What Is PAT Testing?

If you know anything about electrical appliances or electrical equipment, then you know that they very often break down or get damaged in some way. Damaged appliances or electrical equipment can often still be used, but it becomes much more dangerous to use. For example, electrical appliances or equipment with frayed wires can often still work, but the danger of being electrocuted while using the appliance or the piece of equipment skyrockets. This is why services like PAT testing exist. For those who do not know, PAT stands for “portable appliance testing” (for those wondering, technically PAT testing is redundant, but since most people refer to it as PAT testing, we will call it that to reduce confusion). In this brief article, we are going to go into more detail on what PAT testing is and what it involves. 

What is it? 

When you get PAT testing done, what will happen is that a licenced technician will come and carry out an inspection of your appliances or electrical equipment. The purpose of the inspections is to ensure a couple of things. First off, the technician wants to ensure that there are no safety hazards that people have to be worried about. If you are getting home appliances tested, then the technician will want to ensure that you, and everyone else in the house, can be around the appliance and use the appliance without fear of being hurt. Next up, the technician will want to ensure that the appliance is working properly. If you are a business getting your electrical equipment inspected, then the technician will be checking to make sure that your equipment complies with relevant safety regulations and that any customers or employees who use the equipment will not be hurt. 

If you are a business owner or a home owner and you are not already getting regular PAT testing done, then you should consider getting it done sooner rather than later. Finding PAT testing is easy, just hop on a search engine and type in your local area and PAT and you will find plenty of firms. For example, by typing in “PAT testing Kent” you can find a bunch of options in your area. 

What does it involve?

There are essentially 2 steps to PAT Testing. First up, there is the visual inspection. This is where the bulk of the problems are caught. The inspector will check for potential issues on the outside of the appliance. They will look for things like damaged wires, signs of overheating or discolouration, etc. After the visual inspection, the inspector will then perform a test that determines if there are any internal issues with the appliance, such as electrical leakage, lack of insulation, and other issues like that.