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From: cooper@cs.arizona.edu (Andrew E. Cooper)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Running a 120V 60hz appliance at 120V 50hz
Summary: use of 60Hz appliances at 50Hz
Message-ID: <1482@caslon.cs.arizona.edu>
Date: 2 May 91 01:59:50 GMT
References: <15471@life.ai.mit.edu>
Organization: U of Arizona CS Dept, Tucson
Lines: 33

> I realise this may be a very simple question, but please pardon
> my ignorance.  Many small electric products are labelled
> 120 V/60 hz. but some are labelled 120 V/50-60 hz.  What would
> happen if you ran an appliance labelled 120 V/60 hz  at 120 V/50hz?
> I imagine a motor-driven device, like a manual clock would slow
> down.  What would be the likely result on something like a tv
> set or a VCR?  
>  
> Bruce Waldman
> bw@gnu.ai.mit.edu
> bw@harvarda.harvard.edu

     I spent three years in England courtesy the Air Force.  While there I
used several 60Hz appliances for three years without any problems. This included
a computer and monitor, a television (wouldn't receive british television,
different format, but was fine for tapes) and other general household items.
The power supplied over there is 220vac at 50Hz, transformers to convert to
110vac were readily availible, but changing frequency is not that easy. Since I
was known as the guy who would fix electronic gear cheap, I saw a few things
that had been plugged into the wrong voltage accidentally (easy to do with both
voltages around despite different plug types), destroying the transformers. I
never ran into a case where the frequency was the culprit. Certain things that
rely on the freqency like clocks would not work properly of course, but beyond
that, no problem. The transformers built into most appliances are fairly robust
items and the difference between 50 and 60Hz is minor when considering such
things as hysteresis and such. Besides most devices convert the AC to DC after
using a transformer to step down the voltage and the difference becomes moot.



cooper@cs.arizona.edu (Andrew Cooper)     |     "experience is directly
                                          |      proportional to equipment
                                          |      ruined."       -unknown