Electrical Equipment Safety.

I am a bit upset to see a  round tip meter probe being stuck up an IEC lead free socket - this tends to open the contact fingers and result in poor contact and arcing, thus ruining a previously perfectly good lead. 

If you really must, then carry around the mating half and use that for testing the resistance of cables. Make sure you have unplugged the right one first though.

Mike.

I think the IET might not want to condone that give this case: 

However, I too am surprised at the use of a picture showing an entirely inappropriate test being carried out for “in-service inspection and testing”.

Just to be clear, there's nothing wrong with this picture … for dead-test fault-finding (assuming, of course, the probe is not jammed up into the free outlet too tightly, on that I agree with Mike) - it does seem to be checking for continuity through the fuse.

BUT I'm fairly certain the IET CoP for In-Service Inspection & Testing of Electrical Equipment does not recommend the use of a multimeter on 20K range for continuity test of the protective conductor or protective circuit, as referenced in the caption on page 5.

I am reminded of an incident recently. I was working for a lovely young family at their cottage in a nearby village. Their two primary aged boys had just returned home from their grandmother's house. She had been looking after them. When I was leaving I saw one boy playing with a 13 Amp plug in the garden. The plug had a length of gold coloured metal picture wire, used to hang pictures on a wall, attached to it. The grandmother had allowed the boy to play with a 13 Amp. plug and the had wrapped the metal wire around all of the three pins as a work of art. I notified the mother, and the offending item was removed from the boy, who then cried loudly. I believe that the plug could have been inserted, picture wire and all, into a live socket.

Z.