What Happens If an Appliance Fails a PAT Test?

A failed PAT test isn't a disaster — it's the system working. The whole point of inspecting and testing portable appliances is to find the ones that have become unsafe before they cause harm. But a failure does create an obligation: once you know an appliance is unsafe, you can't keep using it.

This guide covers exactly what to do when an appliance fails — from the moment it's flagged to the point it's back in service or safely disposed of — and how to record the failure so it stands up to scrutiny later.

What "failing" a PAT test actually means

An appliance can fail at two stages of the inspection and testing process:

• Visual inspection failure — the tester spots a fault before any electrical test runs: a cracked plug, damaged cable insulation, a bent earth pin, scorching, or signs of overheating. The HSE notes that visual examination is an essential part of the process precisely because some types of electrical safety defect can't be detected by testing alone.
• Electrical test failure — the appliance passes the visual check but fails a measured test: insufficient earth continuity on a Class I item, low insulation resistance, or excessive earth leakage current. These are the readings that reveal a problem the eye can't see.

Either way, the outcome is the same: the appliance is unsafe and must come out of use.

Step 1: Remove the appliance from service immediately

Once an appliance fails, it must be taken out of use straight away. The tester will normally apply a red fail label, but a label alone isn't enough — anyone could still plug the item in. Make the failure physical:

• Unplug the appliance and remove it from the work area, or
• Move it to a designated quarantine area for unsafe equipment, or
• Remove the plug or cut the cable if disposal is certain (only do this once the failure is recorded).

The goal is that nobody can accidentally return a failed item to use. For more on what the labels mean and how the fail sticker fits into the system, see our guide to PAT testing labels and stickers.

Step 2: Tell the people who need to know

A failure that only the tester knows about is a failure waiting to be undone. Let the relevant people know an item has been pulled:

• The person or team who uses the appliance
• The facilities or maintenance team responsible for repairs
• Anyone who might look for the item and assume it's just been moved

A quick note — in person, by email, or flagged in your register — prevents someone hunting down the "missing" kettle and quietly plugging it back in.

Step 3: Decide — repair, replace, or dispose

Not every failure means the appliance is scrap. Once it's out of service, assess what's wrong and what it's worth:

Outcome	When it applies
Repair	Minor, fixable faults — a damaged plug, frayed cable end, or loose connection that a competent person can put right
Replace	Multiple test failures, internal faults, severe damage, or items where repair costs more than replacement
Dispose	Beyond economic repair, obsolete, or unsafe by design — disposed of safely (WEEE recycling for electricals)

Minor repairs can often be done quickly by a competent electrician or maintenance person. There's no rule that a failed appliance must be thrown away — but there's no point repairing something that's cheaper to replace.

Step 4: Retest after any repair

This step is non-negotiable. Any appliance that has been repaired must be retested and pass before it goes back into service. A plug rewired to fix one fault might have introduced another — only a fresh inspection and test confirms the appliance is genuinely safe again. Don't return a repaired item to use on the assumption that the repair "must have worked."

Step 5: Record the failure

A failed PAT test must be recorded — not just the eventual fix. Good records of failures do two things: they prove you acted on the problem (due diligence), and they reveal patterns over time. An appliance that fails repeatedly, or a batch of items from the same supplier failing on insulation resistance, tells you something a single pass/fail line never would. Spotting those patterns is far easier when your records live in one place — dedicated PAT testing software surfaces repeat failures a spreadsheet hides.

Your record of the failure should capture:

• The appliance ID and description
• The date it failed and what it failed (visual or which electrical test)
• The action taken — removed from service, repaired, replaced, or disposed
• If repaired: the retest date and result
• Who carried out the work

This is exactly the kind of detail a good PAT register is built to hold. Recording the failure and its resolution in one place is what turns a one-off problem into demonstrable compliance.

Does a failure mean you've broken the law?

No. Finding a failed appliance is evidence your maintenance regime is working, not evidence of a breach.

The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 require that electrical systems are "maintained so as to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, such danger." Identifying an unsafe appliance and removing it from service is precisely what "maintaining to prevent danger" looks like in practice. The risk comes from the opposite scenario — knowing an appliance failed and continuing to use it anyway. That's where due-diligence breaks down.

For the full picture on what the law actually requires, see our guide to whether PAT testing is required by law.

How failures affect your testing frequency

A high failure rate is a signal. If a particular type of equipment, or equipment in a particular environment, keeps failing, that's a prompt to test it more often. The IET Code of Practice and HSE both favour a risk-based approach to frequency rather than a fixed annual interval — and failure history is one of the strongest inputs to that judgement. Our PAT testing frequency guide covers how to set and adjust intervals based on what your records are telling you.

Turn failures into a system, not a scramble

The difference between a well-run testing regime and a stressful one is whether failures are handled by a process or by panic. Remove the item, tell the right people, decide its fate, retest if repaired, and record everything. Do that consistently and a failed PAT test becomes a routine event instead of a compliance scare.

PATvault is being built to make that workflow effortless — flag a failure, log the action, schedule the retest, and keep the whole history in one auditable place.

Join the PATvault waitlist → We'll notify you at launch.