Addapter For 120 Volt Appliance

[WilliamCave]

Hi I am looking for an addapter to go from 240volt to 120 volt , i have a few kitchen appliances that I bought and want to take them back to thailand. any one know were I can buy them in BKK. does home pro sell them or carrefour.

thanks in advance

[Crossy]

Pretty well any electrical appliance shop will have small ones, you'll need to hunt a bit for bigger units but still readily available in BKK (Chinatown is a good option if you local outlet can't help)

What appliances do you have? There can be issues with the 50Hz frequency (as opposed to 60Hz used in the US) particularly, timers may run slow, motors may run slow and/or overheat, transformers may overheat.

As noted in another thread, girlfriends may plug directly into the 220V outlet

[WilliamCave]

Pretty well any electrical appliance shop will have small ones, you'll need to hunt a bit for bigger units but still readily available in BKK (Chinatown is a good option if you local outlet can't help)

What appliances do you have? There can be issues with the 50Hz frequency (as opposed to 60Hz used in the US) particularly, timers may run slow, motors may run slow and/or overheat, transformers may overheat.

As noted in another thread, girlfriends may plug directly into the 220V outlet

thanks crossy never thought of the hertz 50 or 60 ,,is there an addapter than can addapt to the differenices...the appliances are a ,,specila juicer and an Boston accustics radio I have for traveling around with an iPod addapter..thanks again

[Crossy]

Forget trying to convert the frequency.

Your juicer may run slow but since they tend to be used in bursts overheating should not be an issue (unless you live on juice).

The radio should be fine, only issue may be the transformer getting hot, try it. If it should cook your local radio man should be able to replace the transformer with a local 220V 50Hz unit for a nominal fee.

Edited October 12, 2008 by Crossy

[Thanyaburi Mac]

Hi I am looking for an addapter to go from 240volt to 120 volt , i have a few kitchen appliances that I bought and want to take them back to thailand. any one know were I can buy them in BKK. does home pro sell them or carrefour.

thanks in advance

Lots of the Thai hole-in-the-wall hardware stores will have these step-down transformers. I think I bought mine at such a shop on the corner of Sukumvit Soi 17, and while you're there, stop in at the first Asia Books outlet in Thailand.

Mac

[Wandering]

Another factor to keep in mind is Wattage

A small appliance can use 100 Watts but a large machine may need 500-1000 watts

I fried the battery of my palm pilot using too low a wattage converter.

[zippydedodah]

i have searched and read a fair bit about the bringing of electronics into THailand and possible problems. Some of these posts are way too technical, but i can see how i would need to know such stuff if/when we buy a home in CM.

However, in the interest of trying to keep things simple, i have read posts that say "don't bring anything, forget it, sell in US and buy here"... to "many shops sell transformers", etc....

My goal is to figure out what small, normal use electrical devices would be able to function off of transformers. How about my computer monitor? My laptop, my cell phones? I have spent up to 6 weeks at a time in LOS and always just used a simple plug-in small travel transformer and everything was fine. WHy would this not work for the long term?

I get the fact that hi-amp or hi-wattage devices would require more costly/powerful devices to provide the proper power. I am not intending to bring power tools, hair dryers or large appliances....

so what is the deal? is there a simple answer?

thanks

zippy

[Crossy]

My goal is to figure out what small, normal use electrical devices would be able to function off of transformers. How about my computer monitor? My laptop, my cell phones? I have spent up to 6 weeks at a time in LOS and always just used a simple plug-in small travel transformer and everything was fine. WHy would this not work for the long term?

Check the rating plates on the back of your kit, stuff like cell chargers, laptop power supplies etc. often have 'universal' power supplies, these will say "Input 100-240V" or something similar, if you have these they will operate happily without a transformer.

For other small appliances the baby 'travel' transformers will usually be fine, they do tend to get rather warm though so you'd not want to leave them unattended whilst operating. For longer term operation get a locally made unit and ensure it's at least 25% bigger than your appliance would require, that will ensure it's not going to cook.