rawsalad

In general, switch supplies which can work on 220 or 120 will be fine. eg: computers, monitors, poss. some TVs.

Most likely all you will need is to change the plug at the end or use an adaptor.

BUt the other other goods that use a rectifier (or equiv.) will only work on the rated supply. Probably what would happen is your toaster/mixer would run at 1/2 the speed.

Davita

A 220VAC toaster connected to a 120VAC supply is worse than useless...just takes up space.

rawsalad

True...it will probably never get up to temp.

I was quite sad when I had to sell my hi-fi because it would not work on 220v. Now I'm moving back, so chance to buy a new one!

Oakvillian

This makes no sense. I ran a UK hi-fi in Canada for several years using an appropriately-rated transformer, and know several people who have used North American audio equipment in Europe using a step-down transformer.

What won't work properly (unless you get an adapter for the capstan wheel) is a turntable. It'll rotate 20% too fast in Canada (60Hz rather than 50Hz AC) so all your music will sound too high (a very sharp minor third, so an A440 will sound in between the C and C# above it).

To the OP, the middle picture, your electric piano, will work simply by changing the plug/cord and plugging it in (the rating plate declares 100-240V, so you're fine). Your mixer and coffee machine would each need a transformer to work effectively; the mixer would spin faster with transformed 60Hz alternating current but would probably be worth bringing if it's expensive; the coffee machine not so much, as the heater element would draw a lot of power, requiring a larger (and therefore more expensive) transformer. Plus, unless it's some uber-expensive Gaggia espresso machine, it's probably almost cheaper to replace it than to buy the transformer in the first place.

The rule of thumb that dbd33 quoted above is a good guideline: solid state electronics are more likely to be OK; things with heaters and motors are likely to cause more challenges. Nothing is impossible, it's a question of whether it's worth the hassle and expense of making them work.

dbd33

The turntable I brought with me runs using a voltage adaptor and 60Hz capstan. The original capstan is taped to the back in case of wanting to run it again in the UK.

iirc it was only belt driven turntables that made Aretha Franklin sound like Minnie Ripperton. Potential emigres might want to consider a direct drive model.

Oakvillian

I s'pose it depends if it's a DC motor. Cheap turntables tend (or at least tended, some years ago when I was into all this hi-fi stuff) to use transformed and rectified DC to run a much cheaper 12- or 20V DC motor with a direct drive to the platter. The more upmarket ones tended to have a 240V AC motor spinning a capstan with a belt drive to the platter, to avoid the electrical noise from a transformer. I see now that Linn's top-of-the-line Sondek LP12 has a high-end brushed DC motor with a separate power supply; the rest of the LP12 range uses AC motors. So maybe I'm all out of date...

bijoustrollette

Thanks for all the responses on this. So the piano is coming, but the other items aren't! I'm now trying to figure out whether to bring my TV so I can play my consoles. The tv is a Samsung and shows 240v, 50Hz, 130W. I've read some things online that say Samsungs will often work in both the UK and North America, but for whatever reason they decide not to advertise it on their items. Even if it doesn;t work, am I correct in assuming a step-down transformer for 200w will make the TV work? It'll mean I can bring the consoles over, get new power supplies for them and just plug the TV into a transformer. No worrying about PAL/NTSC.

Thanks again for all the responses so far, it's been very informative!

pdarwin

It may or may not work. Read this link, then decide. My feeling is not to bring said TV:
https://www.quora.com/What-happens-i...iance-in-50-Hz

quiltman

You mean a step UP transformer to convert the 120v to 240v. The 50hz is fairly immaterial as 95% of modern TVs rectify the input in order to work and actually have switching power supplies built in - unless its a very cheap one. The 50 to 60Hz is not really a problem for a TV, it's the TV standard that matters. We brought our UK Panasonic TV here 5 years ago. It was 110-240V 50/60HZ, multi standard and has worked perfectly from day 1 even on local cable which luckily has HDMI output.We also bought a multiregion, multistandard DVD player as well. plays everything we want - UK, USA and local DVDs. also 110-240v 50/60HZ. If it was a cheap Samsung then leave it and buy a multistandard one when you get there. Then no problems with playstations etc. If you post the model number i'll check for you as to compatibility via my friend here who works for Samsung.

bijoustrollette

Thanks for this! It's not the newest Samsung so probably unlikely to work, the model number is LE32B350F1W. I just figured if it was only being used for my Wii, XBox 360 and SNES Classic then it's not such a big deal. We'll get a new TV for actually watching TV I'd imagine.

Sorry, I got the transformer mixed up too, I wasn't sure what was being stepped up and what was being stepped down - so I assume that means the electricity from the supply is being stepped up to match the TV rather than vice versa.

Oakvillian

The video games thing is one area where you need to be a little bit sensible. Old consoles need the appropriate analogue TV encoding (PAL vs NTSC) - you can get converters for old DVD and VHS stuff but they're useless for video games because there's about a 300-500ms processing delay which means you can't see that you need to duck before the enemy has knocked your head off. I speak from experience!

If the console has HDMI output then just plug it into a Canadian TV and it'll work. If, though, your UK consoles rely on component or SCART connectors to feed an analogue signal to the TV, you need to bring your UK TV over with you. I believe the SNES Classic (that's the "rebooted" version, yes?) and the Xbox 360 are HDMI-equipped, so you won't have a problem with those. The Wii is analogue only, so your two options are either to bring you UK TV over just for that, or buy a specialist converter for the Wii output that processes the PAL (or NTSC, or SECAM) signal fast enough to play games. Amazon sell them; I have no knowledge of how well they work, but it's a possibility if your TV doesn't make it... https://www.amazon.ca/Wii-HDMI-Adapt.../dp/B005QB868Q

on edit: Or, of course, a third option: kijiji a second-hand Wii console over here when you arrive.

bijoustrollette

Very informative, thank you! Yes, the SNES classic is the rebooted version and does have HDMI. I believe the XBox is HDMI as well, and I can at least use that as a DVD player for my UK DVDs too. Will deside whether it is worth bringing the Wii at all in that case, but the converter doesn't look too expensive, so probably worth it overall. I'll definitely get going on that Wii Fit program any day now...

Pulaski

NTSC was discontinued in Canada (mostly) in 2011 and 2012, and PAL in the UK was entirely discontinued by 2012. .... Unfortunately the digital standards that replaced NTSC and PAL are inconsistent, being ATSC and DVB-T respectively.