IT Equipment Due for Testing?
Tell us roughly how many desks and racks you have, the type of office, the suburb or town and when testing is due, and we'll connect you with test and tag providers across Western Australia.
Free · No obligation · WA-wide
Typical IT Equipment Test and Tag Costs WA
Per item, larger sites$4.50 - $6.50
Per item, small offices and shops$6 - $9
Minimum charge or call out$120 - $260
Extension lead or power board$4 - $8
Replacement plug fitted$25 - $55
Replacement lead fitted$35 - $75
Register and reportUsually included
After hours or weekend testingPlus 25 - 50 per cent
Figures are indicative 2026 WA estimates and vary with the number of items, the site type, travel, repairs and the time of day. Ask for a written quote based on your actual item count, and check current WA workplace safety requirements before relying on any figure.
IT Equipment Test and Tag Services WA
Offices run on more plug in equipment than almost any other kind of workplace, and most of it belongs to the IT team. Laptops and their chargers, desktop towers, monitors, docking stations, printers, network switches, rack hardware and the uninterruptible power supplies in the comms room all arrive with a flexible lead and a plug, which means they all come into scope when testing is due. Test and tag covers the visual check, the electrical tests that suit each item and a tag recording the date, the tester and the next due date, with every item written into a register you can match against your own asset list. Businesses from the Perth CBD and West Perth through Osborne Park, Malaga and Canning Vale to branch offices in Mandurah, Bunbury, Geraldton, Karratha and Kalgoorlie all face the same practical problem, which is getting through hundreds of items without taking staff or systems offline. Most offices pay somewhere between $6 and $9 an item, with smaller sites carrying a minimum charge for the visit. Because nearly all IT hardware is double insulated, the round moves faster than people expect once access is sorted out. Comms rooms slow a round down, since rack gear and anything feeding a server cannot be unplugged mid afternoon. Settling the window, and who authorises pulling power, saves more time than haggling over the rate. Post your job on The Quote Yard to reach test and tag providers across WA.
At a Glance - IT Equipment Test and Tag in WA
| Equipment Group | Usual Class | Earth Test | Access Needed | Key Point |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laptops and chargers | Class II | Does not apply | Desk side | Lead splits at the brick |
| Desktops and printers | Often Class I | Applies | Desk or print room | Detachable lead counts too |
| Monitors and screens | Class II | Does not apply | Desk side | Leads crushed by chairs |
| Switches and rack gear | Class II | Does not apply | Rear of rack | Needs an escort |
| Battery backup units | Varies by model | Depends on the unit | Comms room | Battery health is separate |
| Docking stations and hubs | Class II | Does not apply | Under the desk | Power bricks collect dust |
Why an IT Round Looks Different From Any Other
An office full of computers is a high item count in a low risk environment, which is the opposite of most sites a tester visits.
The equipment itself is gentle on itself. Nothing is dragged across concrete or swung into a wall, so the dramatic failures behind power tool test and tag rounds are rare here. What an office produces instead is slow mechanical damage to thin flexible cords, which are pulled out of docks by the cable, crushed flat under chair wheels, bent sharply where they leave a power brick and wound tightly around a charger for two years in a laptop bag. Dust is the second problem, settling into fan vents on floor level power supplies until a case runs hot. Both of those are found by looking rather than by metering, which is why the visual inspection carries most of the weight on this kind of round.
The hard part is logistics. Every item is attached to a person who is working, or to a system that other people are depending on, so the round has to be planned around desks, floors, lift bookings, locked rooms and change windows rather than simply walked. Item counts also run far higher per square metre than anywhere else, because a single desk can carry seven or eight plugs, and that pushes the total well past what managers estimate from memory. Comms rooms add their own complications, since the racks are dense, the rear access is often poor and the room is usually warm, and where cooling is marginal an air conditioning servicing visit is worth booking in the same period.
