PAT Testing

[Newlands]

When my daughter went to teaching college one of the rules was that all electrical equipment had to be pat tested - computers, kettles,,hair dryers etc. I gave everything a good look over and checked the earthing and then stuck some stickers on - job done!
Funnily enough, the jobsworth at her college decided to do a spot check in her first week and my daughter happened to be the chosen one! Saw the stickers and just walked away, never to be seen again. So to answer Brads question, it can be far less than 50p an item, but it depends where you get the stickers from.

 

[brightspark]

When my daughter went to teaching college one of the rules was that all electrical equipment had to be pat tested - computers, kettles,,hair dryers etc. I gave everything a good look over and checked the earthing and then stuck some stickers on - job done!
Funnily enough, the jobsworth at her college decided to do a spot check in her first week and my daughter happened to be the chosen one! Saw the stickers and just walked away, never to be seen again. So to answer Brads question, it can be far less than 50p an item, but it depends where you get the stickers from.

the school I do the testing at or should I say that did all the gear that was brought in by the 6th formers were tested free of charge any stickers that were already on were ignored even if they were done the day before. that quite often happens in factory's all items to be only tested on the site . some of the parents were up in arms because any faulty items I cut the plug of and put fail stickers on them

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

Site I was on last week, manager said ‘all your gear has to be PAT tested. If it’s not, see me, I’ve got some stickers in the drawer’.

I may have some in a drawer

 

[bigegg]

I may have some in a drawer

I have.
As well as some "fire resistant foam" furniture tags

 

[angellonewolf]

the school I do the testing at or should I say that did all the gear that was brought in by the 6th formers were tested free of charge any stickers that were already on were ignored even if they were done the day before. that quite often happens in factory's all items to be only tested on the site . some of the parents were up in arms because any faulty items I cut the plug of and put fail stickers on them

that required cutting off ?

 

[Pete.]

Nobody has the right to cut plugs off - that's destroying someone's property faulty or not. I was on a site induction once where the site agent said he would cut the plug off any faulty equipment he found, I told him if he damages any of my property I'll call the cops right away and report a crime. I'm perfectly capable of taking an item out of service myself if it necessary.

 

[Brad93]

Right so then. Say I create a log of all equipment and carry out the PAT testing myself. What would be a good machine to go for?
Grinders, drills, lights, cables etc being the main items, all 110V. But also three phase welder?

 

[Brad93]

Right so then. Say I create a log of all equipment and carry out the PAT testing myself. What would be a good machine to go for?
Grinders, drills, lights, cables etc being the main items, all 110V. But also three phase welder?

I’ve found somewhere to do the C&G course that @Exuptoy posted above also which should be enough to prove I’m a competent person.

 

[mike os]

Basic tester for a few dozen bits done when needed or an all singing one with barcode reader printer and memory if its a lot.

All down to what you want to spend.

I have a basic one I might be persuaded to part with as it's unlikely i will want it again

 

[Exuptoy]

It’s not a hard course mate, it’s more about legislation. Quite how they could stretch the course to a couple of days bewildered me.

 

[brightspark]

Nobody has the right to cut plugs off - that's destroying someone's property faulty or not. I was on a site induction once where the site agent said he would cut the plug off any faulty equipment he found, I told him if he damages any of my property I'll call the cops right away and report a crime. I'm perfectly capable of taking an item out of service myself if it necessary.

well im afraid kids aren't in schools and the parents aren't much better .when the earth has pulled out of an extension lead and its lethal they pull the sticker off and carrying on using them the outcome being no one will be allowed to bring anything in without a school test . if you turned up on a site and an item failed it would be red flagged and given back to you as is and chased of the site if you used it and rightly so . another point is I work in old folks houses fault finding and its generally the kettles faulty . I cut there plugs off and tell them to buy new ones because they cant remember what I said and plug them back in then I get called back

 

[brightspark]

Basic tester for a few dozen bits done when needed or an all singing one with barcode reader printer and memory if its a lot.

All down to what you want to spend.

I have a basic one I might be persuaded to part with as it's unlikely i will want it again

then cheapest one is a seaward primetest 50 go nogo tester just shows pass or fail. next one up is the primetest 100 gives pass or fail and gives the readings as well

 

[Exuptoy]

All I’ve used in the few jobs offshore and onshore is the Seaward Supernova, not cheap.

