I've been doing a bit of reading in preparation for a PAT testing course. The section in the IEC code of practice regarding earth continuity tests has me a little confused.

I was wondering if any PAT Testing / electrical experts could offer some advice.

Pages 73 and 74 of the code of practice describe that one of the following earth continuity tests should be carried out:

A 'Hard test' which is carried out at 1.5 times the fuse rating of the appliance for 5 to 20 seconds.

or

A 'Soft Test' with a test current in the range of 20mA to 200mA.

My question is; is either of these tests acceptable regardless of the appliance under test? or should the hard test be always be carried out where possible (i.e on appliances which would not be damaged by this test such as kettles etc).

The reason I ask this question is that the pat tester owned by the company I work for performs the hard test at 10 amps (this is fixed and not user selectable) and the soft one at a user selectable range of 20mA -200mA. Using this meter it would be impossible to test a 13 amp appliance at 1.5 times the fuse rating (i.e 20 Amps). My second question is "Would it still be acceptable to use this meter which will only carry out hard tests at 10 amps?

Any help would be great. Thanks.