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VDE tools: what IEC 60900 covers, and what it does not
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#VDE insulated tools#IEC 60900#Toptul VDE#electrician tools#live working hand tools#tool certification#reshaped-v3

VDE tools: what IEC 60900 covers, and what it does not

Zohaib Masood

VDE on a hand tool points at one standard, IEC 60900, and that standard covers exactly one thing: insulated, insulating and hybrid hand tools used for working live or close to live parts at nominal voltages up to 1 000 V AC and 1 500 V DC. That is the whole guarantee. The multimeter, the clamp meter, the soldering iron, the crimp jaw and the circuit tester in the same order are outside it, governed by other standards or by none, and a quote that puts them all under one heading has told you nothing about insulation.

So "are these VDE?" is the wrong question to send a supplier. Three narrower ones, asked against a part number rather than a category, will get you an answer you can hold someone to.

Insulated, insulating or hybrid — and which edition?

Three categories, and the third is new. The current edition is the fourth, IEC 60900:2018, adopted in Europe as EN IEC 60900:2018 and carrying a 2020 corrigendum. It replaced the 2012 third edition, and the change that matters to a buyer is the first one the standard lists:

a) addition of a third category of tools has been added, namely hybrid hand tools; b) introduction of a new informative Annex A on examples of insulated, insulating and hybrid hand tools.
— EVS-EN IEC 60900:2018, scope and technical changes

A supplier working from the 2012 edition has no word for a hybrid tool at all. Asking which edition a part number was type-tested against is therefore a cheap way to date the paperwork behind it, and Annex A gives you a reference list to check a claim against.

Toptul GED2065, a 20-piece VDE insulated hex nutspinner, screwdriver, knife and stripper set
Toptul GED2065 — 20PCS VDE Insulated Hex Nutspinner, Screwdriver, Knife & Stripper Set, from the Vesprr Tools catalogue

The three questions, against the part number

Not against the category, not against the brand, and in the RFQ rather than after delivery.

  1. Is this line an insulated, insulating or hybrid hand tool under IEC 60900:2018, or a general electrician's tool outside the standard? Both are legitimate purchases. Only one of them goes near a live busbar, and only one needs the rest of this list.
  2. Show the type-test evidence for this part number, and a photograph of the handle marking. Whatever rating the maker claims should be legible on the tool itself, not only on the carton. A tool that arrives on site is separated from its packaging within a day; the electrician holding it has to be able to read what it is rated to.
  3. Which edition — 2018, or the 2012 third edition it replaced? If the answer is 2012, the tool may still be perfectly good, but the test regime behind it is a generation old and hybrid tools are not in its vocabulary.

A supplier who can answer all three within a day is worth a volume price. One who answers with the category name has also told you something.

What to watch for when you buy a boxed set

A set is one part number covering a dozen tools, so apply the three questions to the contents list rather than to the box. Sets named for VDE work routinely include items the standard has nothing to say about — scissors, a crimp jaw, a tester, a pouch — and that is not a fault. It only becomes a problem when the number on the box is taken as a rating for everything inside it.

Toptul GZC1609PLASTIC, a 16-piece half-inch drive VDE six-point flank socket set
Toptul GZC1609PLASTIC — 16PCS 1/2" DR. VDE 6PT Flank Socket Set, from the Vesprr Tools catalogue

Where a maker does state the rating, it usually restates the standard's own limits word for word. Toptul's insulated torque wrench ANVA1205V4 is listed with "electrical insulation protection up to AC 1000V and DC 1500V" — the two numbers from the title of IEC 60900. Seeing those two figures together is a good sign that whoever wrote the line was reading the standard. Seeing only the letters VDE is not a bad sign, but it is not evidence either, and it is the point at which question two earns its place.

One practical note on torque: an insulated torque wrench has to satisfy two unrelated standards at once, the insulation one here and the accuracy one covered by ISO 6789. A tool can be sound on one and unremarkable on the other, so ask about them separately.

Put the three questions to the part numbers on your next order, with the type-test evidence attached to the reply. Browse the VDE insulated and electrician's tools range, then send the part numbers you need quoted.

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