PAT testing - keeping us safe

[R D S]

Some time ago I was fannying about with some LED strips and a transformer, i'd pretty much forgotten about it and shoved the lot in a cupboard.

More recently the missus had LED lights in the shop window, I didn't immediately put two and two together until we were casually chatting about them, the penny dropped and I asked what was powering them.

"That transformer you got..." she said, much to my alarm. It was sitting on the window ledge in the shop front.

I removed it but you'll notice it has since passed a PAT test.

[Andrew Gabriel]

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.

[Cursitor Doom]

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

Eh?

[Dave Liquorice]

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...).

[harry]

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

[Mark]

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

[Tricky Dicky]

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

Richard

[Andy Burns]

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

[R D S]

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.

[Brian-Gaff]

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

[ARW]

Is that an Aurora LED driver?

[Brian-Gaff]

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

[R D S]

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

[Al]

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

Allan

[Sam Plusnet]

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

Postman PAT?

[Graham.]

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