What Counts as IT Equipment for Testing
The simplest way to scope an IT round is to count anything with a lead and a plug on the end. That catches laptops, chargers, desktops, monitors, printers and desk phones, plus the switches and routers in the comms cupboard. It also catches the long tail that asset lists miss, such as docking stations, monitor arm hubs, external drives and label printers. Fixed wiring, wall outlets and anything hardwired is a separate job outside your item count, as is the site gear under power tool test and tag. Battery powered devices with no mains lead are not tested, but the charger that feeds them is. Count a detachable lead and the device it feeds as two items, because that is how providers price the work.
Draw the boundary by room rather than by asset category, because that is how a tester moves through a building. Meeting rooms hold projectors, conference units, wall screens and a drawer of leads that never leaves the room. The spares cupboard holds retired laptops, loan chargers and boxed supplies, and anything issued to staff needs to be in date. Kitchen and breakout gear usually belongs to facilities, so agree early who pays and who signs off. Equipment on a home desk is harder, so most firms either rotate it in or exclude it in writing. A new fit out is the easiest moment to fix this, because office fitout planning sets how many outlets each desk gets.
| Where You Look | Items Usually Found | Easy to Miss |
|---|---|---|
| Open plan desks | Laptops, chargers, docks, monitors | Boards in the footwell |
| Print and copy room | Printers, copiers, shredders | Spare detachable leads |
| Meeting rooms | Projectors, screens, conference units | Lead drawer under the table |
| Comms room or cupboard | Switches, routers, backup units | Rack fans and shelf gear |
| IT spares cupboard | Loan laptops, chargers, monitors | Boxed power supplies |
| Reception and breakout | Screens, speakers, desk phones | Staff owned lamps and fans |
Class II Gear and Why the Earth Test Does Not Apply
Every item falls into one of two protection classes, and knowing which one explains most of test day. Class I equipment depends on an earth connection, usually because a metal case could be made live, and the earth wire carries fault current away so the protection trips. Class II equipment does not rely on earth at all, because the live parts sit behind two independent layers of insulation, marked by a square inside a square. A Class II item has no earth doing protective work, so there is nothing to measure and the earth continuity test does not apply. The tester still does the visual inspection and an insulation resistance or leakage current test. Most laptops, chargers, monitors and switches are Class II, so the round turns on looking closely rather than earth readings.
The exceptions are worth knowing before you promise anyone a quick visit. Desktop towers, laser printers and copiers have a three pin detachable lead and a metal chassis, so they are Class I and the lead is an item of its own. That lead is also the part most likely to fail, because it gets pulled out by the cable and swapped between machines. Anything larger running on a three phase supply sits with three phase test and tag providers instead. Tell your provider how the split sits between double insulated desk gear and earthed machines, because it changes the time per item.
| Feature | Class I | Class II |
|---|---|---|
| How it protects you | Earth connection to metal parts | Two independent insulation layers |
| Marking on the label | No double square symbol | A square inside a square |
| Typical IT examples | Towers, laser printers, copiers | Laptops, chargers, monitors, switches |
| Earth continuity test | Applies, earth path measured | Does not apply at all |
| Insulation or leakage test | Applies | Applies |
| Usual failure point | Loose earth in a detachable lead | Split cord or cracked case |
Finding the Double Square on Your Own Gear
You can sort your own equipment into the two classes in an afternoon, which makes the first conversation with a provider far more useful.
Turn the item over and read the rating label, usually under a laptop charger, behind a monitor or on the rear panel of a switch. A square inside a square means double insulated, and that item needs no earth test. A two pin moulded plug with no earth pin is another strong signal, while a three pin plug on a metal cased machine points the other way. Note the result against each model rather than each unit, because you buy in batches and the whole batch matches. None of this replaces the test, and the outlets feeding your desks have their own separate check, which RCD testing covers for the safety switches on those circuits.
Working Around Staff and Live Systems
Testing an office is a logistics problem far more than a technical one. Each desk machine is unplugged for a minute or two, which is nothing to a tester and a real interruption to someone mid task. The usual answer is to warn the floor a week ahead and work desk by desk in a predictable direction. Early mornings, late afternoons and the quiet week either side of a public holiday all beat a Monday morning. Where after hours access exists for commercial cleaning crews, the same arrangement often covers the tester and removes the interruption.
