Shipping power tools from Uk to US...help!

Hi there,

My husband moved here a coupe of months ago and has secured a job as an Electrical Engineer and now needs to move all of his power tools and text books etc (about 4 medium sized boxes) from his parents home in rural Pennsylvania, US to our home in the UK. However we have no idea how to do this and what the rules are with this, how much we will have to pay etc. Has anyone else done this? Just trying to look at the most stress free way to go about doing this as we are currently moving house ,planning a second wedding and various other things that mean we are mega busy.

If anyone has any suggestions kindly let me know, thanks

I'm not sure what the cheapest shipping is, but for bringing in personal items as part of his relocation, he'll want to do a TOR relief application to avoid import duty.  Link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/application-for-transfer-of-residence-tor-relief-tor01

As for feasibility, I'm not sure what kinds of tools he has, but he should be aware that the EU electrical supply is 50Hz, whereas in the US, we use 60Hz.  Even with a transformer to change the voltage to 110, the frequency will be lower than the tools were made to run on.  Some of his tools may work fine, if slightly underpowered, or some might break (overheat due to poor cooling from a slower fan, for example)...  it's something he should look into before spending the money to move tools over.

I know it's expensive to replace them here, but it might be cheaper in the long run than shipping them over and then having to replace them, anyway.  (Cordless ones, obviously, won't be a problem if the chargers are dual voltage or he uses a transformer.)