Should I Buy or Rent my Safety Equipment - 6 Important Considerations

Safety professionals working in different industries are often faced with the question of whether to buy or rent the safety equipment their many work sites may require.

The decision ultimately is not straight forward and often relaying on a number of factors such as cost, duration of use, availability of spare parts, inspections, calibration requirements and in many cases, basic hygiene considerations.

Let’s consider confined space work for example. An activity which given the type of environment, is very much known for its high risks. Most operations have very stringent procedures and processes when it comes to operating in such settings. As part of mitigating the hazards and providing adequate controls, numerous pieces of equipment are required to ensure safe operations.

Fully calibrated gas detectors, ventilation equipment such as blowers and extractor fans, tripods, breathing apparatus, fall protection equipment, emergency rescue gear such as stretchers and escape sets are a few of the items that could be considered for such operations.

As a rule of thumb, the more specialised the operation, the more specialised is the equipment that is associated with it. Rope access personnel as well as emergency rescuers for example, must undergo very specialised training in order to be deemed competent. As a result, rope access and emergency rescue equipment require a high level of care with strong periodical and pre-use inspections, third party certifications and storage requirements. Unless an organization requires constant use of such skill sets, it is normally advised to rent the equipment as and when the operations require them.

On the other hand, although a certain level of training is still required, lesser specialised and more commonly used safety equipment such as harnesses and lanyards (used for fall protection operations), fire extinguishers of various types, heat or sound level detectors as well as gas testers to name a few, could easily be maintained by safety or operational personnel inhouse. 

Apart from the obvious cost, maintenance and duration of use considerations, the following areas provide more practical points as to whether safety equipment should be purchased or rented:

Cost of training to use the equipment internally: in addition to the purchase of any safety equipment, there may be a likely cost of training individuals to be able to use them. As per numerous health and safety standards and best practices, equipment such as PAT testers, portable gas monitors and fall protection equipment will require a certain amount of training before the user may be deemed competent to use it.

If the competency levels are not available in house, an organization may prefer to rent certain type of equipment along with the specialist personnel deployed to use them.

Newer models and requirements for software updates: some of the more complex type of readers such as air quality samplers, respiratory fit test equipment or water testing devices use certain software to allow it to display the result. After several years, the software may require renewal or newer models would need to be purchased.

Space for storage and calibration: most equipment would need a secure place to store as well as to allow for calibration or re-calibration. Various types of breathing apparatus may also require areas to allow for refilling and to allow for periodical posi checks. To ensure basic hygiene is also maintained these would require a certain level of cleaning after every use.

Many gas testers are calibrated using gases such as methane or pentane. Performing such calibration to an acceptable standard would require the presence of such gases in the storage area presenting a hazard of having flammable gases around.

Requirement for attachments and add-ons: Most of us could probably recall the last time a piece of equipment was purchased and was left in storage for months as certain parts of it were not purchased at the same time. Filters for chemical masks and air sampling units, the correct size tube for a gas tester, extensions for tripods, attachments and carabiners for rope access equipment and harnesses…. The list goes on!

Of course, knowing what is exactly needed in advance and having the right experienced personnel to determine this could prevent such situations, it is however an important point that needs to be considered when the buy versus rent question is asked.

Basic hygiene requirements: The number of times certain equipment are used by different personnel may also affect the decision whether to rent or buy. It is however always recommended that equipment considered as basis Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as coveralls or hard hats be purchased, however more consideration may be needed when it comes to the use of chemical suits, welding or cartridge type masks.

Depreciation of the equipment: one thing which will always remain a fact is that any purchased equipment will depreciate over time. Renting equipment will always have the advantage when it comes to ensuring the latest and most suitable type of equipment is used.

When making the rent versus buy decision, companies should mainly consider the expected time utilization of the equipment. If it’s not an item that will be used frequently or if it’s a specialty piece of equipment, then rental is always going to be the more cost-effective solution.

This article was written on behalf of https://www.levitt-safety.com/. Please visit their website for further articles and publications