Helping You Eliminate Non-Compliant Appliances
Making Your Workplace Safer with Quality Screening for Non-Compliant Plugs, Cables and Appliances As accredited members of the Alcumus Safe Contractor scheme, we take our health and safety responsibil…
As accredited members of the Alcumus SafeContractor scheme, we take our health and safety responsibilities seriously.
To protect our customers and our engineers our health and safety measures involve regular training on a range of relevant topics, known as ToolBox Talks. A recent feature of our training involved what we call ‘rogue appliances’ – the plugs, appliances and cables that do not conform to BS 1363-1 regulations.
Part of our job is to inspect every appliance that carries a plug at your premises, to make sure the risk of overheating, fire and electric shock is reduced to the lowest possible level. Regular planned, preventative maintenance is a good indication to your team and your insurers that you are doing everything you can to run a safe operation.
Unfortunately today’s global marketplace means we are seeing more and more plugs, in particular, that do not meet UK standards, and in some cases represent a very serious and immediate fire and/or health hazard. If an appliance is incredibly cheap, and comes from one of the inexpensive online sellers we are seeing springing up in our social media feeds, there’s a strong likelihood that the plastics, wiring and other components do not meet the stringent standards set out in this country to protect you, your workers and your premises.
What Is An Unsafe Plug?
Largely imported from countries such as China, these plugs sometimes come without a fuse (pictured above). This plug presents a high risk of overheating and increased risk of fire and should be failed upon inspection. Or, plugs may have a part-plastic earth pin (pictured below), which demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of our fixed wiring infrastructure in this country. This type of plug does not properly earth the appliance, and creates an increased risk of electric shock. It should be failed.
All the plugs shown above do not meet the PAT TEsting standards in this country, and should be failed.
Grant Foster
Another issue we see is plugs that have no fuse and also require an adapter to fit a UK socket, as pictured below. These plugs are not designed to meet BS 1363-1, can easily work loose of the adapter, and should be failed.
In addition to certain brands of extension cords, again Chinese-made and unsafe, we train our engineers to look out for cardboard covers that have not been removed from new plugs. Seems harmless? But these covers should be removed before use to make sure that all the pins of the plug locate fully in the socket, as they were designed to do, and to reduce the risk of providing a fuel source in the event of overheating. Please remove them – our engineers are trained to do the same!
Finally, does your current PAT testing provider test your microwaves?
If so they should carry a specific testing meter for this piece of work, which is calibrated regularly. Our engineers are trained to pass the testing meter over the door seals and front glass of the appliance to measure the level of radiation being emitted by the appliance. This checks whether the microwave is emitting unsafe levels of radiation, and ensures that it’s within permitted safety standards. The testing meter typically alerts the user with a visual or audible signal if the radiation level is too high.
In addition, we check the interior of microwave ovens for rust (pictured below), which can create irregular surfaces inside the microwave, causing sparks during operation. These sparks pose a fire hazard, as they can ignite flammable materials and/or damage the microwave. (As a side note, rust can also contaminate food.) So this appliance should be failed.
We hope this round-up of recent training points has been of interest.
We take your safety seriously. If your current PAT Testing provider isn’t talking to you about these issues and you’re interested in working with us, please get in touch for an informal chat or a quote.
Kingsmead Testing:
Providing a first-class PAT testing service in and around High Wycombe, Aylesbury, Milton Keynes, Luton, Chelmsford and further afield with our network of trusted, qualified engineers.
