The great pat testing scam

[Risteard]

I've seen distribution boards with PAT test pass labels. Perhaps they didn't like the standard periodic inspection labels?

 

[oldtimer]

Got a job a year ago when the PIR highlighted that the baynot cap fitting was broken fine then a year later highlighted there was no earthing to the gas and water ? ? ? So I found out that they were doing a rolling PIR ie 20% a year only problem is this is meant for an industrial and commercial environment not a domestic seems they make up the rules as they go along and there was no PIR sticker

 

[shellyanne]

I recently went back to a school I had tested for years, they decided to go with a cheaper 60p company that approached them (although I offered a competative price) they finished the school in 2 days 8.30 - 4.30 and tested over 700 items, 1 man. I was back just to test the items they would not test as they are at height and they couldnt do it (no risk assessment for working at height and no 3 pin 16amp leads to test the equipment). Well I did my calculations and they would have had to test 1 peice of equipment every
1min 15secs!
I have been doing this for years and always work to a high standard and I can only do a max of 210 if I arrive early, work later and it includes a large it siute, and feel knacked afterwards. I couldnt do this on a daily basis so god knows how they can do 350 a day. They are obviously another company that just goes round putting stickers on with no formal visual inspection. It really upsets me that they can do this in schools, I like to go home at the end of the day knowing I did a great job and made it a safer place to work for everyone.:cheesy:

 

[RISElectrical]

I have been told (by a spark that in general opinion is highly rated) that with the new seward tester he has that he is averaging 600 a day, working 8-4 in offices etc. Bluetooth printer clipped to belt, and he says the tester will test an appliance in 10 seconds max.

food for thought

 

[Silly Sausage]

Heehee...Respect, that just about beats my all time daily record.
He must be awesomely fast at opening & closing plug tops.
and have lightningly fast fingers to input the data!

It's the one job that I'll never do again.

 

[RISElectrical]

By all account the tester has most items pre programmed in, press ac on the keypad and it come up with ac adaptor and remembers your last used location, for example office.

if.... and it is an if... what he says is true then 8 hours less lunch and breaks is 7 hours = 420 minutes. 600 tests at 10 seconds a test = 100 minutes leaving 320 minutes to unplug and plug back in appliances and check fuses.

This equates to approx 30 seconds to unplug, check fuse, plug back in again and attach pre printed sticker.

Now looking at this it could be possible however in a 7 hour working day it would be too much i think. he is probably under estimating how much he does or how long he works.

600 x 70p = 420 a day
600 x 80p = 480 a day
600 x £1 = £600 a day

and so on. personally i would work a 10 hour day for £600 thank you please.

 

[Silly Sausage]

By all account the tester has most items pre programmed in, press ac on the keypad and it come up with ac adaptor and remembers your last used location, for example office.

Now that would be quite handy.
Assuming all the items are already tested with a scan code label which matches the items on his machine, we're in appliance testing heaven.
I suppose he can get a perfect earth probe contact, in millisecs, on every class I item as well?!?
At least 50% of the items I've ever done, would fail on 1st contact!

 

[Engineer54]

I have been told (by a spark that in general opinion is highly rated) that with the new seward tester he has that he is averaging 600 a day, working 8-4 in offices etc. Bluetooth printer clipped to belt, and he says the tester will test an appliance in 10 seconds max.

food for thought

Yeah, and the Moon is made of Cheese!! Just another Rhinestone ''PASSING'' Cowboy!! lol!!:cheesy:

Does that 10 seconds include the load test as well?? lol!!

 

[Des 56]

I can well imagine myself doing pat testing for a living

Test items 1+2+3 in the first half hour then out for a smoke break
Test items 4+5+6, then the boredom means yet another smoke break
By then with a bit of luck, it should be time for the scheduled smoke break

The problem I see with pat testing and getting the quantities out is this draconian no smoking ban

 

[theroadblock]

haha my boss would have a field day with you guys posting 'PAT testing' hes an old grump and would bring you up on you calling it 'portable appliance testing testing' haha!

