Our free online course will provide you with sufficient information and guidance to conduct testing in your own organisation.
Sign Up NowDownload our Free Quick Start Guide now:
Other guides are available here:
PB500VX Quick Start Guide
PAT Testing sequence
How to switch on/off & useful tips:
Where to find more information
The Parker Bell website www.parker-bell.co.uk has lots of useful information. Free PAT Tester training can be found at www.onlinepattestingcourse.co.uk. You can call us and get technical support Monday to Friday 9am until 5pm on 01392 364933 or by emailing sales@parker-bell.co.uk.
Visual Inspection
PASS
Update the visual inspection section of your register/log. You should now know the Class of the equipment you are testing.
FAIL
Minor faults can be rectified if you know how to, e.g., changing an incorrect fuse or broken plug. You can then proceed to test.
Other repairs will need to be carried out by an electrician or competent person and your action recorded in your register/log.
Using the PB500VX
Insulation Resistance
The PB500VX displays the Insulation Resistance voltage of a test when initiated as either:
representing a 500 volts Test
representing a 250 volts Test
The machine is initially set to 500 volts. You can change the value to 250 volts during the test of surge-protected equipment. It will revert to 500 volts for subsequent tests. For further information see the Set Up Guide on page 12.
Leakage Limits
The PB500VX default setting displays the maximum reading in mA for both Class I and Class II as shown in the table below:
| Equipment | IET 5th Edition Values |
| Class I | 5mA |
| Class II | 5mA |
Class I Test
Only carry out the PAT test once a full visual inspection has been completed and passed
Class I equipment is earthed and has 3 wires in the plug. Earth, Live and Neutral.
PASS
Update the appropriate section of your register/log.
FAIL
No Earth – See Page 12.
Long Lead Test -Page 10.
X Riso – See X Riso Fail Guide – Page 12.
X Ileak – See X Ileak Fail Guide – Page 12.
Class II Test
Only carry out the PAT test once a full visual inspection has been completed and passed
Class II equipment has two wires in the plug: live and neutral. This symbol is often displayed on the manufacturer’s label.
PASS
Update the appropriate section of your register/log.
FAIL
X Riso – See X Riso Fail Guide – Page 12.
X Ileak – See X Ileak Fail Guide – Page 12.
Class II FE Test
Only carry out the PAT test once a full visual inspection has been completed and passed.
Class II FE equipment has three wires in the plug; a functional Earth, Live and Neutral. This symbol is often displayed on the manufacturer’s label.
This equipment is tested as a Class II because the earth wire is not protective. See Page 5.
PASS
Update the appropriate section of your register/log.
FAIL
X Riso – See X Riso Fail Guide – Page 12.
X Ileak – See X Ileak Fail Guide – Page 12.
IEC Lead Testing
Only carry out the PAT test once a full visual inspection has been completed and passed.
IEC Leads should be recorded and labelled separately.
PASS
Update the appropriate section of your register/log.
FAIL
No Earth – See Page 12.
Long Lead Test – Page 10.
X Riso – See X Riso Fail Guide – Page 12.
Short/Open/Cross – See Polarity Fail Guide – Page 12.
Extension Lead Testing
Only carry out the PAT test once a full visual inspection has been completed and passed.
Extension leads should be recorded separately.
PASS
Update appropriate section of your register/log.
FAIL
No Earth – See Page 12.
Long Lead Test – Page 10.
X Riso – See X Riso Fail Guide – Page 12.
Short/Open/Cross – See Polarity Fail Guide – Page 12.
Mains Power Outlet/Socket Test
Only carry out the PAT test once a full visual inspection has been completed and passed.
PASS
Update the appropriate section of your register/log.
FAIL
LN / LE / NE X Fail – shows incorrect wiring. Do not use the socket and contact an electrician.
Long Leads Tests.
*If the equipment you are testing does not have a long lead you should seek a better earth connection.
If the PB500VX displays Long Lead Test? the display will pause for approx. 9 seconds before continuing the test sequence. You will see an X displayed next to Rpe and an overall Fail.
Note. You must not press the cord button for a second time unless you are certain you have carried out the calculation on page 11, otherwise you may have a false positive outcome.
Long Lead Earth Resistance Calculation
| Cable CSA | Ohms per metre |
| 0.5mm2 | 0.039Ω |
| 0.75mm2 | 0.026 Ω |
| 1.0mm2 | 0.0195 Ω |
| 1.25mm2 | 0.0156 Ω |
| 1.5mm2 | 0.0133 Ω |
| 2.5mm2 | 0.008 Ω |
| 4.00mm2 | 0.005 Ω |
The above table shows the ohms (Ω) per metre value for the CSA (cross sectional area) of the lead.
The maximum figure is calculated by multiplying the length of the lead in metres by the Ohms per meter value for the lead’s CSA plus 0.1 ohm. The CSA is stamped on the lead.
| Lead length |
| 0.1 Ω |
| Calculation result |
| Ohms per metre |
Remove or repair the equipment if the figure shown on the PC500VX is above the calculated figure.
No Earth – probable causes
X Riso Fail Guide
If your surge-protected equipment/extension lead has failed the 500 volts Riso insulation resistance test, the setting can be changed to 250 volts by repeating the test as follows.
Press and hold down the Cord button for 5 seconds until a beep is heard. A small triangular symbol with an exclamation mark will briefly flash at the bottom of the screen. Release the button and the Riso test will be done at 250 volts. The Riso test will then revert to 500 volts for any subsequent tests.
Remove or repair equipment if it still fails.
