Portable Appliance Testing - new HSE Guidance

[Owain]

HSE have updated guidance for PATesting in low risk environments

"Not every electrical item needs a portable appliance test (PAT) In some cases, a simple user check and visual inspection is enough, eg checking for loose cables or signs of fire damage and, if possible, checking inside the plug for internal damage, bare wires and the correct fuse. Other equipment, eg a floor cleaner or kettle, may need a portable appliance test, but not necessarily every year."

One interesting point is

"The person carrying out the test should not assess when the next test will be due as this decision should be made by you on a risk assessment basis."

Owain

[Michael Kilpatrick]

Good! Which means when someone who makes a living out of PATing tells you that all your IEC mains leads should be PAT tested every year at a cost of £5 each (more than the cost of some of the leads), you can take that advice with a very large pinch of salt.

Oh, and I see that the HSE have corrected their categories of appliances in that updated guidance, and classed an iron as a Class I product, not a Class II product as before!

Michael

[Steve Firth]

One of those loons PATed the leads at a place where I was working, then decided to cut all the leads to half the length to get the earth resistance to a level he was comfortable with. To do this he removed all of the moulded-in plugs and replaced them with screw terminal versions, and on all of them he used the cord grip incorrectly (tightened on the conductors, not the sheath). Net result a degradation in safety.

One has to look at the people doing this testing and wonder why they are permitted to do the tests. We have one as a distant relative. He's someone who has nil qualifications, little intelligence and who was employed until not long ago as a cleaner. Then the cleaning company sent him on some non-examination training course, gave him a magic box and declared he was a PAT qualified individual. I wouldn't trust him to put a screw in a pre-drilled screw hole. I've seen him try, I've also seen his (lack of) DIY skills, with his own home a testament to bodge.

The entire stupid exercise is just make work for people who would, in the last century, have either been sitting on a wall with straw in their hair or staring up the arse of a pair of cows for 9 hours a day as they ploughed the local fields.

[ARWadsworth]

ROTFLMAO.

[Owain]

Depends how good the cows are.

Owain

[Tim Lamb]

Try this:-)

[Steve Firth]

Does Jeremy Clarkson know about this?

This is how it gets done in a hurry round my neck of the woods.

[Tim Lamb]

regards

[Steve Firth]

Yeah, Italians use the sun the way that the English use frost - to break the soil into tilth.