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aaargh! more confusion re electrical stuff

aaargh! more confusion re electrical stuff

Old Jul 28th 2003, 1:16 pm
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Default aaargh! more confusion re electrical stuff

Please bear with me... I am moving tomorrow and I have suddenly been 'thown a curve ball'

how much difference does 50/60 hz make?

obviously I can get a converter for voltage but I have been told that that running an appliance designed for the other with make it wear out in a fortnight

the appliance is 1200 watts and is difficult to find in the US/ and expensive

are they talking out of their @rse?
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Old Jul 29th 2003, 2:40 am
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Default Re: aaargh! more confusion re electrical stuff

Originally posted by BritGuyTN
Please bear with me... I am moving tomorrow and I have suddenly been 'thown a curve ball'

how much difference does 50/60 hz make?

obviously I can get a converter for voltage but I have been told that that running an appliance designed for the other with make it wear out in a fortnight

the appliance is 1200 watts and is difficult to find in the US/ and expensive

are they talking out of their @rse?
You will need a converter (1500w) and it will work fine. We just bought 5 of them from here:
http://www.voltage-converter-transfo...tabilizer.html
to power all our TVs,DVD players and all my husbands music equipment. Don't fret, it will be OK and good luck with the move .
BTW after lots of research this place was the cheapest and they deliver them by UPS, we got ours in just 4 days ($85 each plus delivery).
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Old Jul 29th 2003, 11:22 am
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Default Re: aaargh! more confusion re electrical stuff

Originally posted by BritGuyTN
Please bear with me... I am moving tomorrow and I have suddenly been 'thown a curve ball'

how much difference does 50/60 hz make? .....
The only difference it makes is that motors spin at a different speed. So anything that has a speed-critical motor isn't going to work properly, but otherwise no problem. I'd guess that anything that runs a significant load might wear out more quickly, for example at electric lawn-mower, but household appliances should be no problem.

BTW CD players and CD-ROMs have their own speed governor and so run OK on 50Hz and 60Hz
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Old Jul 31st 2003, 9:50 pm
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Re the 50/60hz thing.

Can someone just confirm that UK TVs will NOT work in the US? I have a portable VHS combi that I wanted to take with me as it could play our UK tapes, but I have been led to believe that it will not work even with a converter. This is because converters convert the voltage but not the frquenecy.

Thanks.
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Old Jul 31st 2003, 10:33 pm
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I'm no expert, but I do know that UK VCR's work on PAL and US VCR's work on NTSC. You need to have a player which has both frequencies on it. Then you could still play you UK tapes and tape TV programmes here (if you can find anything worthwile) They are available on both sides of the pond, but of course, are also a bit more expensive than most.
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Old Aug 1st 2003, 1:17 am
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Originally posted by ireland132
Re the 50/60hz thing.

Can someone just confirm that UK TVs will NOT work in the US? I have a portable VHS combi that I wanted to take with me as it could play our UK tapes, but I have been led to believe that it will not work even with a converter. This is because converters convert the voltage but not the frquenecy.

Thanks.
Contrary to what Ladyofthelake thinks, a British TV will not work on US mains under any circumstances.

The electron gun that scans the picture on to the screen does so at a rate determined by the mains frequency, if you feed it 60Hz, even adjusted to 220V, it is not going to work properly. And that is before you even consider that the VCR part of your combi's motors will also be spinning at the wrong speed and so it won't play the tapes anyway.

Unless you want to bring a British generator with you, one that supplies 240V at 50Hz, or are prepared to invest in a frequency converter, which I seem to recall start at about $1,000, you are not going to have any use for your combi if you bring it to the USA.
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Old Aug 1st 2003, 1:43 am
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Originally posted by Pulaski
Contrary to what Ladyofthelake thinks, a British TV will not work on US mains under any circumstances.

The electron gun that scans the picture on to the screen does so at a rate determined by the mains frequency, if you feed it 60Hz, even adjusted to 220V, it is not going to work properly. And that is before you even consider that the VCR part of your combi's motors will also be spinning at the wrong speed and so it won't play the tapes anyway.

Unless you want to bring a British generator with you, one that supplies 240V at 50Hz, or are prepared to invest in a frequency converter, which I seem to recall start at about $1,000, you are not going to have any use for your combi if you bring it to the USA.
We bought some of the converters (that I mentioned in a reply above $85 each plus delivery) and our kids have been quite happily watching their VHS videos on our English TV for the last 2 days. Obviously we won't be able to watch any television programmes on them but the videos and region 2 DVDs work extremely well.

