how do i get my appliances to work in the USA

how do i get my UK hair straighteners/dryer to work in the US. I know when i took them in April they did'nt heat properly, My hubby told me it is to do with the elctiricity voltage being different between the US and UK I i know it was more technical than that but i did'nt understand lol). I have Afro hair which i relax, so my hair stuff i have mastered over the years and dont want to just buy new, if i cant use them out there, i am gonna be going out every day looking like a crack head LMAO.


Does anyone know??

you'll need to get a special converter for the differences in voltages... do a google search for "step up voltage converter" and see what you come up with.

Going from 240 to 110, she probablly needs a step down converter.  Even with a step down converter, most hair dryers and other hair appliances draw too much amperage to be supported by most of the converters.  In almost all cases it is better (and cheaper) to buy the UK versions.

re: step up/down...I can never keep track of which is which, and Google gives me conflicting results, which is confusing.  Going from the UK to the US voltage... is it a step down converter converting the 240V in the appliance down to the 110V US socket, or is it a step up converter which converts the 110V electricity coming from the US socket up to the 240V in the appliance?  (You see why I'm confused )

thanks for the replies , looks like i have an excuse to buy new.

Oooops... Andrea, I mis-read the OP thinking it was getting US stuff to work in the US... Step-up is what you need, and that is even more difficult then step-down.

I always think of it water through a pipe... Voltage is a bit like the width of the pipe and watts is how many "gallons" of water is flowing.  So in a step-up converter you are trying to make a pipe that is twice as wide out of one that is much smaller when converting from 110v (US power) to 240v (UK appliance).  The problem is also hairdryers suck a lot of energy quickly (Watts) and so the converters are only able to convert energy so fast and make it go fast at the other end.  Hairdryers suck a LOT of Watts.

If you really want to get into it, the hairdryer and other items should be marked with the number of watts you need to run it, and you have to find a converter that supplies the number of watts.  Problem is the more the watts, the bigger the convert and the bigger the $$$$.  For example, a 1000 watt step down (which is not unreasonable for a Hairdryer) weighs about 22 lbs and costs about 70 USD.

If you really want to do it, here is a website in the states that is probablly the best:

http://www.voltage-converter-transformers.com/

I used to work in electronics, so think of it this way . . .

If your appliance needs 240 to work (if it's a UK appliance), you would need to step-up the 110 in the US to get 240 volts to go into it.

And if you have a US appliance which can only handle 110 volts, and you take it to a country with 220 or 240, you would need to step down the 240 so it only has 110 going into it, or you'll fry it.

 

For step-up vs. step-down, just think of what you're doing to the voltage in the transformer:

240V in, 120V out = Step-down.
120V in, 240V out = Step-up.

When trying to use more powerful U.K. appliances in the U.S. via a transformer, you need to remember that many general-purpose 120V outlets are limited to 15 amps.  At 120V that equates to approx. 1800 watts maximum (and you need a suitably large transformer, of course).

One thing to keep in mind is that most U.S. homes do actually have 240V available in them -- It's used for the range, dryer, and some heating or air-conditioning units.  With suitable plugs/adapter leads you could run a U.K. hair-dryer directly from one of those 240V outlets.   

I always think of it water through a pipe... Voltage is a bit like the width of the pipe and watts is how many "gallons" of water is flowing. 

The usual analogy with water which is used in elementary electrical texts is to think of voltage as being equivalent to the pressure behind the water (in fact we often use another term which makes this comparison clear:  e.m.f. -- electro-motive force). 

Current (measured in amps) is then equivalent to the rate at which water flows through the pipe (i.e. so many gallons-per-minute).  The size of the pipe can then be likened to electrical resistance.  If you use a smaller pipe, you need more pressure to make the water flow at the same rate as with a larger pipe.   In electrical terms, if you increase the resistance of a circuit the current will decrease, but you can bring the current back up by increasing the voltage (electrical "pressure"). 

Power (watts) is a measure of how quickly energy is being used (1 watt being equal to 1 joule per second) and is the product of voltage and current. {*}    That's why a 1200-watt hairdryer in the U.K. (240 volts) draws 5 amps of current while a 1200-watt hairdryer in the U.S. (120 volts) draws 10 amps.   With only half as much voltage, you need twice as much current to obtain the same amount of heat.

{*}   Simplified somewhat because with A.C. there are other factors involved as well, but you don't want to go into that here......

elementary electrical texts

Well that would be me!  Just dangerous enough to stick my finger in the socket!