zzrmark

I just unplugged the part of the cord between wall socket and the inline transformer for my Toshiba laptop's charger lead and bought a new cable to fit - which means I don't have to tie up the converter plug for charging my laptop.

EDIT: But I did check the label on the charger lead box to make sure that it is marked '110-240v, 50/60hz'

Disenchanted

Have you tried calling or emailing the manufacturer(s) to see if they can be converted from 240vac to 110vac? Maybe it's just a case of swapping the motor out, although if they have an electronic speed control board the internal power supply may require changing.

Fatboyslick

PS4 will work as the plug is universal and I did some google searches too. Works on a Travel adaptor or you can buy a US cable from ebay for £2

In terms of TVs.....to clarify, we're saying over the air it won'r show the content because of the PAL/NTSC configurations. However when using a set top box with a HDMI it will work?

steveq

Yes.

S Folinsky

FWIW, NTSC broadcasts in the US ceased in June 2009.

Pulaski

That's funny ..... because PAL broadcasts have also ceased in the UK - PAL was discontinued October 2012.

RoadWarriorFromLP

PAL and NTSC still matter, apparently. PAL is made to work with 50 hz AC power, while NTSC is made to work with 60 hz current. (The differences in electrical systems in North America versus much of the world aren't limited to the voltage.)

Why NTSC and PAL Still Matter With HDTV

Pulaski

From what I recall the frame rate of PAL tv (50Hz] is close enough to the frame rate of films (48Hz), that films screened on PAL TV were mapped directly one film frame -> one TV frame, so that films shown on TV run 4% faster (48 frames of film are broadcast in "48/50 x 1 minute").

I do not know if this discrepancy has continued into the post-PAL digital TV era.

CKB40

My son brought his old playstation 3 and we still use an adaptor plug on it, works fine, so do my hair straighteners, not as hot as they might get in the UK, but they still straighten my hair and probably don't damage as much!
Don't bother bringing your kitchen equipment, lamps unless you are going to get them rewired, vacuum cleaner, iron or hairdryer.

Sammyantha

I have a rechargeable dyson will this work?
In my simple head it will just take longer to charge than it does here in the uk!!!

Pulaski

It might work perfectly, or it might not work at all. Look at the back/ bottom of the charger and see if it says something like 230v (could be 10v more or less), or 100v-240v (again, could be 10v more than 100v, and 10v less than 240v). If it only says 230v (ish), then you'll need a new charger, if it has the100v-240v range then it will work just fine.

BTW the reason it might not work is that charging a battery is not like filling a bottle, it is more like winding a spring, and a spring designed to be wound by 240v of force won't be wound at all by only 120v ..... 120v would only be enough to slow the speed at which the spring unwinds, and nowhere near enough to rewind it.

zzrmark

This was something I discovered when I tried to charge my Makita cordless with it's multi function/diagnostic dedicated 240v charger using the 110v system. Bizarrely enough it does the initial quick charge that it's supposed to do but then just cuts out for the remaining charge - I'm currently cussing at the 100 bucks I'll need to find for a new 110v charger

Sammyantha

Sadly that makes sense thank you.

will check tomorrow but pretty sure it's 240v :-(

Pulaski

You're welcome.

chawkins99

When we moved, we bought a new construction home and had a 220V "Drier" outlet installed in the garage. I took a regular UK power strip, put a drier plug on it and ran several items including some power tools, chargers and our UK Dyson without any issues.
We had a UK stereo and an HP Laser printer which we ran off a step-up/step-down transformer for several years.
We're still running into problems with region 1/2 DVDs. Our current DVD won't play region 2... Our previous multi-region DVD expired and we bought blu-ray. Getting a Blu-ray that plays multi-region DVD AND multi-region Blu-ray is a bit more problematic (expensive)!!!