Buying electronics in USA for use back home

[Guest]

Originally Posted by Guest

This is not something you should do yourself, the transformer needs adequate ventilation otherwise it will be a fire risk - somewhere along the line you are dumping a significant amount of energy to step this current down - it has to go somewhere and that somewhere is heat.

It's also far more energy inefficient to run an appliance this way so you are killing the polar bears, cooking the bumble bees (or whatever the phrase is)

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The yellow box doesnt even get warm ( i have checked ) as the box is rated at more than twice the power the Mixer uses, have you seen the kit they run on these box's on building sites, a mixer isnt going to bother it

It might not be energy efficient and the polar bears might pay, but neither is flying to orlando every year

This year I am getting a Keurig coffee machine, as some lovely K cup pods in the US

[martyn321]

Personally i would take a set of bolt cutters to the nearest building site, and liberate one of these...

.. then simply fill it with petrol and run all the US appliances you want (one at a time)

[Northerndave]

Originally Posted by matt987106

what is the risk ? ? just out of interest

the US Mixer is made to run on 110 Volts
the transformer puts out 110 Volts

i see now issue at all

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It's not just the Voltage. It's the Hertz too. US runs at 60Hz, we run at 50Hz. It's why you can buy a record deck, bring it back and then find that it runs 20% slower in the UK.

High-Powered electical items, such as a mixer do not play well with this difference and overheating and fire risk to the item can occurr.

[chmurf]

Same as above

Voltage is one thing. Frequency is another one

US current runs at 60Hz, ours run at 50Hz
This frequency means that the A/C (alternative current) changes directions 60 times per second in the US, and 50 times per second in the UK/EU

if your appliance is designed to work with a current that runs at a higher frequency, it will run slower and overheat

when using a devolter (scale power from 220v down to 110v), it also needs to upscale the frequency to 60Hz
if it just turns 220v/50Hz to 110v/50hz, then it will not feed the appliance a suitable current.

if your adapter turns 220v/50Hz to 110v/60Hz, then the devolter will heat, but as long as you don't exceed its power rating, that should be ok (provided it's ventilated enough)

but if it only keeps current frequency at 50Hz then there might be problems, more or less severe.


but quite a lot of appliances can accept currents that range between 100-240v and 50-60Hz
it's written on the power plate on the device.
if the device is rated for the 100-240v and 50-60Hz you don't even need a devolter, all you need is a plug adapter (UK to US) as long as you respect the earth connector.

[ERICSMUM]

chmurf, thank you so much for that explanation, I completely understand it. I’m going to keep it in my favourites. Xx