Can anyone recommend a GREAT converter?

I am hell-bent on brining all of my electronics. I am willing to pay whatever I need to-to ensure I have the best converters on the market. Anyone have any recommendations and know where I can buy them??  Thanks in advance! 

You may not actually need a converter for all of your items.  Look on the back of each device.  If it says 110V-240V, then it can run on UK current.  You can either use a plug adapter or you can just cut the plug and install a UK plug.  When buying a converter, you really need to determine which appliance you will be using and then you have to know how many watts they carry.  You will need to buy a converter that will handle that amount of watts. 
Another thing to keep in mind is shipping.  I bought two 2000 watt converters (one as a backup in case the first one quit working.)  They weigh about 35 pounds each. Depending on how you get that to the UK, it could be expensive. 
I realized after getting here, that very few of my appliances really require it.

Hi AudreyNYC,

All of what Lisapower just said!

when you say 'hell bent on bringing all your electronics' - can you possibly give an overview of what those are?!

Even the 'smallest' converter I can see in my catalogue here (240V in and 110-120V out) weighs 9KG and is around £130. Has two outlets. The only items I can think of that may require 1 KiloWatt of electricity supply, that you'd 'realllly' want to bring over would be a monster sized Gaming PC, perhaps a favourite DJ sized Amplifier, a favourite super duper Microwave oven or something!

If you're wanting to bring over 'smaller' electronics and items which have much more modest power requirements, you may be better off selling the items there and getting the UK equivalents - Hair Dryers, Hair curly/straightener thingys, mobile phone/ipod/digi camera chargers etc etc. As already mentioned, alot of smaller personal electronics have switchable power supplies anyway so can use both input voltages.

Bit more info needed really! theres a couple of places I know of which will do power transformers, so can recommend those if you do have something(s) which you really must have and are 'still' hell bent on bringing over!!

Cheers! DtM! West London & Slough UK!

Actually I think we might need a pretty powerful one. We wanted to attempt to bring our window airconditioner.     

Any idea if that would work at all? Or have I gone mad?

We wanted to attempt to bring our window airconditioner.     

Wow....why did you want to bring that?

Actually I think we might need a pretty powerful one. We wanted to attempt to bring our window airconditioner.     

Any idea if that would work at all? Or have I gone mad?

You can buy window air conditioners here in the UK.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=window+air+conditioner&meta=cr%3DcountryUK%7CcountryGB&aq=1&oq=window+air

Wow....why did you want to bring that?

I agree. You will only need it about 2 weeks out of the year, if that.

I agree. You will only need it about 2 weeks out of the year, if that.

That's true - I don't think the temperature here in the UK has risen above 80 degrees in the last couple of years (and even when it has got that high, it's only lasted for a couple of days and then it's gone back to cloud/wind/rain again). We had about a week or so of 90+ degrees in July 2006 and August 2003, but the average summer temperature in both of those years was still only about 70 degrees.

There's a reason millions of Brits flood to the US and continental Europe/the Mediterranean each summer... it's the only way we can experience guaranteed sunshine and warm weather .

That's true - I don't think the temperature here in the UK has risen above 80 degrees in the last couple of years (and even when it has got that high, it's only lasted for a couple of days and then it's gone back to cloud/wind/rain again). We had about a week or so of 90+ degrees in July 2006 and August 2003, but the average summer temperature in both of those years was still only about 70 degrees.

There's a reason millions of Brits flood to the US and continental Europe/the Mediterranean each summer... it's the only way we can experience guaranteed sunshine and warm weather .

I agree that there is usually no need for an air conditioner as the UK mostly does not get that hot. Window-opening seems to take care of most needs during the warm months.

I would point out, though, that even though the UK is a relatively small landmass, weather and temperatures can vary depending on where you are, and it can't really be generalized. For example, last summer I arrived to a part of greater London that was actually pretty damn warm, warm enought that I was still wearing my hot Texas summer clothing quite comfortably, and felt that it had been quite warm indeed where I was. I am not 100% certain but I think my area at the time did in fact see some over-80s temps. When I posted about this on this board at the time, people in, say, Yorkshire were contradicting me and saying they hadn't had a chance to wear light clothing and had not had warm temperatures. So evidently, in my spot of the world I felt it had been a "good summer" with comfortably nice temperatures, while other had quite a different opinion.

It isn't just all one flat experience of the same weather and same temps from Land's End to John O'Groats.....

