American electronics in Germany

joshc · Guest

Hello,

I'm an American who has just moved to Germany. I've got a bunch of American electronic equipment. It seems like the only practical thing to do is run the equipment into an American surge protector, the surge protector into a convertor/adaptor, and the convertor/adaptor into the wall.

Three questions:

1. Is there a better solution?

2. Does my solution endanger my equipment?

3. Do I need any particular kind or quality-level of surge protector or convertor/adaptor?

Thanks,
Josh

vtech · Joined: 08 May 2006 Posts: 1264 Location: USA

Guest · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 4:27 am Post subject:

60 hertz vs 50 hertz. Pal vs NTSC.

Justmanuals · Joined: 21 Aug 2004 Posts: 1948

Something you definitely should've checked out beforehand.

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torbjorn · Joined: 07 Jun 2007 Posts: 370 Location: Sweden

The major problem is the mains voltage, 230 V in Europe as related to 110-120 V in the US. This problem is most easily solved by using an 230/115 V transformer, but make sure that it has a large enough power rating. You should use a full transformer rather than an autotransformer, in order to get the 115 V equipment galvanically isolated from the mains. American 115 V equipment does not fulfill the safety rules required for directly powering them from a 230 V mains.

Equipment with switch mode power supplies (most modern electronic equipment) will work equally well on 50 or 60 Hz, but you should be careful with equipment with a mains transformer unless the nameplate expressly states 50/60 Hz. There is a possibility that the core of a transformer that is designed for 60 Hz gets saturated when running on 50 Hz, and this will cause noise from the transformer and possibly overheating.

Also, electromechanical equipment with induction motors will run slower on 50 Hz, that might be a problem in some cases.