Hi - I'm considering taking the UK Plasma, DVD recorder, Bose System etc.

Does anyone know if you can plug a UK 4 way extension lead into one of these (http://www.voltage-converter-transfo...ansformer.html) providing the overall wattage isn't exceeded?

Or is that pushing it

Thanks,

Stuart.

Yes

We ran an English TV, Xbox. DVD Player, VCR and something else (I forget what it was now) off such a set up when we first came over.

And the house is still standing?

What wattage did you have?

Thanks.

We have a tv, dvd, xbox and megadrvie plugged into a 4 way extension with surge protection theat we brought with us. The extension is plugged into a 1000w transformer.

Obviously they are not all in use at once. We were advised to pay attention to the wattage drawn when the applicance is turned on in choosing the transformer size. TV's for example seem to have a real spike in power requirements when first turned on, but then use much less power whilst running.

a general rule of thumb (that I've read on here) is to add all the wattages of the things you are plugging into it and double it to get the transformer you need.

House is still standing. Wattage was 1500w

we also have extention cord plugged into step up and have plasma HD tv, laptops, my dyson, and our printer all at same time on same up stepper...house still standing

I had heard that insurance companies frown on up/down steppers, but always used one in UK for my canadian things and now vice versa here. Insurance company sent a rep and he went thru house, not my fault if he didn't notice the up steppers behind the couch and in basement.

We done the same thing with the same with these appliances when we moved to Canada. My Bose gave up the ghost a year or so later but cannot put that down to the change of frequency from 50 to 60Hz. So long as the transformer is rated for the total load of your appliances (add the wattage together of all the appliances plugged into the transformer) there should not be a problem. One thing to remember though is the transformer itself uses electricity to magnetize itself. Transformer efficiency is around 98% so for every 1000 watts of rating it will require 20 watts of power to run the transformer. The recommendation is to phase your UK appliances out over time when the fail or can afford to change. You can by a new Bose V20 for $1400 in the sales.

The transformers I have (which have been back and forth between Canada and the UK a number of times in the last ten years and converted both ways) have an internal fuse. This will go before anything else I think if you do overload.

So where can I buy one of these in Canada?

Thanks.

http://www.voltageconverters.com/vol...onverters.html

Free delivery if order over $100 I think. Also there's a converter guide to give you an idea of what size you'll need.

Perfect, thanks.

I've got to ask regarding the Dyson, surely you don't drag a 1500w transformer around with it, I've just checked mine and that alone requires 1400w!!

Definitely a good idea to err on the conservative side with these transformers, the less load reletive to their limit the cooler they should run. We brought 3x300W transformers back to the UK with us, primarily for running my son's games consoles. Our XBox360 which had a 170W power supply has burnt out 2 of them in under a year (in the end we bought a UK power supply). Bit peed off because these had the BS kitemark.

We also bought a couple of the 3kW converters from www.voltageconverters.com back in 2005 and have never had any problem with them both using as a step up tranformer while we lived in Calgary and as a step down transformer back in the UK. We used to run our old UK Dyson from it. The downsides are that if you have to cart it around you won't need to join a gym, they are damn heavy!!!!!! And the hum can become a bit annoying.