The southern part in general, of the landmass, seems to enjoy slightly warmer conditions than the north and Scotland, so it's a kind of "your mileage may vary" kinda deal in the UK, for weather. I was looking up flats in various areas, and I was looking into a town/region in Essex where, oddly, the info on it said that because of certain geographical peculiarities, it enjoyed milder and more stable temperatures than other places even close by. Freaky. Just to illustrate, you do get variations even though this seems like such a small bit of land in the world.

But even so, having digressed a little.......yep, you still don't need an air conditioner no matter where you will be living, really.

Newmarket transformers make a good one and will even work with you for your specific requirements

I only need my transformers for my kitchen aid mixer, my kitchen aid food processor, my coffee grinder and my electric toothbrush.  The last two being, because although I could just buy new ones, I had em and I had the transformer, so why spend the extra money?

I get so used to just being able to use an adaptor plug with my electronic goods, that I accidentally plugged in computer speakers without the transformer, I heard a loud pop and I started a bit of an electrical fire... Now I need new computer speakers...

Not sure about the window air conditioners, even today, (a very warm day ) its only gonna be 76ºF out... and the temp drops at night,which is when I want it cool... 'course I live in the north of Scotland, so your mileage may vary...    

"Best" doesn't really apply to something like this, since any well-made transformer of sufficient capacity will do the job perfectly well.  At all costs, avoid "transformerless" converters.  Their only advantage is cheapness and lightness, but you pay for that in unreliability and power which is not the same sinewave that you get from a transformer, which is not good for motors and can introduce extra noise into other electronic equipment.  Some can be quite damaging to certain appliances.

If you need larger amounts of power, there's simply no substitute for a big transformer, which means bulk, weight, and appropriate cost.  Here are two good suppliers, one of which has been mentioned already:

http://www.airlinktransformers.com/
http://www.newmarket-transformers.co.uk/

Actually I think we might need a pretty powerful one. We wanted to attempt to bring our window airconditioner.     

Any idea if that would work at all? Or have I gone mad?

Need aside, it's probably not a good idea.  Transformers change the voltage of the supply but not the frequency (60Hz in the U.S., 50Hz in Britain).   With smaller motors in food mixers and such like the difference is not of great significance, but it becomes much more important with more powerful motors such as those used in air-conditioners.  Such a motor designed for 60Hz is likely to run less efficiently and hotter on 50Hz.   

The southern part in general, of the landmass, seems to enjoy slightly warmer conditions than the north and Scotland, so it's a kind of "your mileage may vary" kinda deal in the UK, for weather.

And in general, the west tends to be warmer than the east in the winter, but also has greater rainfall, the majority of which falls during the winter months.  Here in the east, our much smaller amount of annual rainfall is mostly during the summer. 

But there are many little microclimates in certain areas: I forget the name of the place, but there is even somewhere on the west coast of Scotland where palm trees can grow due to the high rainfall and relatively mild winter temperatures.

Hiya!

Like already mentioned, 'wow' at wanting to bring a window mounted air conditioner over! that's a first ...sort of.. !

I think I read some where that US air force/military bases here are like 'little bits of the USA' which geographically just happen to be on UK land. There, everything is as if it was in the USA, so things 'from there in the USA' work 'here in the borrowed UK land'  - so would of course include electricals etc. In that case, bringing over a window AC unit would be so eyebrow raising! If that's you're situation then, by all means look into bringing it over!

If not, it'd be best to sell it (or leave it over there) and purchase one when you get here.

Are you still hell bent on bringing other stuff too?! If you post a list of potential items, then chances are many of us could point you in the right direction for infomation and possible UK power supplies etc.

Cheers! DtM! West London & Slough UK!

But even so, having digressed a little.......yep, you still don't need an air conditioner no matter where you will be living, really.

I could think of reasons to need one.  If you have major allergies or asthma and can't have windows open, you might want/need an air conditioning unit.  We had kids in my dorm who had window units for this reason when I was in college.  So while I don't know Audrey's situation, I can understand a potential need for an a/c unit even if outdoor temperature don't technically get too high. 

Do you know where you are living? What are the window openings like? In our neighborhood, the windows open at the top horizontally, or vertically the whole length of the window, so even should we need one, we could not have a window unit. I'd hate to think of the expense to get it here only to not be able to use it...

I could think of reasons to need one.  If you have major allergies or asthma and can't have windows open, you might want/need an air conditioning unit.  We had kids in my dorm who had window units for this reason when I was in college.  So while I don't know Audrey's situation, I can understand a potential need for an a/c unit even if outdoor temperature don't technically get too high. 

Air purifiers and a vacuum with a filter is a more ecological option in this case, especially if the temperature isn't that high.