Can I use a 220 volt appliance in the U.S. (110V)?

Question

I am living in China and so I have a 220 volt battery charger. I am going back to the United States for the summer. Can I use the battery charger in the U.S. or will I ruin it?

Answer 1

I know that in the US they sell adapters for people that want to take their 110V/60Hz US appliances to Europe and use them on 220V/50Hz power. I'm sure there is someone that sells an adapter that goes the other way, just do some hunting on the Web.

Don't try to plug in your 220V charger into 110V socket. It's probable the plugs won't fit, but even if they do, you could damage the unit or overload the circuit.

Answer 2

In the US we have special outlets for 220 volt appliances...typically air conditioners. These have to be wired with a thicker guage wire than a 110 or 115 Volt outlet in order to prevent a fire. You can always bring the charger and see if it will work here, the plug configuration isn't the same on a 220 as a 110, so you can't accidentally plug in something "wrong". A 220 outlet in the US looks like two dashes over a circle...110 outlets look like two vertical dashes (a ground fault outlet also has a circular hole at the bottom).

Answer 3

Might be a problem. The other way around works in most cases.
What I mean is, your 220 is 50Hz. Our 110 is now (and has been for many yrs, yet still is called 110) 120 60Hz. We use 480, 240, and 120, all 60 Hz. It therefor is easy to get a converter (with proper "plug" on it) to go from our 120VAC 60Hz to your 220VAC 50 Hz. The problem going the other way around is a 50Hz transformer will (in many cases) over heat on 60Hz current.
Some units are rated for use on both 50 and 60 Hz.

Answer 4

You can't. You can by a set of adapters at radio shack pretty cheaply. I bought an adapter when I was going to India for about 11.00.