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Old Aug 1st 2003, 1:57 am
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Originally posted by Emm
We bought some of the converters (that I mentioned in a reply above $85 each plus delivery) and our kids have been quite happily watching their VHS videos on our English TV for the last 2 days. Obviously we won't be able to watch any television programmes on them but the videos and region 2 DVDs work extremely well.

Emm.
Wierd! I'd never have guessed. I'd love to know how that is possible?
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Old Aug 1st 2003, 2:03 am
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Pulaski

You don't know what you are talking about. I bought a TV and video in HK that is dual voltage (a switch on the back switches between 240V/50Hz and 120V/60Hz) and is also dual video standard (automatically switches between NTSC and PAL).

And just to prove you are wrong, I recently moved from the UK to USA, brought the TV and video with me, switched the voltage switch, changed the plug and voila! It's worked perfectly watching US TV, PAL tapes and NTSC tapes for the last 18 months!

So where do you get your facts from?
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Old Aug 1st 2003, 2:18 am
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Originally posted by ladyofthelake
Pulaski

You don't know what you are talking about. I bought a TV and video in HK that is dual voltage (a switch on the back switches between 240V/50Hz and 120V/60Hz) and is also dual video standard (automatically switches between NTSC and PAL).

And just to prove you are wrong, I recently moved from the UK to USA, brought the TV and video with me, switched the voltage switch, changed the plug and voila! It's worked perfectly watching US TV, PAL tapes and NTSC tapes for the last 18 months!

So where do you get your facts from?
If it's a dual standard 50Hz/60Hz machine of course it will friggin' well work!!! I was talking about regular British appliances, though some seem to work anyway, as per Emm's post, above.

My info?? .... Well I have studies electronics, including the theory and practice of building transmitting and receiving equipment, and I hold a qualification in the same.
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Old Aug 1st 2003, 6:30 am
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Hey. Chill people - you're both right (sort of)

I was talking about your standard "bougt in John Lewis" Philips TV/VCR combi. Nothing fancy.

I am really intrigued by Emm's experiences.

Did you bring an british vhs player too?

What are the machines you have?
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Old Aug 1st 2003, 11:53 am
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Originally posted by Pulaski
Contrary to what Ladyofthelake thinks, a British TV will not work on US mains under any circumstances.
Say no more
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Old Aug 1st 2003, 12:51 pm
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well all I can say is that having bought 3 transformers, that run my CD player, Playstation and Hi-Fi fine, the TV which was a bog standard 21" sony trinitron with no switch between 120 and 240, kept blowing the fuses on the transformers.
I tried 4 fuses and gave up int he end.
The TV and video (becuase this won't work on my new US NTSC tv) are now in the basement. So if anyone is going back you can have them.
What is strange is that in the UK most good tv's are PAL & NTSC compatible, as well as VCRs, but here even the good tv's (mine cost $2000) don't accept PAL signals and you also need to buy a multistandard VCR.
One tip though if you have a Playstation (PAL) don't spend $300 on a signal convertor (unless you need it for the VCR) just buy a TV tuner card for your PC for under $100 and this converts the signal on the PC monitor. It also works for camcorders.

later
Chris
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Old Aug 1st 2003, 2:02 pm
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I obviously wasn't entirely clear with my first post. All I'm trying to say is there are certain TV's and VCR's available which can work in both countries,not that you just flip a switch on any TV or VCR and it works. Here's a site which might be helpful

http://www.world-import.com/tv.htm

They are more expensive than "regular" TV's and VCR's, but if you're like me and have a huge collection of kids videos ( which get watched over and over again) and don't want to have to start a new collection, it might be worth the expense.

There is also info on the converters that have been discussed.
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Old Aug 1st 2003, 2:25 pm
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Originally posted by ireland132
Hey. Chill people - you're both right (sort of)

I was talking about your standard "bougt in John Lewis" Philips TV/VCR combi. Nothing fancy.

I am really intrigued by Emm's experiences.

Did you bring an british vhs player too?

What are the machines you have?
The TV is a Hitachi widescreen, it was quite expensive when we first bought it over 3 years ago and the VCR is a Panasonic, which is only about 6 months old and we bought in Sweden.
Since my husbands company paid for the shipping of all our stuff we decided to bring them (you can't sell English TVs in Sweden as they use a slightly different system, so it was bring them or bin them). I haven't checked out whether the TV upstairs (a Sony Trinitron widescreen) works with the VCR as we only have one VCR and really only the kids watch videos, it certainly works with the DVD player.

Not sure if any of that info helps but nothings gone 'pop' yet, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed,
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