It’s that time of year again when the electrician has descended upon us at work to stick new stickers on all the appliances. Now it’d be nice if he’d at least glance at the stuff he’s putting stickers on and deeming safe but he’s not even doing that, it’s the same every year.

Can someone with a bit of knowledge on the subject clarify the testing procedures/timings? I thought it was a visual inspection every year and an earth leakage test for class 1 stuff but I’d just like to know how wrong I am before I mention it to my managers again, I mentioned it last year and the year before but weirdly the electrician got out all his testing stuff in front on my manager for the stuff in his office… Last year he passed off without a glance an extension lead that was completely **** with a visible wiring defect, you didn’t have to even unroll it to see the defect!

Cheers.

I can. Email is in profile. I’ll reply with my phone number.
Rich.

Last year he passed off without a glance an extension lead that was completely **** with a visible wiring defect, you didn’t have to even unroll it to see the defect!

If you knew it was defective why was it not in the bin.

Extension leads are not appliances.

Extension leads are not appliances.

They are covered by the codes of practice for In Service Inspection and Testing of Electrical Equipment.

Rich.

The extension was there as I’d mauled it the day before, I knew he was coming and fancied an experiment.

Cheers rwamartin, will try and bounce you an email later.

No problem. I am an electrician specialising in inspection and testing so can fill you in as needed.
Rich.

The extension was there as I’d mauled it the day before, I knew he was coming and fancied an experiment.

Cheers rwamartin, will try and bounce you an email later.

Surely then if you admit to mauling the extension cable you must have had it put away for safe keeping until the PAT tester could examine it, to leave it out so as other people could use it could be seen as down right dangerous and gross misconduct!

There is no fixed requirement for testing periods or even doing a PAT at all. As an employer you need to provide a safe working environment and getting the electrician in once a year to put stickers on things is one way. Personally I’d say once a year was too often for office equipment and not often enough for site tools. You either need to have someone in the company who makes that decision or get someone in to make it for you.

A proper inspection is pretty thorough so this guys does sound a bit of a cowboy. For leads that would be plugging them onto a PAT test machine (sic) and doing a visual inspection. Any signs of significant damage would be a fail

Just had ours done the other day.

The electrician had a clever looking test box that she plugged each the lead into individually so they could be automatically checked for continuity, earth leakage etc. (I took the opportunity to get my various light charger checked as well)

She did test my extension cable and also visually inspected each cable. She even checked under the little bands of electrical tape on them to make sure I wasn’t hiding anything nasty (I just use them to identify the cables).

She did look ever so slightly perplexed at the various bits of bare electronics sitting on my desk mind you 🙂

Can someone with a bit of knowledge on the subject clarify the testing procedures/timings?

Yeah, there isn’t any.

You’re required by law to assess risks and resolve issues where appropriate, that’s pretty much it.

For most regular office electrical items, looking at it is sufficient. Doesn’t have to be a certified PAT tester, just someone with half a clue. Going round sticking stickers on every cable known to man is an exercise in pointlessness.

Also, given that half the time they cover up actual useful information like the output details of a transformer, really bloody annoying. Well done, it’s safe now all right, it’s never going to get plugged in again cos I don’t know what it is. One year I’d to remove a bunch that they’d plastered all over the front of the servers, covering the intake vents and causing half the farm to overheat and shut down.

covering the intake vents and causing half the farm to overheat

Genius!

“We can’t understand what caused those servers to burst into flames, they were all PAT tested just last week…” 😆

Quite. I was a tad miffed.

The 12 month inspection is invented by electricians / testing companies.

In H&S law you have to do what is suitable and sufficient. so, a radio that sits on a shelf never moving might need an inspection every 3 years. A drill that gets booted around the workshop floor might need testing every few months.

its your call but a sticker wont save you.

The visual inspection is just as important as the actual test(s). More equipment fails the visual then the electrical tests.

Any tester worth their salt would not just slap a label on the kit. Just because it passes the earth cont/insulation resistance test does not mean it is safe.