Some equipment cannot simply be unplugged, and that list needs to exist before the booking is made. Core switches, firewalls, phone systems and alarm panels sit on a change window rather than a walk past. Decide which are tested inside a maintenance window, which on a spare supply, and which are recorded as not tested. Write the decision down, because a register with unexplained gaps is worse than one that says plainly why an item was skipped. Tell the tester which racks are live and who has to be standing there before anything inside them is touched.
Booking the Round So Nobody Loses Work
Most complaints about an office test round come from poor warning rather than from the testing itself. Send one notice to all staff a week out and a second the day before, naming the floors and the order the tester will follow. Ask people to clear the footwell under their desk and move boxes away from the power point, or the tester will spend the visit shifting storage. Tell staff their laptop, monitor and dock will each be unplugged briefly, so anything unsaved should be saved first. Nominate one person per floor who can unlock meeting rooms and confirm that a room is finished. Keep a box at reception for items brought up from drawers, so loose chargers are tested in the same pass. If a dead outlet or a warm faceplate turns up behind a desk, that is building wiring rather than equipment, and a commercial electrician handles it separately.
Comms Rooms, Racks and Rear of Rack Access
Comms rooms hold the highest value equipment on site and the least room to work in. A typical rack carries switches, patch panels, a firewall, a server or two, a backup unit and leads to outlet strips at the back. Every lead is an item, and so is every device, so one full rack can add fifty register entries. The difficulty is never the testing and always reaching the rear of the rack. Rooms built against a wall and converted store cupboards leave no rear access at all. Heat is the other constant, since a closed room of running hardware stays warm enough to make careful work unpleasant.
Decide in advance how much of each rack is going to be tested this round. Many firms test the input leads, the backup unit, the outlet strips and anything that can be dropped safely. Label both ends of every lead before anything is unplugged, because a rack rebuilt from memory is the costliest mistake. Have someone from IT in the room throughout, with the layout in front of them and the authority to say no. Photograph the rear of each rack before work starts, which settles any later argument about what was plugged where. Where racks went in with a cabling project, the records held by your commercial data cabling contractor usually show the power layout as well.
| Rack Area | What Gets Tested | Access Note |
|---|---|---|
| Rack input leads | Lead, plug, insulation | Needs rear or side access |
| Vertical outlet strips | Lead, outlets, insulation | Often fixed to the frame |
| Switches and firewalls | Lead and device, no earth path | Usually a change window |
| Rack mounted servers | Detachable leads, earth path | Dual supplies make it easier |
| Backup unit in the base | Lead, case, insulation | Heavy, may need two people |
| Rack fans and shelf gear | Lead, plug, insulation | Easy wins, do these first |
Preparing a Comms Room Before the Tester Arrives
An hour in the comms room the week before saves several on the day and protects you from an unplanned outage. Clear the floor completely, because boxes of patch leads and old monitors are what stop a rack door opening. Move the rack out from the wall if it is on castors, and if it cannot be moved, say so in the quote request. Print the rack layout and tape it inside the door, listing each device, its position and its supply. Label the leads at both ends with the device name rather than the port number, since the name is readable in poor light. Note which devices have two power supplies, because those can be tested one side at a time with no interruption. Have the change window approved before the booking rather than on the morning. Where the leads are a tangle nobody can trace, tidying it is a job for your data cabling installation contractor and belongs before testing.
Uninterruptible Power Supplies and Battery Gear
Uninterruptible power supplies sit in their own category because they store energy inside the case. A desk side unit protecting one server is a plug in appliance with a lead, a case and a battery. A floor standing unit with a battery cabinet is closer to installed plant, and some are hardwired. Check whether yours plugs into a dedicated outlet, because a hardwired unit belongs with an electrician and often surfaces during a switchboard upgrade. Tell the provider the size of the unit and whether it can be transferred to bypass.
