Hi - I have a US 70's food blender I used to use when I lived in the
US. I now live back in the UK and want to use it here.

I assume I can't plug this in here - the info on the base shows :

Volts = 115v
Freq = 25-60 cycles
Amps = 5.2
Watt = 575

I'm no expert but strikes me a transformer for this would be pretty big
so ideally I need to get the motor replaced for a UK spec one - if
that's possible.

Any ideas how / who could do this. ?

I know everyone will say buy a Uk blender but this thing is awesome.

Cheers

I'm no expert but strikes me a transformer for this would be pretty big
so ideally I need to get the motor replaced for a UK spec one - if
that's possible.

Building site transformers are often better value than "consumer"
converters. You could hide the big yellow box behind a cupboard and run a
cable to a suitable outlet above the worktop. You need a 600VA type or
larger.

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products...500slash2.html

The advantage of this method is that it will run lots of old US appliances
(if compatible with 50Hz), should you wish to, although it is expensive and
requires space to mount the transformer and time to run the cables.

Christian.

Phil wrote:
Hi - I have a US 70's food blender I used to use when I lived in the
US. I now live back in the UK and want to use it here.

I assume I can't plug this in here - the info on the base shows :

Volts = 115v
Freq = 25-60 cycles
Amps = 5.2
Watt = 575

I'm no expert but strikes me a transformer for this would be pretty big
so ideally I need to get the motor replaced for a UK spec one - if
that's possible.

Any ideas how / who could do this. ?

I know everyone will say buy a Uk blender but this thing is awesome.

Cheers

Christian has told you how to do it.

My take is that it simply is not worth doing.

Phil wrote:

Hi - I have a US 70's food blender I used to use when I lived in the
US. I now live back in the UK and want to use it here.

I assume I can't plug this in here - the info on the base shows :

Volts = 115v
Freq = 25-60 cycles
Amps = 5.2
Watt = 575

I'm no expert but strikes me a transformer for this would be pretty big
so ideally I need to get the motor replaced for a UK spec one - if
that's possible.

Any ideas how / who could do this. ?

I know everyone will say buy a Uk blender but this thing is awesome.

I have a US food processor which I use with one of those travel
converters and a plug adapter. It's been working away quite happily,
since 1998.
I use the same setup with my US sewing machine.

In article ,
S Viemeister writes:
Phil wrote:

Hi - I have a US 70's food blender I used to use when I lived in the
US. I now live back in the UK and want to use it here.

I assume I can't plug this in here - the info on the base shows :

Volts = 115v
Freq = 25-60 cycles
Amps = 5.2
Watt = 575

I'm no expert but strikes me a transformer for this would be pretty big
so ideally I need to get the motor replaced for a UK spec one - if
that's possible.

Any ideas how / who could do this. ?

I know everyone will say buy a Uk blender but this thing is awesome.

I have a US food processor which I use with one of those travel
converters and a plug adapter. It's been working away quite happily,
since 1998.
I use the same setup with my US sewing machine.

When I was young in the 1960's, the family lived in the US.
My parents came back to the UK with a number of US kitchen
appliances, although they were all heating appliances, not
motor ones. For years, they were used on a large variac
auto-transformer, using the (fixed) centre tap to derive 120V.

Around 10 years ago, I built a circuit to chop the middle
out of each half mains cycle to produce 120V RMS for the
heating elements. I chopped the middle out in order to
minimise the peak voltage in the heating elements, which
were only designed for 120V AC. Even so, the peak is
slightly higher than they were designed for, but less so
than would be the case using a phase control dimmer circuit.
The circuit uses a pair of power MOSFETs to switch the
mains, and a fast acting fuse to limit damage if one of
the MOSFETs was to short and deliver full 240V to the 120V
heating elements (which has never happened).

I suspect such a design would also work with universal
motors, but it would probably be necessary to include much
more protection for the MOSFETs than I did for resistive
loads.

--
Andrew Gabriel

Andrew Gabriel wrote:
When I was young in the 1960's, the family lived in the US.
My parents came back to the UK with a number of US kitchen
appliances, although they were all heating appliances, not
motor ones. For years, they were used on a large variac
auto-transformer, using the (fixed) centre tap to derive 120V.

Around 10 years ago, I built a circuit to chop the middle
out of each half mains cycle to produce 120V RMS for the
heating elements. I chopped the middle out in order to
minimise the peak voltage in the heating elements, which
were only designed for 120V AC. Even so, the peak is
slightly higher than they were designed for, but less so
than would be the case using a phase control dimmer circuit.
The circuit uses a pair of power MOSFETs to switch the
mains, and a fast acting fuse to limit damage if one of
the MOSFETs was to short and deliver full 240V to the 120V
heating elements (which has never happened).

I suspect such a design would also work with universal
motors, but it would probably be necessary to include much
more protection for the MOSFETs than I did for resistive
loads.

Interesting.
I've copied your post, so that Himself can have a look at it.

In article ,
JohnDW writes:
Be careful, though, if the blender uses an electronic speed
controller. These assume a sine-wave supply and, in it's
simplest form, a SCR switches off the supply at every zero-
voltage crossing point of the sine wave and switches it on
later in the half-cycle. If you remove part of the half-cycle,
then the SCR could fail to start to conduct after the delay if
the voltage at that point is also zero, due to Andrew's
chopper circuit's action.

Goot point. It would be easier to build the speed control
into the chopper by chopping out progressively more. I have
an internal adjustment to set where this happens anyway.
(IIRC, it's chopped out from something like 42º to 138º and
same on following half cycle. I do recall the maths was a
real ******* to work this out, and stretched my calculus
which I hadn't used for many years to my limit.)

If the OP is able to redesign the speed controller, (using
approx. 400v peak components...) then they could make its
maximum speed setting start at an approx. 90degree delay
instead of 0deg. The motor should be able to cope with the
higher peak voltage of the 240v waveform.

Quick thought -

As a cheap alternative, for a universal motor, why not try a
simple series diode of suitable current rating. That will
remove every other half cycle, thereby reducing the RMS
voltage to around 107v.

Ouch -- both these points are wrong. Removing every other
half cycle, or half of every half cycle will reduce RMS
voltage to 1/sqrt(2), or 170V on a 240V supply, which is
too high. You would have to remove every other half cycle
_and_ half of the remaining half cycle to get 120V RMS.
Also you still have 340V peak which is significantly
higher than the appliance will have been designed for.

--
Andrew Gabriel