using a desk fan in another country - why it doesn't work?

[unwashed potato!]

long story short but i need to use a fan (those cheap 12" white desk fans) to sleep at night. the issue i have is when going to another country they never seem to work as the power seems too weak to spin the blades with any sort of decent speed. it's happened again to me now while in greece, but it also happened in america, turkey, cyprus.

is this due to the converter that allows me to put my uk plug into their sockets? i figured as it's just a simple fan there isn't much power required to spin the blades but they never work.

is there anything i can do to get a uk fan to work in another country or is the only solution to buy a fan from the country i'm in? (not ideal as like now often i'm in the middle of no where at some beach resort)

 

[ODuffer]

According to here the only country that might have caused you problems is America, with a 120V 60 Hz standard. The others are all ~240V 50 Hz. Converters aren't ideal, but the missus has used hair dryer etc with them. I suspect the fan.

 

[Gammawolf]

Is it actaully a converter or are you just using an adaptor?

 

[Efour]

get a usb powered fan.

but they should work anyway,

 

[unwashed potato!]

Is it actaully a converter or are you just using an adaptor?

It's an adapter, that "converts" the UK plug into whatever they use

get a usb powered fan.

but they should work anyway,

Was thinking thst for next time, but the usb fans are so small some reason

 

[jaybee]

You travel with a 12" desk fan in your suitcase? Strange. Is it the noise that gets you to sleep? Have you tried playing white noise instead?
I can't think of a reason why it does that. Greece is same voltage as UK no?
Are you sure it's not where it's been squashed in the suitcase putting pressure around the bearing making it higher resistance to spin? Try whacking the mesh protector thing or playing about with it.
I used to have a fan that did this and it would take about 2 minutes to get up to full speed as something was obviously wrong with it. Maybe the extra heat abroad causes the motor to seize up?

 

[unwashed potato!]

You travel with a 12" desk fan in your suitcase? Strange. Is it the noise that gets you to sleep? Have you tried playing white noise instead?

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play this at 1am and you wont find it so strange oddly the sound of air blowing over the ear i find soothing, and it totally drowns out all other noises, ringing being the main one.

 

[jaybee]

Yeah I have tinnitus too. I get it.

 

[arknor]

Voltage by Country 2024

 

[Disco_P]

Does the fan work at home still? Does the adapter work with other devices?

 

[Gammawolf]

It's an adapter, that "converts" the UK plug into whatever they use


Was thinking thst for next time, but the usb fans are so small some reason

If thats the case then there should no change between any 240v countries. If you were using an actaul converter/transformer then it might be a different story (such as you might need to in the US or Japan)

 

[Raumarik]

Adaptor/convertor should work fine in the US, I used my CPAP machine over these for weeks on one. It was just a cheap travel adaptor.

 

[Blackjack Davy]

See, theres this thing called voltage. If its half what it is back home the device isn't going to have enough ooomph to operate properly. Unless its dual voltage switching which a desktop fan probably won't be. That being said most of europe western europe at anyrate has the same nominal voltage. The US/Canada only has half. Conversely if you bring back a US appliance and its not dual voltage well lets just say your day is going to go with a bang.

 

[Rozzy85]

If it still runs slow at 240V then the permanent split capacitor might have been fried if you ever did run it at 120V somewhere for a long enough period.

 

[Grim5]

USB fans will just work...

If it's a wall fan, then there is a mismatch between the voltage required for the fan motor and the voltage output of the wall socket, otherwise your fan motor is dead/dying

 

[Participant]

If it's in a different country then maybe you're just too far away to feel the breeze?

 

[Werewolf]

Adaptor/convertor should work fine in the US, I used my CPAP machine over these for weeks on one. It was just a cheap travel adaptor.

That is going to depend on the device.

For anything with a modern switched mode PSU it probably will (check the information label!) as most smaller ones are duel voltage 110/220 (especially anything portable), but something like a desk fan is usually running at mains voltage with the motor wired basically direct (at most a fuse and RF suppressor) so it'll either be 110v input or 220v input, so a 220v one from the EU/UK might work (albeit slowly) in the US, a US 110v one plugged straight into the 220v UK mains is likely not going to be happy and let the magic smoke out.

I've seen so many reports over the years of people plugging PSU's in and having them pop because until fairly recently whilst most PC PSU's were "duel voltage" there was often/usually (depending on when you're talking about) a selector switch that needed to be set correctly, and UK PSU's didn't always get it set right before it was packed at the factory in the English (UK) box with the UK plug.

Remember it's not just the physical shape of the connection that varies between the UK/EU and US, it's the actual voltage.

 

[Vidar]

Not sure if it's been said but couldn't you get a small fan while there?

 

[Grim5]

who carries a fan with them overseas anyway

 

[wesley]

A fan in a suitcase. I'm not fan of this.