Testing confirms the lead, the plug and the insulation are sound, and says nothing whatsoever about the battery. Battery health is a separate service, and a unit that passes its electrical test can still fail to carry load. Ask for the battery date on the register anyway, because it is in front of the tester and almost never recorded. Heat shortens battery life, so units in a warm cupboard need attention sooner than the label suggests. Keep replaced batteries out of the general waste stream and arrange collection when they come out.
Docking Stations, Monitors and Desk Clutter
Desks are where the item count quietly doubles on you. One workstation can carry a laptop charger, a dock with its own brick, two monitor leads, a headset base, a lamp and a four outlet board. Power bricks are the worst offenders, sitting on the floor, collecting dust in their vents and carrying the thinnest leads in the building. A dock running warm with a frayed cord at the brick is the most common office fail. The fix is more outlets rather than more boards, and power point installation at desk height clears most of the floor level clutter.
Counting desk items properly is worth the hour it takes. Walk one row, count every plug on and under three or four desks, then multiply by the similar desks. Add meeting rooms, reception, the print room and the breakout area separately, since their mix is different. Chair wheels cause most of the damage, crushing leads until the insulation splits on the hidden side. Monitor arms, trays and cable socks keep leads out of sight, so expect the tester to pull some apart. Anything taped or spliced where it should not be is a fail whatever the meter says.
A Desk Side Check Staff Can Do in Half a Minute
Formal testing happens once a year in most offices, and damage happens whenever a chair rolls over a cord.
Nobody needs training to spot the faults that matter most here. Ask staff to run a hand along the charger lead from the plug to the brick and on to the device, feeling for flat spots, splits and sharp kinks. Check the plug for bent pins, cracks and scorch marks, and check the cord is held firmly where it enters the plug and the brick. Feel whether the brick is unusually hot and look at its vents for packed dust. Look under the desk for a board in a pool of cable, overloaded, or plugged into another board. Anything that fails that look should be unplugged, labelled as not to be used and reported the same day. Where the fault turns out to be the outlet rather than the lead, electrical fault finding is the service that tracks it down.
| Desk Item | Common Fault | What to Do |
|---|---|---|
| Laptop charger | Cord splitting at the brick | Replace it, never tape it |
| Docking station | Lead damaged at the plug | Test the lead separately |
| Monitor lead | Crushed under chair wheels | Reroute above floor level |
| Four outlet board | Overloaded or plugged into another | Add outlets at the desk |
| Desk fan or heater | Dust in vents, hot case | Clean it or take it out of use |
| Headset base or hub | Loose cord grip | Replace the unit outright |
Chargers Staff Bring From Home
Every office has a drawer of chargers nobody can account for. Staff bring in phone chargers, laptop supplies bought online, fan heaters, desk fans, lamps and speakers. Those are often the cheapest goods in the building, and the ones carried in a bag for years are the most damaged. Personal boards and travel adaptors are the worst, because they get loaded past what they were built to carry. Choosing and managing boards and leads is covered under extension lead and power board testing.
You have three workable options, and the worst is pretending the problem does not exist. The first is to ban personal items and supply what people need, which is clean but has to be enforced. The second is to allow them if they are declared and tested, which keeps the register honest. The third is to allow phone chargers only, and to supply heaters, fans and lamps centrally yourself. Whichever you choose, put it in writing and repeat it before winter when the heaters appear. Watch the recall lists too, because product safety recalls are published by the ACCC and cheap chargers appear on them regularly.
Setting a Simple Rule for Personal Equipment
A policy people can remember in one sentence works better than a page nobody reads, and it needs to say what happens when the rule is broken.
