Hi,

I was living in an apartment in bangkok for six months. I have a simran 3000 watt step down converter that i have used for the entire time for my desktop computer, voip, guitar amp, stereo, etc. Never had a problem. The apartment is about 30 years old by the way with two prong outlets. I just moved to a brand new apartment in sukhumvit soi 50. I plugged everything in the same way with my computer and stereo into the converter. I had the desktop computer booted and plugged in the ethernet cable from the router (the router was bought here 220V) into the cpu and the circuit breaker tripped.

The owner sent over an electrician and he checked my converter and said it has a short. Hmm... six month old converter working for 6 months and move to this building and now it is shorted out. Any suggestions of the problem and where i can take the unit to get checked and/or fixed? Also don't want to get it fixed, plug it back in and have it get shorted out again.

Thanks in advance,

Gibs

It is quite probable that the electrician is correct, your 'step down converter' (I presume you mean 'transformer') may well have an insulation problem that was too small to be a problem in your old condo but big enough to cause a trip to the circuit breakers in your new condo.

My advice would be start looking to change out your consumer items for equipment that is rated for Thailand's voltage supply.

Just as a test try reversing the 220V plug on the converter. It depends upon how it's wired but you could have your 110V outlet actually being 110V above ground which could give some issues with leakage.