BikerBear

Hi Folks,

As I am a qualified chef, I have a large collection of kitchen appliances. As we are just about to move to America, I have been told that electrical step-up plugs should work.

Basically, you plug the unit into the American electrical socket, then plug the UK appliance into that unit. The unit "steps up" the electricity to provide the 240v required by the appliance.

Anyone try one of these?????


Many thanks!

Michael

Are you referring to a step-up transformer/voltage converter? They are large, heavy, ugly, get hot, and you need to purchase one that has enough wattage to run your appliances.

If you need to run a 2,000 watt appliance, you probably should get a step-up transformer of probably 3,000 watts or more.

Voltage Convertors/Transformers

If they are professional appliances that draw a lot of power (check the bottom of the appliance for the wattage), they may draw too much power for many American kitchens (often the kitchens plugs are on 20 amp breakers).

The formula is as follows:

Watts = Amps * Voltage or Amps = Watts/Voltage

American voltage is 120v.

Therefore if your appliances are rated at 2,000 watts or less, you'll probably be ok using a transformer.

2000/120 = 16.66 Amps

If an appliance is rated at 2,500 watts or more, the circuit breaker will probably kick. Most American consumer appliances are 1,200 watts or less so you can normally run 2 and possibly 3 at the same time (portable mixers and blenders are typically less than 400 watts and appliance with heating elements are typically 900-1200 watts).

2500/120 = 20.8 Amps

If you try to run an consumer electric coffee maker or a toaster with professional appliances that draw a lot of power, you'll likely kick the breaker.

If an appliance has a motor, it will likely run about 20% faster since American voltage is 60 cycles per second and European voltage is 50 cycles per second.

Americans that want to use commercial appliances in the their kitchen normally wire their kitchen for 30+ amp wires and breakers.

American homes do have 220v but that is confined to the stove and clothes dryer.

Pulaski

Everything Michael said, plus using a step-up transformer may invalidate your insurance.

That said, I do have one, which I have for the hifi I brought from the UK, but having one or more sitting on the kitchen counter sounds like more trouble than it's worth.

jibsymalone

P

jibsymalone

Plus it may not be a good idea having tranformers sat around in a kitchen environment with all the moisture and heat.

jibsymalone

Per the American electrical code you should not load circuits up to more than 80% of their capacity (16A on a 20A circuit, 24A on a 30A circuit etc.) except for single purpose outlets, so the 2000W Xfrmr would be about max (plus this will also render any other receptacles on the same circuit useless). You would also need to take into account the efficiency of the the Xfrmr also which would make the input a little higher than the 2000W output.
You could in theory run several 220v receptacles into your kitchen and change the cord cap on your appliances to match, but the cost of this will be be almost too much to make it a viable option, especially if paying an electrician to do the work for you (which i strongly recommend). This however does not solve the real issue of frequency mismatch and motor loads.

SultanOfSwing

I use one for a guitar amp I brought over from the UK and it works well, but that's for very infrequent use (moreso now I'm only in an acoustic band these days). I don't think I'd use it day-to-day on high draw appliances.

You might be better off selling them and buying afresh out here. Electronics tend to be a bit cheaper in the US anyway, in my experience.

Hotscot

I also brought my gear from the UK which at the time was Marantz.
Got the bug again, thinking of NAD, but wondering if I should wait until I'm back home although that'll be a few years....decisions...

Hotscot

Wife, although an English teacher, loves to (gourmet) cook. She has a pro range, three fridge freezers, three sinks, two garbage disposals, two dishwashers.

I can just about handle beans on toast.

Anyway, hands down the best thing we've bought is this.

http://www.zojirushi.com/products/cvdsc

Especially for my tea consumption.

Bob

They are so much more expensive over here...but for anyone in my neck of the woods, there's a Korean grocery store in Burlington that doesn't take the piss to badly on the price and they have a huge range.

As to the transformer issue, yeah, fine for occasional use, not great for daily use as mentioned.

S Folinsky

An FAQ over here. I think the consensus has been to sell the stuff in the UK and buy replacement in the US.

I have seen common complaint about water kettles in the US by expats. That is one thing where 120v [nominal] really makes a difference in kitchen appliances. Also, it pays to note that individual circuits will be either 15 or 20 amps depending upon code. [Our kitchen has multiple 20 amp circuits -- actually each double outlet is split].

As noted elsewhere, it is possible to have 220v circuits installed. However, if one rents, it may not be possible. If you will be living in a place that has electric ranges ["cooker" in UK speak] or oven, there will be 220v coming into the kitchen albeit not with an outlet. I own and my house has three 220v circuits -- 2 A/C's and a built in wall oven.

Pulaski

The complaint about kettles will go away when people upgrade to induction stoves/ cooktops, because the sheer power that an induction heating element can pump into a traditional stove-top kettle is much more than a plug-in kettle. A kettle, or pan, of water will start to sing almost immediately on an induction stove!

Michael

That doesn't make any sense since nobody calculates the amperage from the wattage or checks the amperage if it is on the bottom of appliances to determine which appliances should be used together. If that was the case, then the building codes are not designed for safety. People may have their electric coffee pot, electric frying pan, their mixer, and possibly even more appliances running all at the same time on a 20 amp circuit. Also when motors start, many surge. The house wiring has a built in safety factor above the circuit breaker amperage if the wiring is done correctly.

However if the breaker kicks several times, they should realize that they are overloading the circuit and not keep doing the same thing over an over again.

I'm not recommending that someone constantly draws amperage just below the rated amperage of the circuit since connections, if not done properly, can get hot.

jibsymalone

The circuits are indeed designed to take the full load of the breaker safely (and the wire to take some more) what is right according to code and what people actually do is two very different things. You have to realize the code covers far more than just houses, and thus the code has to be a little broad in what it states as allowable and not. For this reason the NEC now requires multiple dedicated circuits in kitchens for various appliances (microwave, refrigerator, etc.)
The 80% rule is for calculating continuous circuit loading and to keep things within safe limits. As for motor inrush, yes it does exist and can cause extremely high current spikes, but these are for an extremely brief period of time (only a few cycles) and the heating effect on the wire is usually negligible in this time frame. Multiple motor loads all starting at once can cause nuisance tripping of circuits even if the circuit is only loaded to safe limits.

RICH

My house, and even my office, even with US appliances, if you put the toaster, the kettle and the microwave on at the same time, the breaker pops!