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Posted By Paul D
We have a number of fans that have all failed(earth bond)PA Testing, they are being tested as class 1 as there is no class 2 symbol.
The PA machine the team are using doesn't give a reading but just fails the fans on earth bond.
They all cant be faulty by the law of averages!
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Posted By Ian Gardner
Earth bond reading is above the limit set on the tester?
Earth bond lead is being clipped to an unearthed piece of metal on the fan?
"The PA machine the team are using doesn't give a reading but just fails the fans on earth bond."
Pass/Fail testers are extremely unhelpful for diagnosing why something has failed. You need to get your hands on a multimeter to investigate this further.
"They all cant be faulty by the law of averages!"
Probably true, which indicates that your team are more than likely doing something wrong :-)
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Posted By Paul D
Thanks Ian,
What should the earth resistance measure in order to pass the test?
I think we need a better machine then, can anybody recommend a good pa testing machine for a factory/office environment, to do approx 200 appliances.
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Posted By Paul D
The above should be earth bond NOT resistance!
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Posted By Ian Gardner
Paul,
At the very least, your team really should have a copy of the IEE Code of Practice to hand, if undertaking appliance inspection & testing, as all your questions are covered in it:
http://www.theiet.org/pu...ng/books/wir-reg/cop.cfm
Has anyone on the team received any formal training to do this testing, such as a course including the City & Guilds 2377 qualification?
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Posted By Ian Gardner
"The above should be earth bond NOT resistance!"
Earth bond resistance is what you are measuring, so it's a perfectly valid term :-)
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Posted By Paul D
Thanks all, the team are our in house maintenance dept and have all formal training and are certified.
I know that the lads want a pa tester that is not just pass/fail but gives readings. I just wanted the info because the lads could be at a number of different sites and are quite hard to get hold of during the mornings.
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Posted By Ian Gardner
This 'PAT tester comparison chart' might be of use to you. Lots of info on the individual testers as well:
http://www.pat-training....at_tester_comparison.htm
For what it's worth, I would recommend either a Seaward Europa (mains powered) or Primetest 300 or 350 (battery powered for most tests), but this is purely because these are the ones I've used most.
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Posted By Ray Mitchell
some time ago a number of new fans failed our PA Test.Our qualified electrician looked at one and the earth wire was cut off at the outer sheaf insulation and so was not connected. I can not remember the details of the fans, but we returned them all as not suitable.
Ray
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Posted By Ian Gardner
Ray,
Just out of interest, was the earth cut off at the plug end, or inside the body of the fan?
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Posted By Clare Hazlewood
A simple pass/fail tester may not allow you to take into account the resistance of the lead. If your fan has a long skinny lead, this could be significant.
Also, it's not always easy to get at the earthed parts of a desk fan. Sometimes you have to take the cage off the fan and attach the earth clip to a screw behind the fan blades (and put the cage back on before you perform any form of load test). At the same time you can clean off the year's accumulation of dust and grime. Lovely.
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Posted By MP Grayson
I doubt that there's is anything wrong with the kit. The tendency is for the tester to try and check the path to earth from the fan cage, which as already stated is not connected to earth. Which means a 100% failure rate, each and every time.
You said that they (the testers) have all had formal training but didn't clarify what training.
Not the magic DVD, followed by the magic "sign em up pen" was it by any chance?
Crack on.
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Posted By Seamus O Sullivan
Hi Paul
The Robin smartpat 5000 seems to be a good tester, this appears to be a discontinued model, so perhaps the Robin 5500 would be suitable, You can get extra bits to check extension leads etc.
Regards
Seamus
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Posted By Sen Sar
Are they what is deemed to be Class1 plastic!
So although class 1 they have no exposed metal so they always fail the eart test.
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Noah Harold REPORTED hyperlink
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Noah Harold REPORTED hyperlink
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