Decide first whether facilities or IT owns the question, because personal heaters are rarely an IT problem and personal chargers almost always are. Write the rule around categories rather than brands, since a list of approved products goes stale within a year. A workable version allows phone chargers and desk fans that are declared and tagged, supplies heaters and lamps centrally, and removes boards and travel adaptors. Set a declaration point, such as a note to the service desk, so items reach the register instead of appearing on test day. Say plainly what happens to undeclared items, which is usually that they are tested and the cost sits with the department. Shared kitchen equipment is worth settling at the same time, since microwaves have their own separate check under microwave leakage testing.
| Personal Item | Why It Causes Trouble | Practical Policy |
|---|---|---|
| Phone charger | Thin lead, carried every day | Allow, declare, test with the round |
| Laptop supply bought online | Compliance marking often absent | Allow only if properly marked |
| Fan heater | Heavy load on a shared board | Supply centrally, ban the rest |
| Desk fan | Dusty and often knocked over | Allow, declare, test with the round |
| Travel adaptor or board | Overloaded, no real protection | Remove and add fixed outlets |
| Kettle or small kitchen gear | Unlogged and draws high current | Facilities supplies and records it |
Asset Tags, Serial Numbers and Matching Your Register
The register is the part you keep, so it should match the system you already run. Most IT teams key their asset list on a serial or internal number, and the test register will use the tester's numbering unless you ask. Ask for your identifier as the primary field, which turns the register into something you can import. Send an export of that list before the visit, with the identifier, the model and the location. Serial numbers are printed small, under laptops and behind monitors, and a tester at a rack will not find them unaided. Scannable tags solve this where the label is readable in use.
Decide where the tag physically goes before the first one is stuck on. Near the plug is the convention, but a tag on a thin charger lead peels off in a bag and a tag under a dock is invisible. Many teams tag the lead near the plug and label the device beside the existing asset sticker. Ask for a spreadsheet as well as a report, listing every item, its location, its result and its due date. If the work reaches you through another provider, the arrangements behind white label test and tag subcontracting decide whose register you end up holding.
WA Safety Duties for Office Electrical Equipment
Western Australia's Work Health and Safety Act 2020 places a general duty on a business to manage risks to workers, and electrical risk from plug in equipment falls inside that duty. The Work Health and Safety (General) Regulations 2022 go further for equipment in higher risk conditions, which must be regularly inspected and tested by a competent person. Higher risk conditions cover moisture, heat, vibration, knocks, corrosive chemicals, dust and construction work, so an office is treated differently from a workshop. An ordinary office is not usually higher risk, so the duty is to manage the risk rather than test on a fixed statutory cycle. Guidance on electrical risks at work comes from WorkSafe WA, and sites under the Work Health and Safety (Mines) Regulations 2022 set stricter requirements.
AS/NZS 3760 is the standard for in service inspection and testing, covering the tests, intervals, tagging and records. For offices the common interval is twelve months where items are moved or flexed in normal use, and up to five years where gear is genuinely not flexed or exposed to abuse. AS/NZS 3012 applies to construction and demolition sites, so the quarterly colour tag cycle is not used on an office round. The full interval table and the test sequence are set out on the single phase test and tag page, the parent guide for this cluster. Keep registers as long as your safety system requires and make them available to safety representatives.
Who May Test and Who Must Repair in WA
The line between testing and repairing matters more in an office than people expect, because IT staff are confident with hardware and the temptation to open something is real.Testing and tagging is generally not licensed electrical work in Western Australia, so an IT or facilities staff member may do it, but the law expects competence, which in practice means a recognised course and a calibrated instrument. Calibration is the part in house programmes forget, and an instrument with no current record undermines every result in the register. Repairs sit on the other side of that line. Replacing a damaged plug or a detachable lead, opening an appliance to work on it, or touching the building's fixed wiring is electrical work, and it must be done by a licensed electrical worker engaged through a licensed electrical contractor. Swapping a faulty charger for a new one off the shelf is not electrical work, which is why replacement is the usual answer for low value IT items. Electrical licensing and electrical safety in Western Australia sit with EnergySafety WA, and the Regulatory Compliance Mark, a tick inside a triangle, shows a product has been certified to Australian electrical safety requirements. If you test in house, keep the course certificates, the calibration records and the register together, because they are only useful as a complete set.
