How to Use 220V Appliances in the U.S.

In rare instances the answer is "maybe". But most of the time the answer is unfortunately "no".

Although I suppose if you have a US electric stove / oven you could pull it out from the wall and with the appropriate plug adapters use the outlet back there to run your gizmo to some extent.

But even then, in a tiny minority of cases the foreign gizmo's electronics don't like the difference between the 50Hz power they were designed for and the 60Hz that's in the US.

Guest (#2) is correct. If the appliance uses an AC induction motor it might run at 20% higher speed but much less torque. If it is a clock it might run 20% fast. What is the appliance?

By the box, it is "Induction electric stove"

Usually will work even for appliances with motors. The inductive reactance of 50 Hz motors is less at 50 Hz than at 60 Hz, so the current will be roughly the same for which it was designed.

If it's an "induction electric stove," then it probably converts AC to DC and regenerates a high-frequency via an inverter or a resonant circuit.

Contact manufacturer and ask what they suggest.

GUEST; go ahead and use it we have installed equipment from Sweden, Italy, Spain, Germany, Briton & Australia have not seen a motor driven clock/timer for the last 20 years they are electronic & don't care what the power, most usa power company give you 120/240, 115/230, 110/220 volts for power, don't worry it will work. perry

Yes you can use with out transformer if your house has 3 phase power supply. You can connect your kitchen appliance between two phases of the power supply as phase to phase voltage will be 220 v .

The only problem will be the supply in US will be 220 V 3 phase 60Hz and your appliance is designed for 50 Hz. the speed of motors will be N= 120f/ P will be more due to higher frequency. But the equipment wlll work.

V.I. Abraham; 99% of the homes in North America have a single core transformer supply that gives them 240 volt single phase, with a tap on the winding one half way between the 240 volt and the other end of the winding, this center tap is earth/grounded, which we call neutral gives us 120/240 volts single phase supply. perry

Hi perry,

Thank you for the information. Here in India we have AC 230 volts 50 Hz single phase supply for small houses and AC 440 volts three phase 50 Hz supply for large apartments and houses.

V.I. Abraham; you are welcome, the large apartments get single phase right ? the three phase is for lifts or boilers. we use 208/120 volt 3 phase 4 wire to the building, the tenants get 3 wire 208/120 for lighting & electric ranges an/or dryers, air condition,etc. perry

This has to be a trick question. All houses that I know of utilize power from a transformer.

That aside, your ability to use the appliance depends on whether you have a 220 volt outlet available or not. If not, one can be installed by your friendly neighborhood electrician at a cost probably substantially more than the worth of the appliance.

If you are able to plug your appliance into a 220 volt outlet (probably need an adapter) you will unfortunately probably not get 220 volts as in the USA the nominal voltage belies the actual situation. If measured, your voltage will probably be somewhere between 240 and 250 volts depending on when during the day it is measured and time of year as well as location. Therefore, the coils of your induction heater will most likely burn out prematurely as they were not designed for these higher voltages. (it'll probably do a bang up job of heating for awhile though)

If he/she already has the thing, why not run it until it falls dead then kick it to the curb? The voltage & frequency in some countries varies all over the place anyway. I have seen 50 Hz measure from 38 to 57 HZ and 220V read 170 to 260 V and no one was the wiser until I put the meter to the circuit.

Yes people noticed that fans were faster sometimes and on some evenings the lights seemed brighter or dimmer but the lights stayed on and the fans blew air mostly.

I have used a washing machine in the USA for 17 years (it died last week) which was designed (by AEG) for 240V (UK) - so I can testify that the motor worked, and we had no problems. I am surprised to see the turbotroll3 experience with frequency. Yes, voltage varies, but usually the frequency is very accurate.

Hi all,

I am trying to use a Korean rice cooker here in an apartment in the US.

I have tried using a voltage converter from RadioShack:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062421

but something ended up getting fried (a hint of smoke came out of the transformer).

What can I do to use this appliance?

According to the link you provided,the converter you bought was rated for 40W. My guess is that the cooker requires more power than it was capable of providing.

You will need a converter capable of carrying the load of the appliance with some allowance for overload and rating inflation. If the rice cooker is rated for 100 Watts, you need at least a 150 Watt converter, getting one for 200 to 500 Watts would not be out of line. You may find it cheaper to buy a new rice cooker.

Have FUN!

TT3

Hi Turbo,

Thanks for your reply. So I looked at the instruction manual (it's in Korean and I can't read it) and I saw the number 900W.

Is this possible that the cooker needs this much? Or am I misunderstanding?

It is absolutely possible. It must be a nice one if it uses that much power. There are 1000W converters available but I don't think you will find them at Radioshack.

You might be better off having a 220V outlet run into your kitchen or making an adapter to run it off the electric stove or dryer outlet.

Good Luck!
TT3

It is a really nice rice cooker!!! +$200.

I am renting an apartment right now - I'm assuming that I can't change any of the wiring.

So do I buy an adapter and plug it into the stove outlet? I can't plug it into an regular outlet?

I have a bad feeling that these 1000W converters are expensive

If you want to plug your converter into a regular outlet, check out this place: http://www.220-electronics.com/Transformers/trans/prod.html?gclid=CMCup4Oin50CFURR2godMRawqg

They have several 1000 Watt converters. One with voltage regulation listed for $80 or so.

Better yet, Google is your friend, search for: "Voltage converter transformer" without the quotes. You should have trillions of electrons worth of answers. I found this one: http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=210798611&listingid=39816742 for about $54.00 U.S. shipping included.

TT3

Hi TT,

Thanks for your responses. In terms of quality of these products, do I need to be concerned? I'm thinking of going with:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1000-W-Watt-Step-Up-Down-Voltage-Converter-Transformer_W0QQitemZ160340638516QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item25550bfb34&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Are the extra features necessary? Such as:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1000-w-Watt-Voltage-Converter-Regulator-110-220-Volt_W0QQitemZ370221090409QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item5632e58669&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Thank you so much!

The first one should be good enough. Just be certain to hook it up correctly.

Have FUN!
TT3

Hi Turbo,

I FINALLY bought a 1000W transformer and the rice cooker works like a charm - the most delicious brown rice =)

I recently just bought an audio decoder. Here:

http://www.amazon.com/CreativeLabs-CREATIVE-DECODER-DDTS-100-51MF8000AA008/dp/B00013JUA2).

On the AC adapter, it says:

INPUT: 230V ~ 50HZ 100mA

OUTPUT: 16V ~ 600mA

The product came from Singapore so the connection is the two rod-like prongs, which I have an adapter for.

Can I just use the adapter an plus the device into a normal wall socket?

According to:

http://support.radioshack.com/support_tutorials/batteries/pwrgde-2A.htm

the 50Hz should not be a problem since it is a small electronic device. Also, I have read that small electronics are okay if I just use one of these adapters - is this correct?

Just want to check here before actually trying because the product is almost impossible to find these days and I don't want to fry anything!

Thank you.

Hello, I bought a Nespresso machine in France that is designed to use 220V. I bought an adaptor/transformer and the machine won't even turn on. I called Nespresso and they suggested I contact the company's branch in France as they won't even fix it (if it's broken which I have no idea). Any way I can use this? Did I just waste my money and all that effort in carrying it back to the US? Help!

You need a transformer, from personal experience of what I went through with my 220V rice cooker. I tried an adapter and that didn't work. Hope that helps.

i've been searching all over to try and find a good voltage converter for a reasonable price. luckily a guy at the source pointed me to this shop on the other side of town. 220 volt appliances

instead of spending $160 at the source for a 250W converter i can get 300W for $25

looks like they ship all over north america