[OT] Universities and PAT certificates

[spuorgelgoog]

Procurator Fiscal :-)

Owain

[charles]

18 months ago, I was in a hotel from which we were evacuated at 5 in the morning to an outside where the temperature was -5C. Reason - someone's phone charger had causght fire.

[Bob Eager]

There is. See eBay.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I take it that's how you ran your business too?

But then it is a fairly typical view of a Brexiteer. No one is to be trusted. Apart from Farage, obviously.

[Alan]

He was right. It isnt 'portable appliances', it is "In-Service Inspection And Testing Of Electrical Equipment"

That includes anything with a plug, and anything connected to a fused spur or other form of connection.

[ARW]

Were the extension leads condemned by a visual or electrical test?

I have condemned many by visual but only a few by electrical.

[ARW]

Of course someone would have to tell the OP some typical pass numbers to put down on the certificates....

[ARW]

And the wrong rules apply IMHO. The only item that failed in a nursery I tested last week was the 4 week old toaster. It only had earth continuity if you bent the moulded strain relief on the plug to one side.

[charles]

The last one was "visual", but I have had some which failed the electrical test.

[charles]

A few yearsa go, when working in an amateur theatre, I bought 4 new lanterns. I failed one on earth continuity. I then repaired it, which was quicker than sending it back.

[Bob Eager]

I tested a new extension socket strip from CPC a couple of months ago (bought it about a year ago as a spare, just got round to unpacking and using it). Intermittent; turned out NONE of the terminals had been tightened in the (non moulded) plug.

[charles]

but I was taught to open the plug and check screws, etc, before doing the electrical test. ^^^^^^

[nightjar]

Which, in various forms and under various Acts, long precedes the PAT. All the equipment was fully tested, both for electrical and physical safety, and recorded as such. However, PAT was fairly new and, because it had a plug, he thought a two ton machine was portable and ought to have had a PAT sticker.

[jeikppkywk]

But the coroner would likely then want to know who the ebay seller was and would likely chuck a wobbly when you can't show who sold them to you with the sticker on them already.

[Bob Eager]

This was bought off the shelf for use at home. But I'm paranoid! I wasn't attempting a PAT validation.

[charles]

But the sticker doesn't say 'PAT'. "Tested for Electrical Safety" is on the ones I use,

[Farmer Giles]

I've never read so much bullshit and misinformation in my life as I find on my (very) occasional visits to this daft ng. Metooism writ large.

[nightjar]

The ones I used said the same, along with a reference number to link into the inspection log, date of inspection and due date of next inspection, but PAT sticker is a common way to refer to them.

My point is that fixed equipment could readily be identified and linked into the maintenance log from the machine number, so a sticker was superfluous. The point of PAT stickers is to identify portable equipment as having been checked and not, for example, having been brought in from somebody's home. That isn't really an issue with a two ton lathe.

[Martin Brown]

Visual. Usually the ones that have had two or more 3kW kettles plugged into them by the good ladies of the church tea making brigade.

I wouldn't risk plugging them in - severe damage on visual inspection.

I have seen molten rolled up extension cords and molten deformed sockets on 4 way extension units. It is scary what people do to these things! All our village hall ones now have thermal cutouts but I can't stop someone turning up with their own and overloading that to failure.

Comparatively few well made ones can actually handle a single 13A continuous load at normal room temperature and survive for long. The cheap nasty stuff fails by going brittle or deforming when used just inside its nominally rated envelope after a couple of years.

[Max Demian]

As likely that a phone &c. with a Li-ion battery will burn whether charging or not.

(Apparently the correct thing to do with a burning phone is to dump it in a bucket of water - so much for, "water and electricity don't mix.")