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Phil Riley
Member - 5 posts
For anyone starting doing PAT testing who is unfamiliar with guestimating mains lead sizes it may be worth going to an electrical shop that sells flex by the metre and buying short lengths of a range of different sizes such as 0.75, 1.0, 1.5mm. These could be kept with the test equipment for comparison purposes.
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Phil Riley
Member - 5 posts
With my tester you would not get a result if you removed the bulb as it gives a "Low Load" message. I would test a lamp with the bulb in and switched on. Similarly with a microwave oven you may need to have the door open so there is the load from the interior light to avoid this problem.
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Phil Riley
Member - 5 posts
Simon, so just because I am starting this line of work in a modest way with limited outlay you assume I am some sort of cowboy, out to make a quick buck. You also seem to assume that I don't have public liability insurance. I suppose I could just carry on the testing, regardless of any risk to sensitive equipment, taking the attitude that the insurance will cover such eventualities. I have been in the appliance repair business for 10 years and have never had to claim on such insurance.
I have not started to offer the PAT testing service yet. I will not do so until I am certain that I have the right setup to do this work in a safe and professional manner.
I must admit, I only scored 29 out of 30 in the City & Guilds exam so I clearly don't know everything there is to know about the subject.
Phil Riley BSc
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Phil Riley
Member - 5 posts
I don't have access to lots of IT equipment to check but none of the items I have looked at carry the BS EN 60950 markings so I could not risk testing them at 500 volts (See IEE Code of Practice page 44 note (3).
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Phil Riley
Member - 5 posts
I recently did the C & G PAT testing course at the local college. I then started looking at setting up to do this work on a contract basis. I was a bit gobsmacked when I discovered how expensive the equipment has become. I ended up getting a secondhand instrument on Ebay for £185. I then bought a supply of pass and fail lables plus software for producing the paperwork. Of my 3 purchases, only the labels have turned out to be fit for their purpose! The PAT tester, a Seaward Primetest 100, is incapable of doing testing in accordance with the IEE Code of Practice. This is because there is no facility to disable the insulation resistance part of the test sequence. For most items of IT equipment the 500 volt insulation test should not be carried out as it can damage the appliance.
The software package contains the equipment register forms but does not include the most important form, denoted Vb in the IEE book. This is the form you complete for each appliance and use to record the test results each time you test that appliance. Having all the test results for an item together on one form means you can tell at a glance if the results are deteriorating over time. This can prevent the equipment eventually becoming dangerous if such deterioration is investigated before the results actually reach fail levels.
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