AED — semi-automatic defibrillators (Spain)
A list of checks and obligations with their cadence, ready to add to your agenda.
For anyone who has installed an AED in a sports centre, shopping centre, hotel, office or vehicle in Spain. It brings together the few things RD 365/2009 requires at state level — guaranteeing maintenance and readiness in line with the manufacturer's manual, notifying the installation to the authority of the Comunidad Autónoma — and the practical deadlines that make a rescue fail: expired pads and battery, ignored self-test, a unit scrapped without proper collection. The pad and battery intervals are the ones manufacturers state, not a statutory cadence. Mandatory installation, registration and training differ from one Comunidad Autónoma to the next: this kit points at them, it does not settle them.
Questions about this product?
Ask what is in the manuals, how often the maintenance is due and what it takes to do it.
What it already has at hand
- No manual on this page
- 8 planned checks, the most frequent every 24 months since the last job
Planned checks
Informative summary verified on 12/09/2026. It does not replace legal advice: the regulation cited prevails. If you spot an error, report it.
Some checks are only mandatory in certain countries: pick yours and the list follows.
In Italy this product has no planned checks: the ones listed apply to other countries.
In France this product has no planned checks: the ones listed apply to other countries.
In Germany this product has no planned checks: the ones listed apply to other countries.
In Switzerland this product has no planned checks: the ones listed apply to other countries.
In Austria this product has no planned checks: the ones listed apply to other countries.
In United Kingdom this product has no planned checks: the ones listed apply to other countries.
- 01
Replace the AED pads
Pads carry an expiry date printed on the pack and must be replaced before it, and in any case after every use, even when no shock was delivered. Units on the market typically state between two and five years: the interval is set by the manufacturer, not by Spanish law, and the twenty-four-month reminder proposed here is the cautious end of that range. Keeping a spare set is worth it: pads are the first part to expire and the device is useless without them.
every 24 months since the last jobRecommendedRD 365/2009 art. 7; instrucciones del fabricanteSpain only - 02
Dispose of spent AED batteries correctly
A replaced battery does not go in the bin: it falls under the Spanish rules on batteries and accumulators, which require separate collection through collection points and extended producer responsibility schemes. This is an event rather than a cadence: it fires whenever a battery is replaced, and it is usually the supplier bringing the new one who takes the old one away. No dedicated stream was identified for used pads: follow the manufacturer's instructions and those of the manager collecting the rest.
continuous checkLegal obligationRD 106/2008 sobre pilas y acumuladores y la gestión ambiental de sus residuosSpain onlySourceverified on 12/09/2026 - 03
Guarantee AED maintenance and readiness
Whoever installs an AED — public body, company or private institution — is responsible for guaranteeing its maintenance and upkeep in line with the manufacturer's instructions: a standing duty rather than a deadline, running from the day of installation. The concrete programme (self-tests, checks, replacements) is the one in the device manual, which is worth keeping to hand because that is where the intervals come from. This helps meet art. 7 of RD 365/2009, the maintenance article; art. 4 covers notification of the installation and is a different matter.
continuous checkLegal obligationRD 365/2009 art. 7 ('Garantías de mantenimiento')Spain onlySourceverified on 12/09/2026 - 04
Replace the AED battery
The battery should be replaced before its charge drops below the minimum the manufacturer states, not at the first low-battery warning: by then the unit is already at the edge. Models on the market state between two and five years depending on the chemistry and on how many self-tests have run; the thirty-six-month reminder is a middle course, not a statutory duty. After a use in which shocks were delivered, check the battery even if it has not expired.
every 36 months since the last jobRecommendedRD 365/2009 art. 7; instrucciones del fabricanteSpain only - 05
Hand the retired AED over as WEEE
At the end of its life the unit is waste electrical and electronic equipment: the holder stays responsible for it until it is handed to a collection point or an authorised manager, who issues the delivery note. This fires on withdrawal, on replacement and also when the unit is scrapped as unrepairable; remove the battery first, as it follows its own stream. If the unit was notified to the regional authority, decommissioning is also the moment to update that notification.
continuous checkLegal obligationRD 110/2015 sobre residuos de aparatos eléctricos y electrónicos art. 4Spain onlySourceverified on 12/09/2026 - 06
Notify the AED installation to the Comunidad Autónoma
RD 365/2009 does not set up a national register: its art. 4.2 refers to a notification regime that each Comunidad Autónoma governs on its own, and which in several regions takes the shape of a register holding the location of the unit, the person responsible and contact details. The obligated party is the holder of the premises where the AED is installed, and the notification has to be repeated when the unit moves, changes owner or is withdrawn. This kit does not publish any single regional decree: there are seventeen of them and the dossier could not re-verify them against primary sources — check the one for the Comunidad your site sits in.
continuous checkLegal obligationRD 365/2009 art. 4.2; normativa autonómica de desarrolloSpain only - 07
Check the AED status indicator and self-test
Units on the market run a periodic self-test on their own and show the result through an indicator or a display: looking at it regularly is the cheapest way to catch a flat battery or a disconnected pad connector before it matters. The check is visual, anyone working where the AED is installed can do it, and no technician is needed. No Spanish rule sets a cadence: the one proposed here is practice, and the manufacturer manual remains the reference.
continuous check, confirm every 1 monthsRecommendedRD 365/2009 art. 7; instrucciones del fabricanteSpain only - 08
Keep track of who is trained to use the AED
RD 365/2009 opens AED use to non-medical staff, but the training requirements and their renewal are set by each Comunidad Autónoma: whoever runs the site has to know, at any time, how many trained people are on shift and when their certificates run out. This is an organisational control — the annual cadence is ours, not a rule — and it exists to catch the recurring case in time: the device is there, the trained people have left.
continuous check, confirm every 12 monthsCompany ruleRD 365/2009; normativa autonómica de formaciónSpain only
In Portugal this product has no planned checks: the ones listed apply to other countries.
In United States this product has no planned checks: the ones listed apply to other countries.
In Other country this product has no planned checks: the ones listed apply to other countries.
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