🔌⚡Electrical Test and Tag Perth - Testing & Tagging Services

1. Reducing Risk of Electric Shocks from appliances

Electric shocks leave permanent damage both physical and psychological. This is true for both the victim as well as  also any bystanders. Alternating Current (which is used in Australia and most places around the world) has the property of being “sticky”. This means if a person comes in contact with a live power source they become paralysed and essentially “sticks” to the point of contact. This makes it difficult, in many cases impossible, for them to free themselves.

We rely on appliances’ built in safety features, as well as fuses (or residual current devices (RCDs)) to protect us. However, this assumes the appliances and RCDs have been maintained properly and work correctly in such an event.

This is the reason Australian legislation and electrical standards are particularly strict around electrical safety. Testing & Tagging appliances, particularly in combination with RCD testing, ensures that electrical safety features within the appliance and circuit operate correctly.

See FAQ – How testing and tagging works if you want to understand exactly how the testing and tagging process works. Or see RCD testing page on how RCD testing works.

2.Reducing the Risk of Property Damage caused by faulty electrical equipment

Electrical fires from faulty appliances are more common than people think. This example of a news story highlights how a power board likely started a house fire.

Appliances most commonly start electrical fires due to

• short circuits, and
• undetected leakage current.

A common scenario is that continuous use of the appliance leads to wiring connections within the appliance gradually breaking apart. At the point of loose connection, the wire and/or metal components begin to overheat. This is turn starts melting the surrounding components, usually the rubber wire insulation or plastic / wooden parts of the appliance. These components release carbon which acts as a conductor, leading to arcing which then starts the actual fire.

During Testing and Tagging, we check appliances for leakage current and potential short circuits. This ensures that such a scenario is significantly less likely. The goal is to identify any faulty appliances before they cause harm.

3.Finding Hidden Dangers in Electrical Appliances

Most appliances these days are mass produced and quality control is sacrificed for price.
All it takes for an appliance to become a hazard is some loose wiring or a cold solder joint.

This is undetectable to the naked eye and the appliance will likely ‘be working fine’.

In some cases, an early warning signs could be a tingle or static when coming in contact with the appliance. You should immediately take the appliance out of service, if this is the case, and call us to test the appliance.

But in many cases the appliance may not exhibited any ‘unusual behaviour’ at all. This can also be the case for brand new appliances or appliances which have just entered service.

Using specialised equipment, called a PAT Tester, we can check the electrical safety properties of the appliance. This includes aforementioned current leakage, early warning signs of short circuits, and resistance to earth (so power surges or fault current goes to earth and not through a person!). A potentially dangerous appliance will display one or more error readings during the test. At that point, we will clearly mark it with an “Danger/ Out of Service Tag” and notify you.

This helps narrow down the issue for potential trouble shooting but most importantly:
It keeps you safe!