AC Hipot is an abbreviation for high potential. It is a term given to a class of electrical safety testing instruments used to verify electrical insulation in finished appliances, cables or other wired assemblies, printed circuit boards, electric motors, and transformers. 

The hipot test is a nondestructive test that determines the adequacy of electrical insulation for the normally occurring over voltage transient. This is a high-voltage test that is applied to all devices for a specific time in order to ensure that the insulation is not marginal. 

Hipot tests are helpful in finding nicked or crushed insulation, stray wire strands or braided shielding, conductive or corrosive contaminants around the conductors, terminal spacing problems, and tolerance errors in cables. 

One of the advantages of an ac hipot test is that it can check both voltage polarities, whereas a dc test charges the insulation in only one polarity. This may become a concern for products that actually use ac voltage for their normal operation. The test setup and procedures are identical for both ac and dc hipot tests. 

A minor disadvantage of the ac hipot tester is that if the circuit under test has large values of Y capacitors, then, depending on the current trip setting of the hipot tester, the ac tester could indicate a failure.