Question on using UK appliances in the continent

[CityS]

For people that have moved to Europe:

I want to use a vacuum cleaner with the UK plug (with fuse 13A or something like that) in Europe using an adaptor. Will it work properly? I'm not sure what is the fuse 13A and if it makes a difference in the continental plugs...

[El Guapo]

It will work just fine with an adapter.

[The jiffle king]

Are there any electrical appliances which are not transferrable? Will tele's work if I buy one in Spain and then bring back here in a couple of years? (And vice-versa)

T-J-K

[Bec]

You don't even need the adapter - just change the plug!

TVs used to be a problem as different countries used different frequencies to broadcast their images and sounds. More recently I have heard of people who bought a TV in the sales in the UK and successfully used it in the Netherlands, but I don't know about other countries

[Puggit]

The jiffle king said:

Are there any electrical appliances which are not transferrable? Will tele's work if I buy one in Spain and then bring back here in a couple of years? (And vice-versa)

T-J-K

I think a Spanish TV should work in the UK and vice versa - but France, of course, had to be different. There are 3 main TV technologies in the world:

[Roop]

When SWMBO and I moved to CH we simply ran auto setup on the tellys at which point they asked which country we were in. Once selected from a list of they went and brought in all the channels. Not only the TV system changes but also the frequencies in use. eg: Here, there are two discreet bands of channels. Worked fine for DVB-T as well as analogue.

Back on topic, vacuum cleaner will be fine. All of our appliances worked fine when we got here. Just changed the plugs, or in the case of a/v equipment, I changed the plug on the multi-gang extension and continued to use regular UK plugs on the devices...

[Uncle Fester]

What we did was to fit UK sockets along side the French ones in the holiday home.

The voltage is fine, as stated by others.

However, the earth system can differ. It will all work normally but if a fault develops you might not be safely earthed.

Fitting properly earthed UK sockets overcomes this.

It is also very convenient, once the original work is done.

[CityS]

Uncle Fester said:

What we did was to fit UK sockets along side the French ones in the holiday home.

The voltage is fine, as stated by others.

However, the earth system can differ. It will all work normally but if a fault develops you might not be safely earthed.

Fitting properly earthed UK sockets overcomes this.

It is also very convenient, once the original work is done.

That was the answer I was looking for. Perhpas I can find a multi plug whith UK in and Euro out? Anybody knows if it exists something like this?

I may buy a UK socket but I will need an electritian to install it right?

[Myobb]

CityS said:

For people that have moved to Europe:

I want to use a vacuum cleaner with the UK plug (with fuse 13A or something like that) in Europe using an adaptor. Will it work properly? I'm not sure what is the fuse 13A and if it makes a difference in the continental plugs...

I have experianced no problems living in Germany & running a Dyson vacuam cleaner, castete player, mobile phone & digital camera (all purchased in the UK) with an adaptor encompassing a two prong Continental plug. The only exceptions that I have heard of (no personnel experiance) are TV/ Video/ DVD players sourced in the UK which are supposedly not usable in Germany.