“Test and tag” comes up a lot for businesses, but plenty of people aren’t sure exactly what it involves or how often it needs doing. Here’s a plain-English rundown.
Test and tag is a process of visually inspecting and electrically testing portable appliances, think power tools, extension cords, kitchen equipment, computers and chargers, to confirm they’re safe to use. Once tested, each item gets a tag showing the test date and next due date.
What Test and Tag Checks For
The visual check looks for damaged cords, cracked plugs, or exposed wiring. The electrical test, done with a portable appliance tester (PAT), checks earth continuity, insulation resistance, and polarity to make sure the appliance is safe and won’t leak current or shock a user.
Testing frequency depends on the environment, equipment in a workshop or construction site is tested more often than the same item in a low-risk office.
Who Needs It Done
Test and tag isn’t just good practice, under the Health and Safety at Work Act, businesses have a duty of care to make sure electrical equipment used by staff and the public is safe. Untested or faulty equipment can lead to injury, fire, and liability if something goes wrong.
Most workplaces, from offices to warehouses to hospitality venues, need a testing schedule in place. Landlords with rental properties supplying appliances, and businesses hiring out equipment, also have obligations to keep on top of.
How Often Does Test and Tag Need Doing?
There’s no single answer, it comes down to how hard the gear works and where it lives. AS/NZS 3760, the standard used here in New Zealand, sets out typical intervals:
- Construction and demolition sites: every 3 months
- Factories, workshops and warehouses: every 6 months
- Commercial kitchens, hire gear and equipment that gets moved around a lot: every 6 to 12 months
- Offices, shops and equipment that stays put on a desk: every 12 months, and longer again in genuinely low risk setups
Brand new equipment doesn’t need a full test before it goes into service, but it does need a tag showing the date it entered service so the clock starts. Portable RCDs are the exception, they need a push button test far more often than that. If you’re not sure where your site sits, we’ll work it out with you on the first visit.
What Sets Us Apart
50+ Years of Proven Experience
Established in Auckland since 1974, French Electrical has been trusted across the region for over 50 years. Our team of registered Master Electricians delivers work that's built to last every time.
After-Hours Emergency Response
Electrical breakdowns don't keep business hours. French Electrical keeps an electrician on call outside office hours for residential, commercial and industrial clients across Auckland, responding fast to minimise downtime and protect your property.
SiteWise 100 Certified
French Electrical holds SiteWise 100 certification — New Zealand's highest contractor health and safety rating. This is required by many commercial, industrial and government clients and reflects our commitment to safe worksite practice.
$20,000 Workmanship Guarantee
As Quality Assured members of Master Electricians, our residential work carries a $20,000 workmanship guarantee. If anything falls short of standard, we put it right — labour and materials — at no cost to you.
What Happens When Something Fails
A failed item gets a fail tag and comes out of service on the spot. That’s the whole point of the exercise, catching the fault before someone gets a shock or a lead starts a fire.
From there it’s usually one of three outcomes: a straightforward repair like a new plug top or a re-terminated lead, a repair back through the manufacturer, or the item gets written off and replaced. Anything repaired is retested and re-tagged before it goes back into use.
We’ll also tell you what failed and why. If the same fault keeps turning up across a batch of extension leads or one brand of tool, that’s worth knowing, you can fix the cause rather than the symptom.
French Electrical provides test and tag as part of our commercial and industrial electrical services for Auckland businesses, with clear records and reminders for when your next round is due. Get in touch to set up a schedule that fits your workplace. For workplace obligations, see WorkSafe New Zealand’s guidance on electrical equipment safety.
The thing most people get wrong: it is not compulsory
Test and tag is widely described as a legal requirement in New Zealand. It is not, and WorkSafe says so directly.
What the law requires is that electrical equipment used at work is electrically safe and kept in a safe condition. Testing and tagging is one well-established way of demonstrating that you have met the duty — it is not the duty itself. AS/NZS 3760 is presented as an option for showing compliance, not as a mandate.
That distinction matters in both directions. It means nobody can tell you the law obliges you to buy a testing schedule. It also means you cannot discharge the obligation by doing nothing: if a worker is hurt by faulty equipment, “there is no legal requirement to test” is not a defence. The question will be what you did to know your equipment was safe.
Most businesses land on testing and tagging because it is the cheapest credible answer to that question, and because it produces a record.
Who is allowed to do it
The person doing the testing needs the relevant knowledge and skills, but they do not have to be a registered electrical worker. A business can train someone internally or bring in a third party.
There is a catch worth understanding before you decide. Only a registered electrical worker can carry out repairs on what the testing finds. So an in-house tester can identify a failed lead but cannot re-terminate it, which in practice means either items get thrown away rather than repaired, or you end up calling someone in anyway. For a small volume of equipment, in-house testing often costs more in scrapped gear than it saves in fees.
What has to be on the tag
A tag records who tested the item, the date it was tested, and when the next test is due. Some also carry an asset number so results can be tracked against the item over time.
Two practical points. A tag is a snapshot of the item’s condition on the day it was tested, and nothing more — it does not certify that the appliance is still safe six weeks later after somebody has run a trolley over the lead. And a missing or out-of-date tag is not itself a fault; it means the item’s status is unknown, which is why untagged gear generally gets pulled from service rather than trusted.
What test and tag does not cover
This is the gap that catches businesses out at audit. Test and tag applies to portable, plug-connected equipment. It says nothing about:
- Fixed wiring — switchboards, circuits, socket outlets, hard-wired equipment. That is inspection and testing of the installation, a separate exercise.
- RCDs. Equipment still needs RCD protection in the circumstances that call for it, such as outdoor and damp environments, regardless of whether it has been tested and tagged. RCDs need their own periodic testing.
- Specified systems — emergency lighting, fire alarms and the rest of a building warrant of fitness. Different regime entirely.
A tag on every extension lead and a switchboard nobody has opened in fifteen years is a common and misleading combination.
Making the schedule work
The intervals above are the standard’s recommendations, not a law, and the honest version is that they are a starting point you adjust to your site. Equipment that lives on a bench in a dry office is not the same risk as the same item on a wet site, and a hire fleet is different again.
What makes a programme actually useful rather than a box tick: keep a register so you know what you own and what is due; test new and repaired equipment before it goes into service; tag out failures immediately rather than leaving them in the cupboard; and look at the pattern, not just the pass rate. If the same lead type or the same brand of tool keeps failing, the fix is procurement, not more testing.
We provide test and tag as part of our commercial and industrial services, with records and reminders for when the next round is due. For the fixed side of the installation, see commercial electrical maintenance and compliance.