Phoenix Journal · LEV Testing
The cheapest quote and the earliest slot are easy to sign - but the report is the only part that outlives the visit. Here is how to choose an LEV testing company whose examination actually stands up.
Choosing well
The quote lands in your inbox, it is the cheapest of the three, and the engineer can come on Thursday - so you sign it off and move on to the next fire.
Six months later an inspector asks to see your thorough examination reports, flicks to the airflow figures, and finds a single tick box where there should be capture velocities, commissioning comparisons and a photograph of every hood. That is the moment a cheap test stops being a bargain. A local exhaust ventilation report is not a receipt for a visit; it is the evidence that the extraction protecting your staff actually works, and it either stands up to scrutiny or it does not. Choosing the company that produces it is therefore a decision worth more than five minutes, and the good news is that the questions which separate a proper examiner from a clipboard-and-sticker outfit are not technical secrets. They are things you can ask before you ever sign anything.
It is tempting to treat LEV testing as a diary task - book it, tick it, forget it for another fourteen months. But the law you are satisfying does not ask for a visit, it asks for a judgement. Under Regulation 9 of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations, every LEV system must have a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, and that examination has to be carried out by a competent person. The whole value of the exercise sits in the word competent, so it is the first thing to interrogate and the easiest to get lazy about.
The recognised benchmark in the UK is the BOHS P601 qualification - Thorough Examination and Testing of Local Exhaust Ventilation Systems - issued by the British Occupational Hygiene Society. It confirms that an examiner has been trained to inspect and test to the standard the Health and Safety Executive sets out in HSG258, the guidance document that underpins the whole discipline. Any company you consider should be able to name the qualification their examiners hold and tell you when it was gained, without hesitation and without a phone call to the office.
But a certificate proves method, not mileage. P601 teaches how to test any system correctly; it does not guarantee the person has ever stood in front of one like yours. An examiner whose entire hands-on record sits in woodworking extraction may genuinely miss the failure modes of a commercial kitchen canopy, a spray booth or a fume cupboard, because the way contaminant escapes and the way capture is judged differ enormously between them. When you speak to a prospective company, ask a few plain questions and listen for specifics rather than reassurance.
A single qualified examiner is a good start, but the stronger procurement signal is competence held at the level of the business. Ask whether the company works to a documented method, how it calibrates and maintains its instruments, and what happens when the one person who knows your site is on holiday or leaves. UKAS accreditation of the testing organisation, where a firm holds it, is a meaningful indicator because it means an independent body has audited how the work is done rather than simply that one engineer once passed a course. Continuity, calibration records and a repeatable process are what turn a lucky good test into a reliable service you can trust year after year - and they are exactly the things a rock-bottom price tends to strip out first.
Two quotes can look identical and buy you completely different things. The difference almost never shows on the quotation - it shows in the document that arrives afterwards, and by then the money is spent. If you want to compare companies fairly, compare the deliverable, because the report is the only part of the job that outlives the visit and the only part an inspector will ever read.
HSG258 sets a clear expectation for what a report should cover, and it is a good deal more than a pass sticker. A compliant report identifies the employer and the site, names the person and company doing the test, and dates both the examination and the next one due. Crucially, it records real measurements - not impressions. That means face and capture velocities at each hood, duct velocities, static pressures, fan performance and filter condition, all set against the system’s original commissioning data so you can see whether it still performs as designed or has quietly drifted. It should state, in writing, whether each part of the system provides adequate control, and it should spell out any repairs or improvements needed, with enough detail that you can act on them.
When you review that anonymised sample report you asked for, look for numbers and photographs. If the sample is thin - a page of ticks, no commissioning comparison, no remedial detail - assume yours will be too, whatever the salesperson promises. A green label on a system that was never properly measured is worse than no label, because it tells you a problem has been checked when it has not.
A quieter thing to weigh is independence. Some outfits bundle testing, repairs and filter sales into one deal, and there is nothing inherently wrong with a company that can both test and fix - it is often convenient. But you want to be sure the verdict is driven by your commissioning data and the readings, not by the remedial invoice waiting behind it. Ask how findings are reached, and whether you are free to have any recommended work done by whoever you choose. A confident examiner will have no problem with that question.
Finally, do not let a contractor sell you the fourteen-month interval as a comfortable default. It is a statutory maximum, not a recommendation for every system. Kitchen extraction working through heavy grease loading, or any plant handling higher-risk contaminants, may well need examining more often, and a good company will say so rather than simply booking you in at the longest gap the law allows. If you are still weighing whether the whole exercise is optional, our guide on whether LEV testing is a legal requirement sets out where the duty comes from and who it falls on. Choose the company that treats your extraction as something to understand rather than something to rubber-stamp, and the annual test stops being a grudge purchase and starts being what it was always meant to be - proof that the air your people breathe is genuinely under control.
Questions
Look for the BOHS P601 qualification, Thorough Examination and Testing of Local Exhaust Ventilation Systems, which is the recognised UK benchmark for examiner competence. It shows the engineer has been trained to test to the standard the HSE sets out in HSG258. Ask when it was gained and, ideally, that the testing organisation itself is accredited rather than relying on one person's certificate.
A good report records real measurements - capture and duct velocities, pressures, fan and filter condition - compared against the system's original commissioning data, rather than a single pass tick. It should name the site and examiner, date the next test, give an adequate or inadequate verdict for each part of the system, and list specific remedial actions with supporting photographs. Ask for an anonymised sample on a comparable system before you commit; if it is thin, yours will be too.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Phoenix examines and tests local exhaust ventilation to HSG258 and COSHH - measured, reported and certificated, UK-wide.