We're due to move to the US soon (visa permitting!) and were wondering if electrical items from the UK will work in the US?

I understand there's an issue with TVs.

with a lot of faffing about with adapters and converters, yes it is technically possible.

my advice is flog your UK stuff on Ebay and buy new when you get here.

Unless you have a really nice kettle.... okay, lets not go there

I remember one guy who asked if he could bring his sky satelitte dish and box with him and would he be able to pick up Sky.

I only wish!!!

What about amps and speakers??? Mine are pretty expensive, and I don't really want to flog them......but how much would it cost to ship them???? (The amp is very heavy).....in fact, at what point does the cost of shipping stuff out-weigh buying new?

Hi.
We live in San Francisco and moved here last Nov. My husband left all his amps at home and plays his guitars through the computer which is the same one as we had in the UK. It works with a simple travel plug! I think he has had to buy a little bit of paraphenalia to be able to play but it seems to be working out ok. When you say amps, what kind of stuff do you want to bring?

i shipped over my bang olufsen system which cost about $6k and got transformers for it - it works fine

that and my espresso machine and some other bits and bobs cost about 400 quid

well worth it in my book

Cheers - that's kind of the info I wanted!

Mike.

my daughter aged 12 is visiting for the summer and shes just asked me if she can bring her PS2 and dance mat ? any ideas ?

Jan

LOL.....

Only electrical item I brought over from the UK was my Marshall guitar amp. I just had to take it to bits and re-wire the transformer.

Other than that you run into all sorts of incompatability issues:
50HZ / 60HZ
120V / 240V
PAL / NTSC

Sounds like a nightmare.

I will probably sell my guitar amp, not sure about my PC.
I take it UK TVs, videos etc are no use in the US?

Does anyone know about PS2 compatibility? I would like to bring it but I'm not sure if it will work in the US.

I assume you bought the PS2 in the UK? It will work in the US if you buy a voltage convertor but you're going to have the PAL/NTSC thing to deal with when you plug it into a US TV.

Also, you'll be able to play the games you currently own but you won't be able to buy new PS2 games in the US as they'll all be NTSC games and won't work on your PAL PS2 - unless you get your PS2 chipped.

I have a NTSC PS2 which I used in the UK with a voltage convertor (my TV was fine with the NTSC signal). I considered getting it chipped to play UK games but decided that I didn't want the insides buggered about with.

Do a search on this forum for other suggestions - recently someone decided to bring a UK VCR and TV over as they had a big stash of kids videos.

Each electrical item you have should have a label that tells you the range of voltage it will accept.

Most desktop PCs have a dual voltage power supply - you need to open up the PC and flick a little switch on the power supply. Then you only need a plug adaptor.

LCD screens may automatically be dual voltage - check the label.

In general it's more feasible to buy voltage transformers for low wattage items (usually things that don't heat up). And it may be easier to buy the adaptors you need in the UK.

Jeremy

So that looks like a NO then ..... I suppose i could buy her a PS2 over here, but not sure about the dance mat thing ! Oh well i'll break the news gently to her

Jan