It’s simply a standard way of routinely inspecting and maintaining portable electrical appliances in the work place. This demonstrates that you comply with electrical health and safety regulations. PAT Testing consists of:
It needs to be carried out to meet health and safety requirements for businesses, However the main reason is to keep employees and members of the public safe when using portable electrical appliances on your premises. or while you are on theirs. Wear and tear, damage and faults can result in a user being electrocuted or even death, so it is important that appliances are checked regularly to ensure that the risk is kept to an absolute minimum.
Remember to check appliances used by your employees and visitors as well as appliances supplied for work. Things like radio’s and phone chargers should all be inspected from time to time to make sure they are working correctly and have no damage.
The frequency of PAT Testing should be determined by your risk assessment. The risk assessment must establish the risk of all of the contributing factors which are:
You need to take into consideration any factors which affect the risk and frequency of inspection. You can have some items in your office that only needs PAT Testing every couple of years. While another appliance may need to be tested every year.
It can be done by any competent person. You do not need any formal qualification; but you do need to know exactly what is involved. Our free online PAT Testing course shows you everything that is involved so that you can decide if you are competent. Do the course completely for free at: www.onlinepattestingcourse.co.uk
You also need to make sure that your employees check the appliances that they use. These are called user checks. Employees should be shown how to check for any obvious problems with appliances. If they spot on faults, such as damage or exposed wires, they must tell their supervisor or manager immediately. It makes sense to ensure they understand they too have a responsibility for ensuring the equipment they use is safe. It is helpful if your team understand what PAT Testing is as well, so that they can keep an eye out for any potential problems. Employers and employees should also be aware that any appliances bought in from home, need to be factored is, as these need to be inspected an maintained as well. So phone chargers, radios and so on must all be checked, even if they are the employees own property.
Most people use a Pass or Fail machine to check the internal insulation/earth is working correctly to keep you safe. The PAT Testing machine interprets the readings and tells you if the portable electrical appliance can pass or fail the test. It is vital that the PAT Test takes place after a full visual inspection. Most faults are actually identified during the visual inspection rather than the PAT Test itself.
The display on the PAT Tester will tell you if an appliance has passed or failed. On some it will also give you actual readings, like the one in the picture.
You will still need to be competent so that you understand how to carry out each stage of the PAT Test. In
particular it is vital that before you do any PAT Test using a PAT Testing machine. You must carry out a full visual inspection. You can see how this is done in the video below.
Yes! There is no point going to the trouble of inspecting and maintaining your portable electrical appliances, if you don’t keep records. It is possible and in some cases, likely that your insurers may ask to see them. Especially if you have any incidents resulting in a claim. However, even if you don’t claim, we have heard of insurers stipulating that PAT Testing is carried out, and they are not covered if it is not! In addition to this; legally you are required to inspect and maintain portable electrical appliances. So were you to have a health and safety inspection. You would need to show that you are doing this.
By labeling the appliances you test, you can see at a glance when the appliances was last inspected, and depending on the label, when the next inspection is due. While it may make sense to label failed appliances, we strongly recommend that you ensure that these items are removed from use and either repaired or destroyed to reduce the risk of the appliance being put back into the work environment.
You can record your outcomes on a spread sheet, or in a records binder such as the one we supply.
If you want to know more about PAT Testing. Or if you are looking for advice about testing a particular item, please don’t hesitate to give our technical team a call on 01392 364933. We specialize in the PB500, the Seaward Primetest 50 and 100, the PAC 500 SP & XP. The Ethos 9120 & 9125.
Alternatively you can email sales@parker-bell.co.uk.