How many items should be PAT tested in one day?

This is the million dollar question between PAT testers; You will hear many different answers depending on who is asking the question, who is answering it, and if the answer is being given to a customer or another company.

I have heard some companies say “If you can’t do a PAT test with 500 items in one day, it’s no use to us” when looking for contractors to do PAT testing for them, and I’ve heard company directors say “If my staff tests more than 200 items in a day, I would ask them what they missed?”

With PAT test it is common to have a ‘Price per item ‘ making work almost a “peace beat” this shouldn’t make any difference, but with some companies charging so little this may mean rushing work and cutting corners to make as much money as possible.

How long is a business day? Usually 8 hours, with breaks … many clients expect a PAT tester to work much longer than that and sometimes the PAT tester will do a job in 1 day instead of 2. There are many times that I have worked between 10 and 12 hours a day to save returning to a site on a second day.

But how many items need to be tested in one day? That depends on what is being tested and the location … 110V tools on a construction site, for example, take much longer to test than computers in a call center or replacement cables in a storage room of you.

Let’s keep things simple for this investigation;

We have an 8-hour shift, of which we will take a 30-minute lunch and two 15-minute breaks, which leaves us 7 hours of work.

We work in an office environment with computer banks. There are 50 people working in the office, each with a computer. Every 5 computers feed a printer. So with a computer with 4 elements (PC hard disk, monitor and 2 detachable cables) and the printer with 2 elements (printer unit and detachable cable), we have 10 printers.

So that’s 50 computers, that’s 200 items, 10 printers, that’s 20 items, that’s 220 items.

To test, we need to disconnect the wires first, then we need to check to make sure the correct fuse is in place, verify that the wire is in good condition, and that the connection points are not damaged. An experienced PAT tester should be able to check the cable in about 30 seconds (nowadays most IT items have sealed plugs, if we were to open the plug to check the inside this process would take 1-2 minutes).

In addition to the cables, the unit should be checked and then electrical tests carried out on all items. When plugging and unplugging, it takes approximately 30 seconds to test each cable, and the same for each appliance. In total, it should take a couple of minutes to test each device.

No matter how good or experienced the PAT Tester is, it shouldn’t be able to test more than 20-30 items per hour, in an office environment. This is a good level to work with: 220 articles at 30 articles per hour is about 7 hours.

There will be times when more elements can be done and others when fewer elements are made, but the point to consider here is the following:

If we just determined that in a 7 hour (roughly) day we should be able to test 220 items, how can some companies promise their customers that they will test 500 items at the same time?

A national PAT testing company was recruiting local contractors, I had no intention of working for them, but I asked for more information on their operating methods anyway. They called me to discuss my application and I made a big mistake when I answered their question:

“How many items can a PAT test perform in one day?”

My answer, “Honestly, around 2-250 in an ideal setting.”

Your answer “that’s not enough for us, you must make a minimum of 500”

I explained that this was not possible and they said “No matter what is possible, just do what it takes to complete at least 500 PAT tests per day.”

I let them continue, thinking that I was still interested and the pay rate went up, they would pay me 20p for each item I tried on them.

If you tested 500 items in one day, you would earn £ 100.00. For someone who is self-employed, that’s not good pay. That’s why these guys have to sell 500 items a day, a minimum to make a living. Remember that of those £ 100 you have to pay your fuel costs, daily expenses, insurance, equipment, vacation pay, etc. Testing 500 items per day, or 70 items per hour is impossible if done correctly, which is why mistakes are made and why most will never complete a full visual inspection and are also unlikely to complete electrical tests as well, as at this time pace barely have time to paste a label.

Be very careful who you choose for your PAT test, don’t be surprised, use someone superior, like DRA Electricals.

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