How often do I need to get PAT Testing done is a topic for discussion on so many occasions, but our best advice is this – Keep it simple

Most customers want to know how often PAT testing needs doing for the wrong reasons; it shouldn’t be about how much money can be saved. A better question would be:

What does my business need to do to maintain safe portable appliances?

That question is more appropriate, but it is not a question that can be answered on a web-page as there are just too many variations to consider, so back to..

Keep it simple

Once we have been to your site, seen it, seen the equipment and tested what you already have we’ll be able to make some recommendations.

We’ll discuss with you what your requirements are and what we recommend as the most appropriate action for your business.

We’ll assess the risks involved and help you find an acceptable solution that not only keeps your appliances maintained to a safe standard but ideally will save you money, over time.

But beware; putting  risk based testing in place doesn’t always increase the time between tests; sometimes it will reduce the time. You also have to consider the chances of an incident occurring between tests. For example, if equipment is moving location, could it get damaged in transit?

How often PAT testing is required is officially a grey area. You won’t find any legislative document or guidance that recommends PAT testing be done at certain intervals, because there are simply too many variants.

You also won’t find it because the powers that be are so scared you will take legal action against them if they gave incorrect advice, they avoid doing it. Imagine there is a document that says you can test your computer every 3 years, but yours caught fire after 2 and burnt down your office. They’d be at risk of a court case, so they avoid that.

What they do say is this – you need to ensure your electrical equipment is safe, to prevent danger occurring. How you do this, how often you do this, etc. is up to you. Up to you because you are responsible. If an accident occurs it is you that will get into trouble if you have not done enough to prevent the danger. So consider that when you want to save a few quid by getting the PAT done every other year – if there’s a chance of an appliance deteriorating in that time, get it done more often.

Granted a computer in an office may be less risk than a power drill on a building site, but that is why the power drill will get tested every 3 months. Is it safe to leave it unchecked for 3 years? Who knows, we certainly don’t.

Some insurance companies prefer annual inspections, in most cases, doing something every year is considered acceptable, but not always. For example electrical equipment in a mechanics workshop will be at more risk of damage than a computer, so surely should be tested more often? Of course, we find most will get their testing done every year. Most of our office clients, also get everything checked annually – we generally see more repairs in the garage, but that doesn’t mean repairs in offices are unheard of, far from it, it’s just the issues are different.

Use our PAT testing frequency page for more information on this subject.

Talk to us about how to maintain safe portable appliances at your workplace.

If there is an accident, as you are responsible for managing the risk, the investigators will want to know what you have done to prevent that risk, and they will want to see acceptable evidence. If you show them a PAT report from 3 years ago, they’re going to ask why you didn’t get it done last year, or the year before that. If you can show why that was an acceptable timeframe, that may be ok, but if it was to save money, that’s not ok.

Consider this – was it worth saving a few hundred quid, if a person died? Or your business premises had a fire?

A 3 yearly inspection may be perfectly fine in the perfect office set up, but does that exist? If the monitors and computers are fixed to the desks – the monitors on ‘arms’ and the computers in boxes, so they can’t be moved or tampered with; if the cables are neat and tidy, running through quality trunking with plenty of space to breathe, and freedom of movement (not tight and thus not under associated stress), then each one into a floor box socket or onto an extension lead that is not overloaded, then you may be able to argue your case. But not for every appliance in the office; some things will not be like this, some will be moved more, or used by lots of people – printers for example, or a fan, radio, heater, or the laptops everyone takes home every night. Ok so we may not include the laptop in the PAT test, but its charger is, and that will be unplugged every night, coiled up in a haphazard fashion putting strains on the cable, then untangled at home, then wrapped up again to bring back to work; these all add to the risk of damage. So your monitors may get checked every 3 years, but other items like these mentioned, or the kitchen appliances will need doing more often.

And what about the server? Yes it’s worked fine for years and never been unplugged, but how do you know the quality of the appliances? Are they safe, they may be fine for 6 years, but in the 7th they develop an itch, overheat and catch fire – if they’d had a proper test (been unplugged), you’d be covered because you had done sufficient checks.

We have been PAT Testing since 2009, an in that time have checked millions of appliances. How many have we had to repair or fail? Not sure, but it’ll be in the thousands – that’s a lot of risk. A lot of places we have removed the danger and prevented an accident occurring. We see a lot of places that think they know better and don’t get PAT tested enough, and we also see some that are done far too often.

We think anyone who goes for an annual check is probably doing the right thing, unless of course the risks are obviously high, such as a building site or factory.

If you go to work in your normal clothes and sit at a desk, or in a salon, bar or restaurant, for example, then annual testing is probably fine; but if you need to wear protective clothing (PPE), and do site inductions then the risk is higher so more frequent testing is recommended. This may not be the case for all items, this situation can be structured and we can help you manage that, but we like to say – any period longer than 1 year is opening yourself up to a greater risk of a situation occurring, whether that be a fault developing that a competent person will spot and repair (the PAT tester), or worse, an actual accident happening.

Don’t take the risk, better to be safe than sorry, get PAT tested, as often as is necessary to prevent danger.