 

[Silly Sausage]

Actually...In Service Inspection & Testing of Electrical Equipment

 

[UNG]

I have been told (by a spark that in general opinion is highly rated) that with the new seward tester he has that he is averaging 600 a day, working 8-4 in offices etc. Bluetooth printer clipped to belt, and he says the tester will test an appliance in 10 seconds max.

food for thought

When I see claims like this I do wonder about the quality of the end product and if the results could be relied on if something happened resulting in a visit to court then people would see how highly rated he is by the judge

By all account the tester has most items pre programmed in, press ac on the keypad and it come up with ac adaptor and remembers your last used location, for example office.

if.... and it is an if... what he says is true then 8 hours less lunch and breaks is 7 hours = 420 minutes. 600 tests at 10 seconds a test = 100 minutes leaving 320 minutes to unplug and plug back in appliances and check fuses.

This equates to approx 30 seconds to unplug, check fuse, plug back in again and attach pre printed sticker.

Now looking at this it could be possible however in a 7 hour working day it would be too much i think. he is probably under estimating how much he does or how long he works.

600 x 70p = 420 a day
600 x 80p = 480 a day
600 x £1 = £600 a day

and so on. personally i would work a 10 hour day for £600 thank you please.

No matter how it's dressed up it's still only 40ish seconds per appliance. No allowance made for moving between rooms or crawling under desks and there is no way you can input the info into the tester and do the test in 10 seconds even if you skip some of the tests

 

[Tonkatoy27]

I have been told (by a spark that in general opinion is highly rated) that with the new seward tester he has that he is averaging 600 a day, working 8-4 in offices etc. Bluetooth printer clipped to belt, and he says the tester will test an appliance in 10 seconds max.

food for thought

The description sounds very much like the Seaward Primetest 300 that I use for the local schools. Auto increment number, auto spell description, blutooth printer etc etc. 10 seconds is utter rubbish. It takes nearly 5 seconds to send the label info from the tester to the printer, 10 seconds if you want a bar code. A good visual inspection should take longer than the electrical testing anyway.

My absolute all time best was 320 appliances in one 8.5 hour day, no breaks, 10 mins for lunch and shattered by the end. It was a whole line of IT suites with 80 appliances in each though. Lucrative week that.

 

[Tonkatoy27]

I'll bet all cheap portable appliance testing companies never give a thought to the fixed appliances they are supposed to test at the same time............. let alone microwave leakage testing.

 

[RISElectrical]

All i was doing was passing on the info that somebody gave to me regards what "he" does in a day. personally we charge £1.90 per test minimum and our PAT bloke will do 100 a day.

 

[Deleted member 9648]

Thought I'd ressurect this thread as I'm back in the same school (repairing lights) and the PAS (portable appliance stickering) boys are in again. I have covered the company name in the pics for legal reasons but suffice to say they are a National Testing Service.
This appliance was 'tested' yesterday.....the guys are on site 6hrs a day and are stickering 300 per man per day.
I also noted that this particular pile of power supplies also had plugs with unsleeved pins on several units,which are used by the pupils.

 

[Badged01]

Unfortunately until we can get the client out of the mentality that cheapest is best value for money this will always be a problem. Like with EICR's, they just want the piece of paper to shift risk to whoever has done it .....

 

[Unregistered]

Flag it up with the powers that be and drop them in the sht

 

[ian.settle1]

Flag it up with the powers that be and drop them in the sht

What powers to be? PAT testing doesnot have a scam who regulates it unlike the scams for Part P.

 

[Tonkatoy27]

What powers to be? PAT testing doesnot have a scam who regulates it unlike the scams for Part P.

By 'the powers that be' I meant the school, usually head of maintenance who would of given them the contract in the first place. The schools I work at are very hot on electrical safety and would jump on the company if they had charged for non existant testing.