Last updated
Written by Luke
Every bouncy castle runs on a blower, and every blower runs on mains electricity, usually outdoors, on damp grass, with children close by. That's why the blower gets checked as closely as the castle.
The short answer: PAT testing itself isn't a legal requirement, but keeping your electrical equipment safe is. A PAT test is the most common way of showing you've done that.
Not as such. The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 require electrical equipment that could cause injury to be kept in a safe condition. HSE is clear that the law doesn't say how that has to be done, by whom, or how often, and that there's no legal requirement to test every year.
What it does mean is that you need some way of keeping your kit safe, and of showing you've done it. For hire equipment, HSE's guidance says the supplier should inspect and test it before each hire, and the person hiring it should make sure it stays safe while they have it.
For a hire operator, that usually means a careful check of the blower and lead every time they go out, backed up by a full PAT test at regular intervals. When a venue or school asks to see that your electrics are safe, a PAT test record is what they're expecting.
HSE describes three levels, and each one catches different problems:
HSE points out that a visual check is essential, because some faults can't be found by testing. A good PAT test always starts with a proper look.
There's no fixed interval in law. HSE and the IET's Code of Practice both say to set the interval by risk: how the equipment is used, where, and how hard it works.
A bouncy castle blower is at the hard-working end of that. It's carried in and out of vans, used outdoors, run for hours, and plugged into whatever supply the venue has. It needs checking more often than, say, a desk lamp in an office.
At a minimum, have your blowers and leads PAT tested every year, and do a user check every time they go out. If a blower has been dropped, got wet or tripped a supply, check it before it's used again.
Anything that fails is written up with what's wrong and what will put it right, the same as a fault on the castle.
Leads get forgotten, but they take as much punishment as the blower. Check them as carefully, and include them in your PAT testing.
When you run a blower off a cable reel, unwind it fully. A reel left partly wound can overheat under load.
HSE says there's no legal requirement to label tested equipment or keep records. Both are still worth doing. A sticker lets anyone see at a glance that an item has been tested and when, and a record shows you have a system in place. It's what you'll be asked for if anything goes wrong.
No. HSE says new equipment should be supplied safe and doesn't need a formal PAT test before it's used. Give it a visual check to make sure it hasn't been damaged in transit, and bring it into your normal testing after that.
Alongside the electrics, HSE expects you to check the blower every day it's used:
Our safety checks page covers the rest of the daily checks.
At every annual inspection, we PAT test one blower and its fly lead per castle as part of the inspection, at no extra cost. If you've got other electricals, such as extension leads, cable reels, fans, candy floss machines, speakers or lights, we can test those on the same visit. See what we inspect for the full list.
Extra items are £3 each. Our prices page has the details. Every item we test gets a PAT sticker and goes in your PDF report, so your electrics and your inflatables are covered by the same paperwork.
Midland Play Inspections
We test bouncy castles, slides, obstacle courses, disco domes, and inflatable soft play and ball pools to BS EN 14960-1:2019, and we come to you anywhere across the Midlands. One unit or a full fleet, and we work all year round so your kit is tested when it isn't earning.
Tell us what you've got and roughly where it's stored, and you'll get a fixed price and the next free date.