Monthly Archives: July 2019

PAT tests in offices may not need doing as often as you may think. Many offices get their appliances tested every year but that may be too often. If you do a risk assessment you will find that most if not all appliances won't need doing that often.  Stationery appliances such as fridges, photocopiers, even computers and monitors hardly ever move so do you really need to get them tested every year? If users check them periodically and inspections are carried out intermittently it should be perfectly acceptable to increase the interval between tests to 2 or 3 years. [...]

  Do new electrical goods need PAT tested before using? They shouldn't. New equipment should be safe when manufactured, and are tested before leaving the factory, so there should be no need for you to have to PAT test them before using them. Assuming the new equipment has been bought from a bonafide retailer from the European Economic area.  Be more aware if you buy new equipment from 'cheap' online sites, especially if the appliances are imported from non-European countries.  However, some company policies do require new equipment to be tested before being put into service, so really it depends [...]