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

Feek · 8 May 2024 at 21:55

It's those damn foreign volts, they're inferior to good British volts.

(and in some countries, there ain't enough of them!)

unwashed potato! · 8 May 2024 at 22:14

Grim5 said:
who carries a fan with them overseas anyway

unwashed potato! said:
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Werewolf · 8 May 2024 at 22:24

Feek said:
It's those damn foreign volts, they're inferior to good British volts.

(and in some countries, there ain't enough of them!)

And in some they run too fast!

GGizmo · 8 May 2024 at 23:48

I think the machine as to be designed to be able to detect different power settings.

When I used to go to the US the lung function clinic give me a travel bipap. It had written on that it could change voltage. So all I needed was the plug adapters.

I noticed when I turned it on in the US the startup sequence was different.

Blackjack Davy · 9 May 2024 at 17:56

ODuffer said:
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.

I think the frequency matters too at least for AC electric motors and a fan is simply a motor + rotor something designed for 50hz isn't going to be happy at 60

Werewolf said:
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.

Havn't seen a manual switching PSU in a long time they're all auto switchers these days maybe the low end one still have them