Portable Appliance Testing Equipment

There is a very wide range of portable appliance testing equipment available on the market today. HT PAT Testing use the most advanced PAT testers to date, which are the Seaward Prime Test 350, enabling us to provide our customers with a range of extremely accurate tests. We can perform RCD tests, 250v soft tests for IT and other sensitive equipment as well as 500v hard tests, also functional tests, protective conductor current and touch current test, polarity test for IEC leads and extension leads and earth continuity test. There are three different types of testers which are pass or fail, manual and downloadable.

Pass Or Fail (Basic Testers)

Pass or Fail testers are for those looking for an easy to use portable appliance tester, with a much simpler range of tests. Simply choose the type of test you require; earthed appliance (class 1), double insulated appliance (class 2). Some testers may have the option to test mains cords (IEC leads or extension leads). After the tester has finished the test you choose the simple display shows whether it is a pass or a fail.

The main advantage of having a basic tester is that they are easy to use and no interpretation of results is necessary, meaning that very minimal knowledge of portable appliance testing is required to carry out these tests.

The main disadvantage of basic testers is there limited use; they generally only allow a few different types of tests. Another disadvantage of most pass or fail testers is that the earth bond pass limit is set, not allowing you to change the limits if required. This can lead to falsely failing equipment, for example equipment with longer power leads might struggle to pass. As well as the earth bond pass limit being set so can the earth continuity, sometimes up to 25amps which is unsuitable for IT or other sensitive equipment.

Pass or fail testers are designed more for very small companies with small amounts of tests wishing to carry out their own portable appliance testing. There limited use means that they are not really suitable for PAT testing companies.

Manual Testers

Manual testers require more understanding than the pass or fail testers to correctly interpret results. They allow a wider range of different tests including protective earth conductor current test, touch current test and some enable you to change the earth continuity allow the safer testing of IT or other sensitive equipment. Manual testers are much better than the pass or fail testers allowing more thought testing of electrical equipment; they are suitable for small companies with small amounts of tests.

Downloadable And Advanced Testers

Advanced testers are much more suitable for PAT testing companies and other companies that have a large amount of electrical equipment who test in house and require a good knowledge of electrical testers and equipment. They have a wide range of different tests such as RCD testing, polarity testing for IEC leads and extension leads, earth continuity, insulation resistance, protective earth conductor current testing, touch current testing, earth leakage, load testing and 110v testing. Most advanced testers allow you to change the setting of the earth continuity to enable safer testing of IT and other sensitive equipment, these setting can range from 20mA up to 25A. They also allow you to change the settings of the insulation resistance from either 250volts or 500volts so you can accurately test surge protector or surge suppressor equipment.

Advanced testers have recording capabilities which allow the downloading and printing of results enabling much faster and efficient testing. Pre programmed test sequences can also be saved on these types of testers again allowing much more accurate and efficient testing.

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