Failed Items, Data and Getting Gear Off Site
A failed item is tagged out of service, recorded as a failure and taken out of circulation. For IT hardware that raises a question no other trade deals with, which is what the device still holds. A failed laptop, server or printer holds data on an internal drive, and a copier drive holds images of everything scanned. Agree a route for failed items before the visit, and arrange waste collection through a rubbish removal provider rather than letting dead gear pile up in a corridor.
Repair or replace is usually an easy decision at this price point. A damaged detachable lead costs a few dollars to swap, while a replacement lead fitted on site runs around $35 to $75 including the part. Anything needing the case opened goes to an electrician or the manufacturer, which is rarely worth doing. Wipe or remove the drive before the device leaves your control, and record the serial against the disposal.
Multi Site Offices Across Perth and the Regions
Organisations with several offices find that a single round does not suit all of them. A head office in the Perth CBD or West Perth with three hundred desks needs two or three days, while a branch in Osborne Park or Malaga is a morning. Branches in Mandurah, Bunbury, Geraldton, Karratha or Broome add travel, so group them into one trip. Where a branch sits in an older building, an electrical safety inspection is worth pairing with the equipment round.
Keep one register across every site rather than a separate folder for each. Ask for a consistent site code and floor field, so a combined report can be filtered by location. Set due dates so sites fall in one month where travel allows, which simplifies budgeting. For small regional offices, train one local staff member to handle the visual checks between visits.
| Site Type | Item Mix | Scheduling Note |
|---|---|---|
| Perth CBD head office | Desks, racks, print rooms | Two or three days, book the lift |
| Metro branch office | Desks and one small rack | Half a day, start early |
| Warehouse with an office | Desks, chargers, site leads | Pair with the warehouse round |
| Regional branch office | Desks, modem, one backup unit | Group trips to cut travel |
| Serviced or shared desks | Laptops and chargers only | Check who owns the furniture |
| Home based worker kit | Laptop, dock, monitor | Bring it in on a rotation |
| What to Ask | Why It Matters | A Good Answer |
|---|---|---|
| Per item or fixed price | Decides how your count drives the bill | Per item with a stated minimum |
| How the register arrives | You need to import it, not read it | Spreadsheet keyed on your numbers |
| After hours availability | Keeps the floor working | Yes, with the surcharge stated |
| Who attends the comms room | Live racks need an escort | Booked to your change window |
| What happens to failures | Data and disposal need a route | Tagged out, listed, left with you |
| Instrument calibration | Every result depends on it | Current record given on request |
Getting an IT Test Round Ready
Preparation separates a one visit round from a return trip, and one person can do most of it in a week. Export your asset list and send it ahead, with the identifier, the model and the location for every device. Walk each floor and note the locked rooms, the unoccupied desks and where storage blocks an outlet. Collect the spares cupboard onto a trolley, since loose chargers and boxed supplies are missed most often. Ask staff to bring in personal chargers, fans and heaters, or to take them home before the day. Confirm the change window for the comms room, name the escort and decide what the tester should do with a failure. Afterwards, read the register, chase the items marked as not found and check that nothing tagged out of service is back on a desk. If several compliance rounds fall in the same window, commercial fire compliance visits often suit the same after hours access.
What to Look Out For
A very low per item price means a fast walk past, and on IT gear the visual inspection is what gets skipped. Ask how many items a day the tester expects to cover and compare that across quotes. Check the quote covers leads as items and says so, since leads are half of your count. Make sure the register lists every item with its location, rather than a total and a certificate.
Be wary of anyone offering to open and repair your hardware on the spot, which is not their work to do. Confirm public liability insurance before anybody goes near a live rack, and check the cover. Keep your own copy of every register, so the records stay with you if you change provider. If a dispute cannot be settled, the consumer protection branch of the Department of Local Government, Industry Regulation and Safety (LGIRS) can advise on the next steps.
How to Get Useful Quotes
Give a count rather than a description, since nobody can price a floor they have not seen. Count the desks, multiply by the plugs on a typical desk, then add racks, print rooms and the spares cupboard. Say how many racks there are, whether rear access exists and whether anything in them can be powered down. State the floors, the lift arrangements, the suburb and the access window you can offer.
