jayjaysaxking

Hi all, am I correct in assuming that any electrical goods (apart from televisions) work okay in New Zealand (obviously with a change of plug or an adaptor)?
Just read on the NZ immigration website that "most people do not bring electrical goods with them, as most foreign items do not work here" (end quote).
I am thinking of bringing everything apart from my TV

mazi

The things I took worked but everything ran more slowly, eg. hairdryer at half-speed, mobile phone charger took longer to charge phone to full and then the phone ran out more quickly etc. My stereo also went bang rather mysteriously after about a month in NZ. I got it woking again but it repeatedly went bang. Since i have been back in Europe everything works at normal speed again.

jayjaysaxking

Thanks Mazi, doesn't sound very promising, but I think I'm gonna take most of the stuff anyway and just wait for the "bangs".

mazi

I didn't take anything big though - I think the stereo was the biggest thing. Vacuum cleaner, washing machine etc. I bought there. Oh, and our laptop was never the same after its NZ life either, but saying that, it is a few years old now so that may be adding to the problem.

sky

Everything electrical we brought with us broke too!
We had a little electric fire and it melted the kiwi plug we put on it and nearly set the house on fire

poppets

we brought everyhting but the TV & it all works fine , as good as in UK, no probs at all

jayjaysaxking

Some interesting responses. Thanks for that. I'm a gambling man, so I'm shipping what I can. If it melts, blows up or shorts the local vicinity; tough taters!

Dave in Auckland

Just be aware that NZ plugs aren't fused as a rule

dlmckay

Been here three years and none of my UK electrical appliances have failed electrically. With the exception of the TV, which suffered a power surge, but was fixed for $80 - we keep it in the rumpus room for the kids' videos and playstation.

The only other thing to not work here has been my Zanussi washing machine which needs a plastic part that can be found here, nor will Zanussi discuss sending one over...

We brought everything we owned here. Kettle, toaster, microwave, fridge, phone chargers, stereos, TV, video/DVD (although the DVD bit has broken now, blimmin' kids), clock/radios, lights, fan heaters, electric razor, hairdryer, food processors,.... you get the message...

jayjaysaxking

So you took your TV over? I thought a TV was one of the electrical items that wouldn't work. Probably not really an issue with myself coz the TV I have should have been binned a long time ago I think.
I was told that they use a different TV frequency (if that makes sense) and so TV's from UK would be useless. ???

poppets

apparently they work through the video/DVD signall, but we bought a new one here (they are a bit cheaper) , but you could bring yours & get a new one too & have the old one as a spare!!

sky

Maybe our container was the top one and all our electrical stuff got fried on the way over and made all the wiring brittle.
Only thing that hasn't broken down since we got here is a cd player and thats it!
We brought a couple of tv's and we ended up just using them for watching videos and playing games on for the kids. I think if you have a newer model you can change a code. We could get a lovely picture but no sound on ours ... something to do with different pal systems or something.

Boopy

We brought all electricals, including the TV. All work fine with no bother. Bought a NZ video player to hook up, sound, picture fine. We now have Sky, hooked up through video and sky, we have a better picture here than back home. All the big and more expensive electricals we have attached to surge plug protectors. Bring at least 20 plug adaptors

the calders

am i right in thinking the only problem with tvs would be no sound but this can be easily solved by running the signal through a vcr or dvd.

Boopy

By running it through a NZ VCR, not DVD. We have UK TV, UK DVD and NZ Sky hooked up through NZ VCR. We were told by some not to take tv, and by others to take it. TV was only 2 yrs old and a nice one. We took 2 TV's and half expected to just use them for DVD's and playstation games. A pleasant surprise, we don't need to buy a new one.