"ve shown you plenty of evience that PAT testing is done. But being as ignorant as you are you've failed to understand that a PAT test can only be done with a PAT tester.

Now ou seem to be saying you need a PIN number is that a personal identific ation number number ?

Please tell me why you need a PIN number.

Does the PAT machine have a LCD display ?

[whisky-dave]

Yes been there done that a few years ago.

PAT Testing is an example of Redundant Acronym Syndrome. We shorten this to RAS Syndrome.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yes. Portable Appliance Test tested. Reads beautifully.

But being as ignorant as you are you've failed to understand that a PAT test can only be done with a PAT tester.

Tester? Is that the equipment or the person?

[whisky-dave]

Yep nothing wrong with that quite descriptive is that why you don't like it.

As yet I do not know of a piece of equipment that goes around all by itself from room to room from office to office looking through the cupboards taking out the equipment testing it then sticking a label on it I've only ever seen a human do this. Have you ever seen an item be tested by a PAT tester I guess not.

[Johnny B Good]

Which is itself a RAS, as well as a TLA. :-)

I guess "RAS Syndrome" is a sardonic reference in the same way that the name WINE (a windows software to Linux compatability layer) was created out of the acronym, "WINE Is Not (an) Emulator!". :-)

( has the details)

[Bob Eager]

Not quite the same. RAS syndrome is a repeated word. WINE is a recursive acronym - of which the best known is probably GNU. (GNU's Not UNIX).

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Odd. You seem to spend ages Googling simple phrases you can't understand. And go on an on about them. See why now.

Right. So that person would be a portable appliance test tester with a portable appliance test tester?

[whisky-dave]

that's not how I think but you can please yourself.

Here when we say something is PAT tested it means a person has come around with a Portable Appliance tester and used it to perform tests on the appliances.

In yuor world I don't know what it means or how you'd describe such a things.

If someome takes a dump on electrical equipment do you say iut was pat tested becuse the person taking the dumnp had pat written on theirt T-shirt ?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Well, yes. Plenty people use words without knowing what they mean.

Are you speaking from experience there?

[whisky-dave]

I've never had the name pat have you. But I do organise the stuff that needs testing once a year for when our PAT testers come. No idea of their name, not my concern, the department has had enough of me complianing about the electrical testing.

[charles]

and who has carried out the Risk Assessment to say the items need testing once a year?

[whisky-dave]

No risk assemssment is carried out, managment don't understaand such things all they know is that if there's a sticker on the items they are safe and the college can't be blamed if something goes worng, well they assume that.