US kettle - can I use in the UK?

[dcb]

For some crazy reason I bought a kettle from Amazon USA because I liked the look of it. I didn’t stop to think about the difference in electrical supply until it arrived. Is there anyway I can adapt it?

No don’t risk it. The US kettle is made for a lower voltage so connecting it to the U.K. supply is a big fire risk.

You can go the other way but it will take 15 minutes to make a cup of tea.

U.K. Is 240v and as far as I know U.S. is 120v

It will depend on the kettle, it will have the wrong plug on for a start but some stuff does have the ability to accept duel input voltages via a selector switch, or failing that will a U.S. travel adapter to U.K. Plug work, that may be the easiest way to go

I know a builder who has a 110v kettle as most sites run on a temporary 110 volt supply, it has a special plug attached as it should never be connected to the regular supply at home.

You could use an adapter like this one ....

www.amazon.co.uk/US-UK-Plug-Travel-Adaptor-White/dp/B0006OFKNC?tag=mumsnetforum-21

with an adaptor you'd still be putting 230v through a device only meant to take 110v.

I didn't think they had kettles in the US.

It will probably go bang. If you are lucky, only the kettle will go bang, rather than blowing your electrics

Adapters only work on stuff like alarm clocks and phone chargers. High power things like kettles and hair dryers need big transformers, and even then they often don't really work very well

Sorry

DON'T just plug it in using a travel adaptor - that only adapts the plug, not the voltage. If you plug it in and turn it on it will probably just go bang (and be permanently broken) as well as flip that circuit on your fuse board.

I'm speaking from experience having moved from UK to Japan to Australia to Japan to UK again, and had to get rid of all electrical equipment each time apart from a handful of things like computers designed to be dual-voltage

To make a 110v kettle work in the UK you would need a reasonably hefty step-down transformer, which is expensive and bulky. I'd try to return the kettle if possible, or write it off to experience and get one that is designed for the UK.

MyDC - yes, it's easy to buy an electric kettle in the US. But they take so long to boil that stove top kettles are more common

It will go bang unless it is dual voltage and set correctly.

British voltage is 240v, American is 110v. Anyone who didn't flick hair in physics lessons will also know the formula which tells you why a kettle on that voltage will take much longer to boil.

It's a resistive heating element. It'll be fine. At work we run resistive heaters at the wrong voltage all the time. You just get a different running temperature. Since the heater in a kettle is "water cooled" and has a cut out switch when the right amount of steam is produced, there's no inherent danger.

Just make sure you put a 13A fuse in the plug when you rewire it (do NOT just use a travel adaptor). If it has fancy indicator lights they might possibly go bang, but it should still heat water. When you rewire it, remember that in US appliances, the black wire is live and white is neutral, so run the black wire through the fuse.

Finally, it's bound to not be CE marked, and will not have passed the same safety tests a European kettle will have passed. For those who care about such things.