Ask every provider the same questions so the answers compare side by side. Confirm the minimum charge, whether leads can be replaced on the day and what the register will look like. Small offices should expect roughly $6 to $9 an item with a minimum charge of around $120 to $260, and the detail behind those indicative bands sits on the test and tag cost page. Ask whether reminders are sent before the next round falls due, because an expired register catches most teams out.
IT Equipment Testing and Tagging Across Western Australia
We connect businesses with test and tag providers across Western Australia for offices, comms rooms, print rooms, call centres, clinics and branch sites, from the Perth CBD, West Perth, Osborne Park, Malaga, Welshpool, Canning Vale and Jandakot, through Fremantle, Baldivis, Byford, Alkimos, Yanchep and Mandurah, out to the South West, the Great Southern, the Wheatbelt, the Goldfields, the Pilbara and the Kimberley.
▶ Perth Inner City 17 areas
CBD & Surrounds
Inner North
Inner South
Western Suburbs
▶ Greater Perth 26 areas
Northern Suburbs
Southern Suburbs
Eastern Suburbs
Perth Hills
▶ South West 25 areas
Peel
Bunbury Region
Margaret River Region
Great Southern
▶ Regional Western Australia 30 areas
Pilbara
Kimberley
Goldfields
Mid West
Wheatbelt
IT Equipment Test and Tag FAQs - WA
Do laptops and chargers really need testing?
They are among the most handled items in any office, and their thin cords take the most damage. Most organisations include them because a charger lead that has been bent in a bag for two years is a genuine risk and costs very little to check.
Why is there no earth test on most IT equipment?
Nearly all of it is double insulated, which means the live parts sit behind two independent layers of insulation instead of relying on an earth wire. With no earth doing protective work there is no earth path to measure, so the tester uses the visual inspection and an insulation or leakage test instead.
How do I tell if an item is double insulated?
Look for a square inside a square on the rating label or moulded into the case. A two pin moulded plug with no earth pin is another strong sign, while a three pin plug on a metal cased machine usually means the earth test applies.
Does the equipment have to be switched off?
Each item is unplugged for a minute or two while it is tested, so desk machines need to be shut down briefly. Core network and phone equipment is usually handled in a planned change window or tested one supply at a time where it has two.
How many items does an office actually have?
Far more than most managers estimate, because a single desk can carry seven or eight plugs once the charger, dock, monitors, headset base and board are counted. Walking three or four typical desks and multiplying out gives a much better number than guessing.
Can the tester match tags to our asset numbers?
Most providers can, as long as you send an export of your asset list before the visit and ask for your identifier to be the primary field. Doing it the other way around leaves you with a register you can read but cannot import.
Are uninterruptible power supplies included?
Plug in units are tested like any other appliance, covering the lead, the plug, the case and the insulation. Hardwired units sit outside an ordinary round, and battery health is a separate service with its own schedule either way.
What about chargers staff bring from home?
They are usually the cheapest and most damaged items in the building, so leaving them undeclared is the worst option. Either supply what people need centrally, or allow personal items on condition they are declared and tested with everything else.
What happens to a failed laptop or printer?
It is tagged out of service and recorded as a failure, then it leaves your floor. Because the drive still holds data, agree before the visit who wipes or removes it and how the disposal is recorded against your asset list.
How much does an office round cost in WA?
Small offices usually pay around $6 to $9 an item and larger sites sit lower, with a minimum charge of roughly $120 to $260 on small visits. Those figures are indicative 2026 estimates, so ask for a written quote based on your real item count.
Electrical Safety and Testing Specialists - WA
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Service availability may vary in regional WA. Verify licences at WA Building and Energy.
Figures are indicative 2026 WA estimates and vary with the number of items, the site type, travel, repairs and the time of day. Ask for a written quote based on your actual item count, and check current WA workplace safety requirements before relying on any figure.