USA to Australian power

[Stubbo of Oz]

G'Day All

I am in Australia where we have 220 volt power supply

If I use my battery chargers in a USA environment of 110 volt (with
the appropriate power plug adaptor) which of these would apply:-

1. Batteries would not charge at all

2. Batteries would charge but very slowly

3. Damage would be done to the battery chargers.

Thanks for any help

 

[Stubbo of Oz]

4. Not enough information.

Thanks for reply

Charger 1 is the main one I asking about. Will this be unusable?

Chargers 2 and 3 indicate 100-240V input so am I right in assuming
that they will work OK with USA 110V input? The instruction books
don't give any indication.

Charger 1 - Used for AA NiMH batteries 1.2V 2200mAH
Input 240VAC 50HZ 5W
Outout 1.4 VDC 350 mA

Charger 2 - Mobile/Cell phone
Battery Lithium-Ion 3.7V 1400mAh
Input 100-240 VAC 50/60HZ 150mA
Output 4.6 V 8 mA

Charger 3 - Electric razor
Battery NiMH other details unknown
Input 100-240 VAC 50/60HZ 7W
Output 12 VDC 400mA

 

[Stubbo of Oz]

Stubbo of Oz was thinking very hard :

Charger No1 will not function correctly in USA unless you get an
adapter to run it un a US Heater/Dryer type socket.
Chargers 2 & 3 are designed to operate correctly in either USA or
Australia.

The supply in Australia is is nominaly 230 volts although many
locations still have anyting up to 250 because the nominal used to be
240.
The nominal in USA is 120Volts.

Thanks for reply - you say "....unless you get an adapter to run it in
a US Heater/Dryer type socket" I presume you mean one that converts
from 120 v to 230v?

Cheers ........

 

[Stubbo of Oz]

Stubbo of Oz presented the following explanation :

NO!!
The big loads, dryers etc are usually connected to both legs of the
supply which comes to the house giving 240 volts
The 120 you see is from one leg to ground
There are many plugs in use in USA but the simple ones are

| |
0 for 120 volts and

__ __

0 for 240 volts

The round pin is safety ground and tied to one of the pins in the 120
volt plug only at the building entrance box

Someone from USA could give the type numbers for thes plugs.

Many thanks for putting me straight, John. Your help is much
appreciated

 

[Don Kelly]

Many thanks for putting me straight, John. Your help is much
appreciated

---------------------------------
If charger 1 is the only problem- it will be easier and cheaper to simply
buy a charger such as the one that I have that is 110-240V 50-60Hz with an
output of 1.5V 0.4A (x2 as it handles 2 AA NIMH batteries) This (Panasonic
DE-893 ) works in US, Canada, Italy and New Zealand (personal experience-
even if I had to use a razor outlet in NZ). That way you get the internal
electronics for proper charging of these batteries as well as the
flexibility without a transformer. It fits a 2 prong "| |" outlet so that a
cheap " ungrounded plug adapter" ( doesn't change voltage ) which is a
sort of electrical "Swiss Army Knife" for this purpose.

http://international-electrical-supplies.com/plugadapters15.html

and is useable with the other chargers and available in many stores is
something that you should have "just in case". A voltage changing device
will be more expensive and will still require a "plug adapter"

You really don't want to plug it into a 240V dryer outlet as, if you are
travelling, you may be staying in hotel rooms which don't have these outlets
(as well as the available plugs for these outlets are rather cumbersome.

The following can help with the world wide variation in plugs/sockets

http://www.kropla.com/electric2.htm