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OK hands up guys: How many of us still do, I know I do as it’s often the quickest way of doing things. Just wondered if anyone else still does.
Re: Live testing
If you are referring to advice given out on the public forums, hopefully by all trade members who answer there I think its very much a case of “do as I say and not as I do” 😉
Jim.
Re: Live testing
No mate, it was a question after a conversation with another “engineer” for want of a better description after seeing him with 1 of these little cheapy pocket Analogues & commenting on the Dangers of useing this type of meter for Live testing on mains appliances. I was assured by him that no 1 does this anymore as it’s illegal & just as quick to go through a machine doing continuity tests. NOW I KNOW IT’S NOT ILLEGAL & I also know it’s nowhere near as quick to carry out Continuity / Resistance tests on everything to find a fault. I just wondered how many people are of the same opinion.
Re: Live testing
It’s not as if you’re going to put all the lid and panels back on every time you want to find out if a change you’ve made has had any effect. :rolls: But that’s surely what you’d have to do if H&S had their way.
Mike.Re: Live testing
How would you measure supply to components?
It would be like an mot tester doing an emmisions test without starting the engine !
Re: Live testing
Isnt that what insulated crocodile clips and insulated probes are for? If you didnt do live testing how would you discover voltage drops and also how would you find out the current draw of components?
Re: Live testing
cornwell40 wrote:Yup, a sometimes necessary evil. When done safely 😉
Agreed, 🙂
Re: Live testing
i think this is the brit -gas official line –
probaly to cover their ar3£Rsappoligies for all the good bg engineers – but i have worked their and had insight into their training – skills etc ..
when i started with bg i was buddied with a another engineer he basicaly contridicted everything i was taught in the basic safety induction , now he has climbed the ladder he now preach,s everything that he didnt do as an engineer – weird of what ..
they basicaly cover their arssssss. by getting engineer to sign loads of training – disclosure documents so when the poor old engineer does something out with their “policy” its bye bye … all with the knowledge that engineers need to work outwith their policy to get the job done ..
i suppose you could apply this to any job in life …bottom line its all to easy to complacent in this line – so always best to take a step back and think what your doing with reguards to live testing
ally
Re: Live testing
Also, i have never been concerned about live testing, i have had worse belts off kitchen sinks that are not bonded. You sometimes take you life in your hands when you go in other peoples properties, its still a regular occurance to find burnt out sockets and un earthed extension leads and wrongly connected sockets, testing a machine live is probably the safest thing as we do at least have control over what we are doing!
Re: Live testing
I tried explaining to him that if you know how to test properly & have good test gear with quality leads, probes & clips then your perfectly safe. But it fell on deaf ears, I regularly work on 3 phase systems & carry out live testing on these so there’s no way am I going to change my way of testing when working on a washing machine / dryer etc.
Suppose in the end it all comes down to how your taught & the type of test gear you use.
Know what you mean Dr Dill, had some nice tickles of Unearthed sinks, machines etc.Re: Live testing
Specialist01269 wrote:Just wondered if anyone else still does.
I’m somewhat puzzled as to why you ask the question TBH? 😕
The very nature of the job, the very essence of any work involving electrical circuits requires the need for live testing. :rolls:
Neil referred earlier to testing car emissions which I thought an excellent parallel. Likewise a gas engineer has to turn on the gas, the plumber has to, at some point, turn on the water…… It, put in it’s most simplistic terms, is an essential requirement of the job! Dangerous yes, not without risks by any means, not for the faint-hearted or, more pertinently, the incompetent. As to the latter, therein lies a tale for darn sure, but I’d best not think or speak of that in this thread anyway.
(I’m sure Bill Bryson could write his next book entitled “How Do You Define an Engineer”:D)
Re: Live testing
Hi Martin: If you read post 3 it explains why I posed the question & the guy I had spoken to is not the only 1 i’ve come across that’s of the opinion that live testing of appliances is not only illegal but also unescessary.
Re: Live testing
Specialist01269 wrote:Hi Martin: If you read post 3 it explains why I posed the question & the guy I had spoken to is not the only 1 i’ve come across that’s of the opinion that live testing of appliances is not only illegal but also unescessary.
Illegal, Someone is being a bit to far fetched with their H & S. Its not illegal but competance as Martin mentions is the key. How would you know if say a relay is being energised by the board or the element is getting pwoer to it without a live test ? Its a nonsense of some H & S managers to cover the legals ( ie their postion of being sued maybe and even then i think it wouldnt hold water). Who doesnt ever do a live test at some point is the question to be asked i think
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