You’ve paid to have an LEV system installed and you know you should be having it serviced regularly because it is not only deemed as a legal requirement under COSHH Regulation 9, but it will also increase the likelihood that your system will continue to protect your employees and pass its annual Thorough Examination and Test. However, do you know what should be included in a LEV system service plan?

How often?

A service plan should involve regular checks by a competent LEV service engineer, usually once every 3 months. The last of the 3 monthly service checks should include your annual LEV Test to ensure you are not in breach of UK law and that you are not:

1. at risk of receiving a substantial fine from HSE, or
2. liable for causing one of your employees to contract an occupational disease such as occupational Asthma or Cancer.

Which checks are involved?

During your service plan a competent service engineer should spend time intricately looking at your system for any visual damage such as dents, tears and leaks. All of the fixings should all be checked from the inlet to the discharge.

The LEV engineer should check that all of the components within your system are safe and secure.

The ducting should be checked for any blockages that may be effecting the efficiency of your system. The buildup of material such as rubber, wood dust, flour dust, diesel and soot presents a fire risk while heavy particulate including metals from grinding and swarf run the risk of ducting collapsing due to the weight of deposited material. Blockages can also cause further mechanical costs in the future because it creates additional resistance within your system. This causes the LEV system’s fan to work harder to try and draw the same amount of airflow, which will increase the fan’s power consumption and therefore increase the amount of electricity used to run your system. Ultimately the motor on the fan will burn out and will then need to be replaced.

Blocked ducting can cause decreased efficiency, increased energy consumption or even collapse

The service engineer should look to check your LEV system to evaluate whether any parts need changing or cleaning either now or in the near future to eliminate costly breakdowns.

A qualified, knowledgeable team

At Vent-Tech Ltd we have dedicated in house engineers that are trained and knowledgeable in all aspects of LEV, holding all relevant BOHS qualifications. Our engineers are also able to carry out filter efficiency checks which are vitally important on recirculation systems and endoscope examinations of system internals. Customers on a Vent-Tech service plan enjoy a 24-hour response time to any reported issues and we can even hold any replacement items for your system that may be required to reduce your system downtime in the event of a breakdown. We can also offer a range of service plans that are tailored specifically for your LEV needs.

Further information

If you’d like to know more information about why your LEV systems needs servicing in the first place, click here.