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I recently moved to Dubai from Toronto, and have been searching for a reliable vltage convertor for my TV, DVD Players, Xbox, etc. since. I bought one from a small shop and anoter from RadioShack, and unfortunately, neither worked. As a result, I managed to fuse two small appliances. Before I plus more expensive appliances in, I wanted to make sure that the converter would work properly, and any advice on where I could find a reliable one would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Hmmm, don't know why the one from Radio Shack didn't work. We bought our converter in Finland and have been using it for years when travelling - so far no problems with it. Then again we have used it for hair dryers and irons, not TVs etc. Can anyone else help TorontoSM?

I'm surprised you fried your appliances. A convertor isn't a complicated piece of electronics - it works or it doesn't. Did you take it back to RadioShack? I know customer service isn't great here but somewhere like Radio Shack is worth a try.

Try Ace Hardware - they usually sell reasonable quality stuff (usually - I've had exceptions to that rule but they were good about rectifying the problem).

Some appliances have a converter built in, you just need an adaptor plug. You checked that?

kanelli, you're talking about a convertor or adaptor? Dubai and Finland have same voltage levels I thought.

Converter - we use it in North America when home visiting with our Finnish/UAE appliances.

There is a serious safety issue where voltage needs to be increased.

Stepping up from 110/120v to 220/240 V (ac) is not really recommended and carries serious fire/elctrical hazzards.

If the voltage is not consistant the appliances will blow/fuse as the poster has described.

In particular as the North American electrical products are not "fused" at the source ( ie the plug) then the only safety backup is the fuse within the appliance itself. IF this failed, you are looking at a fire risk.

I would seriously recommend dumping things like TV's and Computers and repurchasing in Dubai. You may think the cost is unecessary because you have the items, but it would work out cheap compared to having your house or appartment and all your belonging burnt to ashes.

arniegang wrote:There is a serious safety issue where voltage needs to be increased.

Stepping up from 110/120v to 220/240 V (ac) is not really recommended and carries serious fire/elctrical hazzards.

S/he's stepping down from 220/240 V source to 110/120V for load (appliance).

The risk is when a 110/120V appliance is plugged directly into a 220/240V source. The lower resistance of the appliance will mean a higher current is drawn which will probably overheat the appliance - if you're lucky, the fuse will blow first.

If a transformer is used, then as long as the power rating of the transformer is sufficient for the appliances, there's no abnormal risk. Transformers are used all the time in cars and household appliances without problems most of the time.

If the voltage is not consistant the appliances will blow/fuse as the poster has described.

What ?

In particular as the North American electrical products are not "fused" at the source ( ie the plug) then the only safety backup is the fuse within the appliance itself. IF this failed, you are looking at a fire risk.

There should be protection in the main fuse box also. This is not the problem though since the fuse in the plug is usually rated at 13A. Something like a 110/120V stereo is only going to draw 1 A in the US. If you plug it in to 220/240 V without a converter, you'll get 2 A running through which is not going to blow the fuse in the plug but is going to cook your stereo.

Your safest bet is to buy new appliances! Going from 110 to 240 is not easy, even if u had the perfect convertor, cuz these convertors can overheat and malfunction after a while.

i am going to have to disagree with you SW sadly.

North american appliances are rated at 110/120 v

UAE is rated at 220/240 v .

Any appliance without a separate fuse like the UK (13amp plug system) cannot be safe only relying on the RCD circuit breaker.

For example to carry a load on a normal household ring main in the UAE requires a RCD of between 16-32 Amp load. If there is no further fuse between the RCD and appliance then there is a serious risk of fire.

The lower the ampage of the appliance the more serious the problem. Take for example a TV or computer. This should rely purely on a fuse rated at 3 Amps maximum, if it soley relies on a RCD rated at 16 or 32 amps, then the consequences can be horrendous.

You will note that the current electrical Regs in the UAE requires all "new build" to install the English 3 pin 13 amp system. However, buying a converter for electrical products sold in the UAE that have the "unfused" 2 pin system is considered unsafe, because again like described above the appliances are soley relying on the main RCD for a fuse.