PAT testing - keeping us safe

I do regular repair events where people bring things along and we show them how to repair them. A variant which some councils run is a bring and swap, where residents bring things along they don't need and can take things other have brought along for free. Council staff sometimes PAT test the electrical items.

I was somewhat alarmed to see a fluorescent fish-tank light which fits inside the lid, where the flex was cut off at about 6 inches long, and a different flex joined by twisting the wires and loosly wrapping in tape. Just to make this especially dangerous, this join would have been inside the tank, and possibly dangling in the water. It just got PAT test passed! I cut the lead off completely and chucked it before anyone got a chance to pick it up.

On Fri, 16 Oct 2015 18:43:31 +0000, R D S wrote: [...]

Eh?

Duty of care to find the people who passed those two items and "reducate" them. Looks like they are "pass/fail" button pushers who dangerously don't know what they are doing. Both items should have failed the visual inspection, which is the bit the vast majority items fail on, very few fail the insulation and/or earth test.

However I notice on the PSU it's the lead that has passed not the PSU (though that doesn't have a fail sticker...).

PAT gadgets. are for idiots. It's just and expensive machine that does what a competent person does with continuity and insulation tests.

Not being a PAT test guru, what's the problem? Genuine question.

The exposed terminals and lack of strain relief on the mains cable are the main problems.

Richard

It's not exactly going to meet any "nicht fuer gefingerpoken" requirements is it?

I'm not a guru but at best I would have thought it needs much more insulation, and/or an enclosure.

At worst you could finger the live wire without too much difficulty.

I have one here that did but did not deserve to. Its a no name one supplied with a short wave radio tat Maplin Sell 6 v and analogue. I picked it up off the table and the bottom stayed behind as the case was so thin where it had been welded it simply fell to bits. I guess things are safe until they are not. I would not mind but the plug on the end seems to be not any standard one, ie the middle hole is very small. Brian

Is that an Aurora LED driver?

Yes I know. The use of eyes and common sense is inversely proportional to the adherence to a paper spec which relies on a measurement but does not dictate anyone actually looks at the device. Brian

No idea, I think it came from China via ebay.

IT's a CCTV psu, and should be inside a suitable enclosure, it was never meant to be a stand alone unit.

Allan

I wonder if the Post Office would start to test electrical items?

Postman PAT?

It has something in common with this one I put out next to the dustbin in the hope it would attract an itinerant tinker