 

[Barlidge]

I’ve found somewhere to do the C&G course that @Exuptoy posted above also which should be enough to prove I’m a competent person.

.
Able Skills in Dartford should be reasonably close to you if you were still looking, I did my PAT course there in March, quite thorough

 

[earthman]

well im afraid kids aren't in schools and the parents aren't much better .when the earth has pulled out of an extension lead and its lethal they pull the sticker off and carrying on using them the outcome being no one will be allowed to bring anything in without a school test . if you turned up on a site and an item failed it would be red flagged and given back to you as is and chased of the site if you used it and rightly so . another point is I work in old folks houses fault finding and its generally the kettles faulty . I cut there plugs off and tell them to buy new ones because they cant remember what I said and plug them back in then I get called back

I'm going back like 30 years now when I use to repair vacuum cleaners for a living, the firm I worked for had to buy one of these PAT machines, we were told to plug each vacuum cleaner into it before even attempting to switch it on/fault find/repair it. Whilst on site at any large school, old folks home etc, you can imagine what a pain in the rear end that were and how much longer the whole job took. I don't recall that machine failing anything we plugged into it, the other service engineers thought that it were essentially a box ticking exercise and a waste of time too. I guess that were around the start of many a nonsense/box ticking that we all got to put up with now,...not sure if such like came about because the firm had signed up to ISO 9001, remember that?

 

[Pete.]

well im afraid kids aren't in schools and the parents aren't much better .when the earth has pulled out of an extension lead and its lethal they pull the sticker off and carrying on using them the outcome being no one will be allowed to bring anything in without a school test . if you turned up on a site and an item failed it would be red flagged and given back to you as is and chased of the site if you used it and rightly so . another point is I work in old folks houses fault finding and its generally the kettles faulty . I cut there plugs off and tell them to buy new ones because they cant remember what I said and plug them back in then I get called back

None of that gives you the right to destroy a person's property. It's outside of a PAT tester's remit - you should test something, record it as a fail or a pass and mark it as unsafe if it fails. Shove everything in a bag or a box and hand it back as 'taken out of service' if you like then you've discharged your responsibility but you don't have the right to cut it to bits, unless they have agreed.

If an MOT tester found a chunk out of your sidewall would you be OK with him slashing your tyres to save you from yourself? No - you'd have him reported straight away, because YOU want to make the decision on whether to pay him for a new one, change it for the spare or drive it to the tyre shop. Or indeed keep on driving on it.

 

[brightspark]

out of 1500 items tested at a school all passed apart from about 25 items. kettles water boilers extension leads and cleaners hoovers and polishers that was cuts in flexes and inner cores showing on plugs that had pulled out of the chord grips

 

[brightspark]

None of that gives you the right to destroy a person's property. It's outside of a PAT tester's remit - you should test something, record it as a fail or a pass and mark it as unsafe if it fails. Shove everything in a bag or a box and hand it back as 'taken out of service' if you like then you've discharged your responsibility but you don't have the right to cut it to bits, unless they have agreed.

If an MOT tester found a chunk out of your sidewall would you be OK with him slashing your tyres to save you from yourself? No - you'd have him reported straight away, because YOU want to make the decision on whether to pay him for a new one, change it for the spare or drive it to the tyre shop. Or indeed keep on driving on it.

like I said if u didn't do it they would just still use it even without the pat test sticker on it handing it back to the parents doesnt help as some just kick off even if u give them it back personally in one piece thick or what if it was your kid that got electrocuted at school you would soon change your mind and try to sue the pants of them for negligence end off. argue all you like it wont make any odds you do what u have to do and il do what I have to and adhere to the school policy on bringing goods in to use well I don't have to now because I have stopped doing them now

 

[Pete.]

Your job is to test, mark, report and if necessary remove from service, that means unplugging it from the supply and marking as faulty. What happens after that is the owner's responsibility. If the school stipulate stuff must be tested, report the fail to them so they can take action. If you do all that you can't be sued because you've discharged your responsibilities.

 

[mike os]

The advice for unsafe items was always remove the plug... its the only way someone has to do something to put it back into use.