Safety
There are 2 main reasons
why Portable Appliances need to be inspected and tested.
-
Help assess
the safety of portable appliances
- To comply with
the Health & Safety Regulations
It is clear that complying
with the H&S regulations (especially following a H&S
visit!!) is often the main reason that PAT testing is undertaken
in organisations. There is though, a real danger that the
reasoning behind the regulations i.e. Safety
is forgotten.
The following sections
are not designed to disturb or scare anyone but just to highlight
some of the reasons why regular testing and mainanence of
portable appliances is so important.
Portable Appliance Safety
Electrical appliances
can be dangerous!
-
The Health & Safety
Executive estimate that 25% of all reported accidents
at work occur as a result of faulty electrical appliances.
-
Each year, over 2500
people are injured or killed due to electrical fires.
Dangers are not, of course,
limited to commercial premises. The Electrical Safety Council
provide information on fires, injuries and accidents in domestic
dwellings. See E.S.C. statistics.
As a result, the importance
of electrical appliance safety is now being recognised by
insurance companies. Many insurance companies are now insisting
on a proper appliance testing program being in place before
cover can be granted. Even if cover is granted then insurance
companies may refuse to coverall or some parts of a claim
if they believe that appliances have not been properly tested
and maintained.
Global electrical trade
These days, electrical
appliances are manufactured all around the world.
Not all manufacturers
perform the recommended safety tests and there are clearly
also large numbers of counterfeit goods in circulation. Despite
the very best efforts of HM Customs and the Trading Standards
departments, there are no guarantees that all electrical goods
on sale in the UK neccessarily meet the standards necessary.
As proof of this, there
are usually several products recalls in operation at any one
point in time due to faults on appliances. For up to date
information on the latest product recalls please see the Electrical
Safety Councils product
recalls page.
In our own personal experience
we have found a large proportion of new appliances actually
have the wrong fuse fitted. One example is a 20W electric
desk fan (very recently bought from a reputable Ofice / Stationery
supplier) that had a 13amp fuse fitted!
Consequently, the fact
that an appliance is new is not a guarantee of safety. Even
boxed items may have been previously used and returned or
suffered damage during transit or storage.
In fact, the age (and
even cost) of the appliance is often not a good determinant
of safety. An older or cheaper appliance, if well maintained,
will be safer than a new or expensive appliance that has been
heavily used / abused.
The best policy is to
have your electrical appliances tested regularly, regardless
of their age or cost.
Failure rates.
Failure rates vary greatly
across different organisations and sectors.
As an average, though,
up to 1 in 5 electrical appliances fail the initial PAT testing
process. This figure includes minor faults that are usually
picked up at the Visual Inspection stage. This may include
wrong fuses being fitted or plugs being damaged or not of
the required BS standard. These are remedied immediately (by
reputable testing companies!).
Whilst classed as minor
(in that they can be repaired immediately) these faults could
still be very dangerous. Using a 13amp fuse in the plug of
an appliance that should have a 3 amp fuse will offer very
little protection.
Up to 10% of electrical
appliances have 'serious' fails i.e. they cannot be immediately
fixed and represent a significant danger to the users. Typically,
these may have damaged casings, exposed wiring or have poor
insulation or earth connections.
Whilst the above rates
are not typical of all organisations, it would be fair to
say that it would be very unusual to find an organisation
with 100 appliances that didn't have at least 1 or 2 items
in active use at their premises that would fail the PAT testing
process..
The 'Gallery of Fails'.
Below are some examples
of the kind of issues that we come across.
These examples were from
one hotel that had 8 fails out of just under 100 appliances.
The first was potentially
very dangerous. A blown plug fuse had been wrapped in silver
foil rather than replaced. In the event of a fault developing
with the appliance, the foil would have remained intact, offering
no protection to the user.
Another was on a well
known commercial vaccum cleaner. The outer insulation from
the cable had been removed and the live and neutral wires
had been tied in a knot and reattached to the plug. Consequently,
the wires were only held in by the terminal screws in the
plug and the slightest pressure would have pulled the wires
free.
At the same premises,
a table lamp had audio (speaker grade) wire connecting the
appliance to the plug.
More photos will be added
going forward.
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to Health & Safety Regulations
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