What can a PAT tester do?

[hobbesy]

Rather than check and fail an appliance for something simple like loose wiring in a plug or wrong fuse, what can a tester do without being a qualified electrician to make an appliance pass the test?

Thanks

 

[Geordie Spark]

What can a PAT tester do???

Well, I suppose it can test Pat but for what I don't know.

If it's a female Pat, maybe it can test to see if she can cook a fillet steak, bake a stotty cake or pour a bottle of Newcastle Broon correctly.

If it's a male Pat, perhaps it can tell us how long it will take him to dig a canal from Land's End to John o' Groats, or what he will do if you show him a line of shovels leaning against a wall and tell him to take his pick.

 

[hobbesy]

Have I missed the joke ;-)

 

[Guest111]

I had to read it 3 times before it made sense,you mean what can the operator of a pat testing machine do. well you don't have to be a qualified spark to repair machinery,in the same vein that you do not have to hold a PAT testing certificate to carry out PAT testing.The whole thing in law revolves around the question of competency,A person may be a qualified spark but that does not mean he is competent to work on certain equipment,in the same way that someone may hold a PAT certificate and not be fully competent at testing,this is something we see all to often these days.If you understand the equipment that you are working on then you may repair it,however if it went wrong would you be able to prove beyond doubt in a court of law that you were COMPETENT to do what you did? That is the sticky bit.

 

[Geordie Spark]

Have I missed the joke ;-)

Sorry.

I couldn't resist it. :jester:

 

[Darkwood]

A PA-Tester can only do what (s)he is competent to do, if your not competent to change the plug then don't if you are then you can .... it comes down to proving your competence... if you repaired something and subsequently this item gave a shock, injured or killed someone you will be part of the investigation into what happened .... this is where you will have to show why you repaired it, what experience and/or qualifications you have to back up your claims and obviously having made a repair other than plug top or reflex you will need to show that you haven't damaged or weakened the integrity of the item... this is usually done with a flash test but precautions are needed when doing so... this is a test the manufacturer does but is not normally required in PA-Testing.