X Ileak Fail Guide
The maximum value for Class I, Class II and Class IIFE is
5.0 mA. Any reading above is a fail.
Polarity Fail Guide
If your equipment/lead/socket is incorrectly wired, the screen will indicate the reason such as short, open (not connected) or crossed.
Set Up Guide
The PB500VX Set Up Menu allows:
Entering the Set-Up Menu:
Press and hold the Class II and the Cord buttons at the same time until the SETUP menu displays.
Saving and Exiting the Set-Up Menu.
To save and exit press the Class II and Cord buttons together. If this is not done the PB500VX will remain in the Set Up menu mode.
Legally, any competent person can do PAT Testing. The law says you must routinely inspect and maintain electrical equipment. PAT Testing is the ‘best practice’ or standardised way of meeting legal obligations. Legally any competent person can PAT Test. The laws applicable to the routine inspection and maintenance of electrical equipment are as follows:
The HSE (Health and Safety Executive) says that any competent person can PAT Test. You just need to know what to do, how to do it and have the right equipment. More information is available on their free download here
To comply with the law and ensure you are competent you need to know exactly what is required to carry out PAT Testing, you can do this for free on the free online PAT Testing Course Click to do course The course is designed to show you what is required legally to carry out PAT Testing, as well as how to do it. The equipment uses a Pass/Fail PAT Tester, as described by the HSE as being suitable for competent people to do PAT Testing.
Whether you are a Care Home, a school, Dentist, hairdresser, shop, University, plumber, carpenter, builder, charity shop volunteer or a landlord. So long as you are competent you can do PAT Testing. It is important to ensure that even if someone is doing the inspections for you, they are doing them correctly. It makes sense for all responsible persons in the workplace to familiarise themselves with the legal requirements of PAT Testing and the inspection and maintenance of electrical equipment.
You may see and hear people say that you must be formally trained to carry out PAT Testing and this is not true. It is possible that companies implement their own requirements, which may include attending a formal training course. However, there is no basis for this in law. The legal requirement is to routinely inspect and maintain electrical equipment. The “standard” method of doing this, is PAT Testing, and the HSE (Health & Safety Executive) say clearly that any competent person can PAT Test.
To ensure that you and your staff are complying with the law, do the free online PAT Testing course. The course is a mixture of articles and videos showing you exactly what’s involved in PAT Testing (or the routine inspection and maintenance of electrical equipment). The course takes around 40 minutes and at the end there is multiple choice quiz, and you will be told if you have passed or failed. You can do the course as many times as you like and you only need an email address to sign up. www.onlinepattestingcourse.co.uk.
Not necessarily, there is no mandate saying you must pat test every year. You should do a risk assessment to determine the frequency of PAT Testing.
Some items such as IT equipment in an office with a single user and is rarely moved may only need to be tested every 4 years. While an electric drill used daily may need to be tested every three months. It is ok to have different schedules of testing according to risk and therefore it is ideal to take your PAT Testing responsibilities in house.
The law says you must routinely inspect and maintain portable electrical equipment. You may be asked to demonstrate your program of routinely inspecting your electrical equipment by the Health and Safety Executive. Your insurers will also expect you to adhere to this legal requirement meaning your policy may be void if you do not have a suitable program in place.
To achieve compliance with the legal requirements of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 requires proof that an electrical system is safe, which involves amongst other things, proper inspection and testing of a system by competent people and the creation and maintenance of records.
Guidance is available from the IET. Institution of Engineering and Technologies; 5th Edition of the IET Code of Practice for In-Service Inspection and Testing of Electrical Equipment.
The HSE (Health and Safety Executive) also publish a download called: Maintaining portable electrical equipment in low-risk environments INDG236. Which can be downloaded here:
Maintaining portable electrical equipment in low-risk environments (INDG236(rev2)) (hse.gov.uk)
The responsible person or duty holder.
This could be a director, the health and safety manager or the owner but is also the employee, volunteer or user. Ultimately, both employer and the employee are jointly responsible for ensuring the safe use of electrical equipment.
The responsible person has a duty to ensure a program of maintenance and inspection is in place in line with the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 which is law in the United Kingdom. This program must include recording the schedule and outcomes.
Where an employee uses electrical equipment as part of their job, they are responsible for ensuring that it is inspected before use and used in accordance with the manufacturers and company guidelines.
The electricity at work regulations 1989 can be downloaded for free here: The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989. Guidance on Regulations (hse.gov.uk)
This is not true.
The responsible person / duty holder is responsible for the routine inspection and maintenance of electrical equipment even if you subcontract the work.
If you choose to outsource the work to a contractor, your responsibilities do not change. You need to know what is involved and required so as not to put your employees / business at risk. The free online PAT Testing Course will show you what to do. You can do the course here: PAT Testing Fundamentals | Free online PAT testing course
The correct equipment is a Pass / Fail PAT Tester such as the PB500V. A machine which provides a Pass / Fail outcome after carrying out the test.
You can read more about this in the free HSE (Health and safety executive) publication hsg107 Maintaining Portable Electrical Equipment dated 24th August 2015 para 50 refers
The responsible person should complete a risk assessment to determine the frequency of PAT Testing for your business. The following factors should be considered when deciding the frequency.
This list is not exhaustive. Please assess according to your own business specifics. Low risk equipment such as desktop PCs are typically considered low risk items if they are rarely moved, without multiple users. Whereas electrical equipment using water, equipment used by multiple users, or easily dropped is considered high risk.
If you would like to discuss the best way to conduct your risk assessment, please feel free to call out technical team on 01392 364933 or email your question to sales@parker-bell.co.uk