Wickes RCD tester, One for the sparkys

[Andrew]

Are these any good -

By 'good' I mean is it (un)likely to miss a dangerous fault ?.

Andrew

[Tricky Dicky]

I have no experience of that tester but in general I have found Schneider products quite well made which bodes well for the tester.

Richard

[Theo]

I'm not a sparky, but it doesn't do a full RCD test as an electrician would do it. You're supposed to do a test at 50%, 100% and 500% of RCD rated current, at both 0 degrees and 180 degrees and there are thresholds on how fast the RCD should trip:

That one does 100% but not 500%, and not at both phase angles, so it's not a full test. I don't know the likelihood of passing a 100% test but failing to trip fast enough on a 500% test, but I could imagine a 'slow' RCD exceeding the rated trip time under high currents.

It's 'better than nothing' I suppose, and it's nice to have on a cheap socket tester. But it's not enough to prove an RCD safe.

Theo

[John Rumm]

IME, Schneider stuff is usually ok. The socket testers generally do what they are supposed to and will find a number of fault conditions. The RCD test facility is a basic go/nogo test, and does not have any of the more subtle testing capabilities of a "proper" RCD tester, but is better than nothing.

There are some faults they can't really "see" though - like a high impedance joint, or a higher than expected earth loop impedance.

[Andy Burns]

Kewtech do one that checks for reverse L/N which most socket testers don't and it gives a R/A/G check of earth loop, still only only does a 'basic' test of RCD functionality, but then so does the TEST button on a RCD itself.

seems to have shot up in price since I bought one.

[ARW]

Good enough for me to email work so that the link can be put in the lads room so the apprentices might buy one.

It seems that it does a 30mA delta 1 test (ie tests it at 30mA imbalance) and runs the imbalance for 300ms to see if the RCD trips in that time which is more than the test button on a RCD does.

I am not sure what the earth indicator does. I presume you are the earth when you touch the metal button through capacitance. I am not sure that this is a replacement for some other socket testers that do a basic earth loop test (ISTR a pass or fail with a set limit of some sort).

It's a bargain.