Electricals - to ship or not to ship
 

Hi everyone.
Grateful for any advice on what British appliances will be usable in the US, with or without adapters etc.
Moving to NYC soon and keen to know what’s worth shipping and what will be useless there.
Some items I’m happy to replace, but some are more expensive and/or personally valuable, including: lamps, sewing machine, Sonos speakers, Dyson fan.
Also have the usual kitchen appliances, printer, shredder, vacuum.
Thanks in advance!

Re: Electricals - to ship or not to ship
 

I would (and did) replace them all. Anything that's got value you can always try and sell in the UK before you move.

Re: Electricals - to ship or not to ship
 

Kitchen appliances collectively tend to be the most problematic, followed by "anything with a motor" because motors often seem to be adversely affected by the different mains frequency in the US.

The lamps will be, in theory at least, the easiest to convert to US spec, but that assumes you can find a new bulb holder for American light bulbs (most bulbs in the US use an Edison screw, not the bayonet style connection that is most common the UK), and then you'll need a new plug for the other end of the cable. Contrary to popular, but mistaken, belief, replacement plugs are widely available, in stores like Lowes and Home Depot, or electrical suppliers distributors).

In short, given the things you have listed, I would leave/ sell/ give away everything with the sole exception of any lamps that are important enough to you to take the time to convert.

Printers are so cheap here in the US, it's ridiculous.

As a separate point, if you dig into the small print, US home insurance usually prohibits use of transformers, as do rental contracts if the landlord is savvy enough to have thought about the implications of renting to new immigrants.

Re: Electricals - to ship or not to ship
 

I once saw some advice that if the item supplies heat/light or moves it won't work. We had to give away/sell our kitchen stuff, sewing machine, lamps etc - but did bring our brand new TV, laptops, monitors, speakers, games consoles as they can all run on the lower voltage here. We did get replacement power cables for most of them because using the adapters is just annoying and not great for electrical safety reasons over time.

Re: Electricals - to ship or not to ship
 

Keep anything of personal value and sell the rest. They are more trouble than they are worth.

Re: Electricals - to ship or not to ship
 

Thanks everyone for the helpful advice. Sounds like I’ll be busy selling / giving away stuff!
Hopefully we can get new power cables for the laptop and speakers. I don’t think I want to risk converting the lamps.

Re: Electricals - to ship or not to ship
 

I brought 2x TVs, laptop, x6 lamps, TV sound bar and anything that is charged by a simple DC transformer.

Check your voltage and frequency on the back of your TVs. All recent LGs run dual voltage.

Changing plugs in lamps is no more difficult than in the UK.

I was sad to leave my Denon amp and Nespresso machine though :-(

Re: Electricals - to ship or not to ship
 

Laptop and Sonos should be fine, small electronics are okay with a new cable 99% of the time.

Re: Electricals - to ship or not to ship
 

Check your electronic devices such as laptops and game consoles as they may well be dual voltage so an adapter or new plug is all that is needed. I agree with the rest of the advice above

Re: Electricals - to ship or not to ship
 

Curious if anyone has tried taken a Kitchenaid Artisan Mixer bought in the UK to use in the US? Planning to sell but would prefer not to. TIA

Re: Electricals - to ship or not to ship
 

Hello, all - just joined so I could reply to this and hopefully help someone.

CAVEAT: FIRST AND FOREMOST, I AM NOT AN ELECTRICIAN! Whenever in doubt, consult a specialist - this is merely my anecdotal evidence from having moved from the US to the UK and then to Canada.

Some takeaways:
The main challenge between North American and UK/EU items are the Hertz and the Voltage differences. Without going into too much painful detail, NA has 120v and 60Hz and the UK/EU have 240v/50Hz.

• What does that mean? Hertz (very, very basically) will govern how fast things with motors complete a revolution in a given amount of time and some odd settings like clocks. Volts is the energy that the item requires to run.
• Plug adapters don't really change either Hertz or volts; they merely change the plug "shape" so that an electronic gadget can fit into a differently-shaped socket.
• Transformers are where the magic is at. They range in size and shape from "per unit" transformers that look like oversized plug adapters to full-blown black boxes, shoebox-sized (or larger) that change the volts to one that the appliances can handle
• Transformers seldom convert Hertz cycles - that's not to say that they don't exist, but they're very, very expensive (or, at least were when I looked 10-ish years ago.) Most of the time, I plugged US extension cords into a transformer for the volts conversion and plugged the transformer directly into the mains in the UK
• Some electronics have transformers built directly into them to be able to handle different volts and, sometimes, hertz. You can usually see it on the label where the plug joins the appliance or in the technical specifications of the appliance in question. Laptops tend to be the best ones as they have the little "power bricks" that do both hertz and volts conversions and only require either switching out the cable between the box and the plug or just a plug adapter (again, ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS check the labels. When in doubt, don't plug it in, or plug it in and be prepared to lose it. Or, even better, talk to an electrician.)
• Actual "real" computers (i.e. - not laptops) tended to be fine; there was usually a switch on the back of the power supply to flip the voltage and they almost all universally had built-in Hz transformers
• Lamps were dead easy; basically strip the light bulb housing from the wiring, install a new local one and install a new plug type (or use an adapter)
• Clocks aren't work taking, especially digital ones that plug directly into the wall; just sell/ditch them and buy new ones at the destination
• Televisions worked fine for me as (if memory serves) mines supported both Hz types and I just needed to plug it into the transformer (strange that it supported one, but not the other, but I digress.)

SOME items will work, even if they had motors. Our KitchenAid, for example, worked fine in the UK with a transformer. It was a bit odd in first "gear", but I really didn't notice a huge difference above that speed. I suspect the inverse would also work for the reason I mention above. It worked fine for the whole 4.5 years we lived there. Our espresso machine from the UK, however (A DeLonghi), would not work here no matter the transformer (I couldn't find a Hz one, so just didn't bother and bought a new machine.)

Hope this helps some people.

Cheers

Re: Electricals - to ship or not to ship
 

Certainly bring your Sonos, it only needs a new lead.

Re: Electricals - to ship or not to ship
 

I brought a lot of electrical appliance's and don't regret it I did it to save money given that I didn't get any reasonable offers when trying to sell, To name a few things I brought Henry and George vaccum cleaners, A/V receiver, subwoofer and still using it all till this day almost 7 years later.

Got the best transformer I could find and have had no problems.

Re: Electricals - to ship or not to ship
 

Interesting - so the vacuum cleaner worked fine? (Was this NA -> UK or the inverse?)

Re: Electricals - to ship or not to ship
 

Appliances are really cheap in the US. Walmart, Target, TJ Maxx and Costco are places for these goods. For Electronics, Costco and Best Buy have really good deals from time to time, especially during the Superbowl, Thanksgiving and Christmas.