AEDs from different brands in one register

A mixed fleet is normal. Units arrive with a building, a supplier, a grant or a fleet purchase. One site can hold several brands after a single procurement cycle. This article explains why one register, one checklist and one status model hold the fleet together.

The FDA publishes the AEDs that hold premarket approval. The table lists devices from Avive, Cardiac Science, Defibtech, HeartSine, Philips, Physio-Control and ZOLL. The names are facts from that page, not a partner list or a supported-brand list.

Source: FDA, Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs), content current as of 22 October 2024. Last verified 24 September 2026.

A fleet grows in steps. A new site opens with the units that came with the building. A supplier ships the model it stocks. A grant buys one brand for one campus. A manager leaves, and the next manager inherits the register.

Each purchase carries its own paperwork. The manual, the registration record and the service report arrive with one unit, and they sit with the person who placed the order. Over a few years, the paperwork spreads across several people and folders.

The brand mix is not the problem. The separate lists are the problem. One fleet becomes four files, and no one holds the whole count. The register does not remove the paperwork. It gives the paperwork one place to land.

A spreadsheet per brand splits one fleet into several. Each file needs its own columns, its own dates and its own review. The inspector needs to know which file and which form belong to the unit in front of them.

Dates drift between the files. A pad that shows as due in one file can pass a review in another. The fleet count becomes a sum of estimates, and a budget line rests on that sum.

No number is needed to see the pattern. The file count grows with the brand count, and the owner count stays at one. The pattern grows quietly, and it surfaces at a service visit or an inspection.

AED management vs spreadsheets: the comparison sets out what a register holds that a file cannot.

Take one campus with three buildings and three purchase dates. The east lobby holds a unit from the first fit-out. The gym holds a unit from a grant. The new warehouse holds the model that the supplier stocks now.

In the file set, that campus has three lists and three update habits. One list is current, one is a year old, and one lives on a laptop that left with a manager. The campus count depends on the reader.

In one register, the three units sit in one table. The Brand column shows the mix, and the filter answers the brand question in one step. The status column answers the real question: which unit needs attention now.

One register holds every unit, whatever the brand. Each line carries the serial number, the location path, the site, the status, the pads expiry, the battery percentage and the last inspection date. The register filters by status, brand or site, and search covers the device, the serial number and the location. A failed line adds a follow-up task.

One checklist covers every unit. The five lines are the same for a ZOLL cabinet and a Defibtech cabinet:

• Pads sealed and in date.
• Status indicator shows ready.
• Battery within range.
• Cabinet unlocked and unobstructed.
• Rescue kit sealed and complete.

One status model describes every unit: Ready, Due soon, Overdue or Offline. Each status carries an icon and a word. The brand is one field on the record. It does not change the shape of the record.

The order of the columns is the same for every unit. A manager can read the register without learning a second layout, and a report keeps one shape.

Each device also carries a printable QR code. Scanning the code opens the device record.

For the product view of one register for every brand, read Mixed fleet AED management: one register.

The device record holds the brand, the model, the serial number, the asset ID, the installation date and the location. When a unit is replaced, the record stays with the unit it describes, and the history stays with the record.

Documents sit on the device record: the user manual, the AED's registration record and the service reports. The record names the site custodian and the last inspector, so each unit carries a person.

Add each unit to the register when it arrives, and the fleet count stays right.

ReadyAED is software only. It sells no hardware and no consumables, so you buy devices, pads and batteries from your suppliers. Consumables are fulfilled by partners, and you can create a purchase order in the app.

1. List every unit, with its site and its location.
2. Give every unit the same fields: brand, model, serial number, asset ID, installation date, pads expiry and battery state.
3. Fill the gaps from the cabinets, the manuals and the invoices.
4. Add each unit to the register, and retire the old file when the row is complete.
5. Compare the register with the cabinets once, then set the inspection routine.

The order matters. A register that starts with a complete list stays complete. A register that starts with a partial list carries the old gaps into the new tool.

The register fields, the five checklist lines, the four statuses, the inspection history and the audit trail stay the same for every unit.

The parts that change with a brand are the pad and battery types and their dates. Those sit on the device record as facts, and the expiry view groups them for the purchase. A brand change moves one field, not the record.

That split is the point of a mixed-fleet register. The program keeps one way of working, and the devices keep their own facts.

Add a brand in three cases. A new unit arrives with a model that is not on the list. A site joins the estate with its own units. A supplier replaces a discontinued model with a different one.

In each case, the work is the same. Record the brand, the model, the serial number, the asset ID and the dates. The register absorbs the new model without a new column set, because the fields do not change with the brand.

When a model is discontinued, the unit stays in the register until it leaves service. The record keeps the brand and the model as facts, and the pads expiry and battery date stay in the same fields.

The replacement unit gets its own record. The old record keeps its history, so the service trail does not move to a different unit. That separation matters at the next service visit, because the two units carry different dates.

Five fields carry the mixed-fleet story: brand, model, serial number, pads expiry and battery state. Fill those fields for every unit before the first review. The rest of the record can grow as documents arrive.

A complete first pass turns the register into the answer for the next question. A partial first pass leaves the old file set alive as a reference, and two sources of truth return. Set the fields once, and the register answers the brand question and the readiness question from one place.

See a mixed-brand register. Book a demo, and bring the files your fleet lives in.

• What does an AED program cost?: the six cost lines, including the register line and the staff-time line.
• How often should you inspect an AED?: the interval that drives the inspection record on every unit.
• The AED management blog: all five articles.