A step-down transformer. That’s what I should have called the metal box I had in my carry-on luggage when we flew from DFW to Los Angeles and then to Brisbane three years ago. Not knowing the term “step-down,” when I wrote about it, however, just plain “transformer” is what I called that 16-pound pain in the bag.
You need one of those (maybe a modern one that weighs only a pound or two) if you want to run most US appliances from Australian electrical current, I said in an issue of my email newsletter, OzAnswers.
Boy, I thought I was smart. I’d bought my bargain transformer on eBay, lugged it here, and used it for my electric toothbrush and our bread-making machine. Now I had heaps of useful, experience based information to share with folks thinking of moving down under.
And then I got an email from a reader named Nicky (not her real name; she has given me permission to quote what she wrote me but she prefers to be anonymous).
Nicky, with typical Aussie tact, began with praise for my newsletter and my take on Australian life, and then she gently suggested that my “instalment on electrical appliances lacked an important angle to the question of bringing equipment from one country to use in another.”
That angle, as some others of you probably knew but I didn’t until Nicky told me, has to do with “line frequency (aka Hertz) differences.” Then she wrote five highly informative paragraphs that should be read with care by anyone moving from the US to Australia, or, I suppose, the other way. Here they are, with numbers to remind you that these are Nicky’s five well-informed paragraphs, not mine:
1. Step-down transformers only convert voltage. However, you still have to worry about the hertz differences. US a/c power runs on 60hz and Australian power runs on 50hz. This means that some appliances will not work correctly even with a step-down transformer. For example, many clock radios use line frequency as calibration. Running them on a different line frequency than they’re made for will result in the clock running either too fast or too slow. I can only use my US clock radio here on a battery… it won’t run right on Australian a/c power because of the hertz issues.
2. Appliances with a motor (like mixers, food processors) that are calibrated for 60hz cycles will run slower at 50hz. Motors that run slower than they should have two types of problems: less cooling air running over the motor and a larger-than-normal magnetic field which impedes current flow. Both cause the motors to run hotter, shortening the life of your appliance.
3. Here is a website with a much more long-winded technical explanation of the different types of voltage and hertz issues: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/pwrfaq.htm
4. The main thing is to check your equipment before you decide to bring it over. If it says 50/60Hz, you’re fine.
5. Appliances I would definitely not bring are:
* Lamps (unless you are prepared to get them rewired)
* Clock radios (unless you want to run them on batteries forever)
* Big stuff like refrigerators, washers, clothes dryers - don’t assume that because it runs on 220 at home that there will be no issues running it here! It often costs a lot more to convert it than the thing is worth.
So now we know. I feel better informed and I hope you do, too. I’ve never met Nicky, but I already know a few things about her.
She’s generous with her time and knowledge.
She’s a tech-savvy person who writes well.
She is wise enough to approach diffidently the task of correcting another person’s ignorance; before wising me up, she wrote that she hoped I wouldn’t mind “me sticking my beak in.”
And Nicky is witty. She concluded by saying what she’d sent me was “Just my 2.2 cents on the subject. (GST included).”
How Aussie to include the tax in the price. How Aussie the overall approach. I am grateful to this responsive reader’s information and for her not making me feel like a chopped down tall poppy.
Future mailings of my OzAnswers segment on appliances will be much improved. Thanks, Nicky.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Ken McNicol 07.28.08 at 3:26 am
G’day Bob
I’m an expatriate Brisbane currently living in Florida, and I have to admit I find your accounts of the cultural differences between the US and Oz fascinating. So many Americans just see the similarities and don’t even realise just how many differences there are between the 2 countries, especially the subtle ones (for instance, how do you explain to an American what your obligations to a your mates are? And what can you expect in return?)
And where does a question mark at the end of a sentence in brackets go, inside the brackets or outside?
But that’s not what I’m responding to here. Your discovery about the difference between current frequencies is something that for American visitors is in the nice-to-know category, but frankly is not reall important. Virtually all light electronic appliances today are 50/60 Hz because they’re manufactured for power grids that could be 50 or 60 Hz (the Japanese, for instance, have both frequencies on their grid). As you mentioned, heavy appliances made for the US market won’t work, but they’re not cost effective to transport anyway; too expensive to ship, no service available, etc.
But their is an exception for audiophiles who’d like to have their expensive hand-made equipment from small Massachusetts manufacturers (something to do with MIT, maybe?). These things usually have very well-engineered 60 Hz/117 V power supplies. Turntables used to be the real problems when people were spending $$$ on them, but this really isn’t much of an issue these days….
Anyway, there are industrial devices available that convert mains voltage to mains voltage. I did a quick Google search and randomly found a few, such as a 2 KVA system at http://www.georator.com/ProductFixedFrequencyConverterSpecifications.php?SSModelID=21, which would do the jon admirably.
BUT, it weighs 140 pounds, and I have no idea what it costs except that it will be a LOT more then you paid for your transformer.
This is something for the long-term visitor, a corporate transfer or an academic on extended sabbatical, where it’s actually cheaper to ship selected items both ways than to buy new stuff in Oz that will only be needed for a year or so.
But keep telling us about Queensland. I was just there a few weeks ago for my Mum’s birthday. I tended to look for the things that haven’t changed (and there’s lots), and I ignored the things (like the traffic) that are very different. When I lived there the population was about 1/3 what it is now … people called it “a multi-story country town”. No more ….
Ken McNicol