Step up converter for electrical motor, 110V to 230V

Question

Wasn't being careful when purchasing a vacuum pump for silicone de-gassing so I ended up with an american standard. (I live in sweden) Tried to search this but with limited knowledge comes limited lingo and understanding.

Speccs on pump: 110V/60hz, 1/4hp (or ~186W according to google)

Speccs on wall plug: 230V/50hz

1. Is a 230->110V, 300W max, converter ok to use?

2. I read that as this is an electrical motor I should be very careful when choosing a converter to handle power surges/spikes, what am I worried about here?

3.Other than loosing some performance in going from 60 to 50hz, are there any other risks/drawbacks?

Cheers and thank you for reading!

Edit1: link to product: http://www.amazon.com/Zeny%C2%AE-Single-Stage-Rotary-Vacuum-R410a/dp/B012CFTYX4

So far I've been unable to find more technical documentation for it, the manual doesn't seem to show any carbon brushes but there's a big capacitor attached. Guessing it's an induction motor.

Answer 1

Look at my answer (LINK) to a similar question. When operating at a lower frequency, an induction motor must be operated at a proportionally lower voltage. For a motor rated 110V, 60Hz, you need 92V 50Hz. If you uses an electronic converter that has a 110V, 60Hz output, that will be ok, but the converter needs to supply a higher current for a half second or so while the motor is starting and accelerating to full speed. The starting current could be something like six times the normal current. An electronic converter will not be very tolerant of even a fraction of a second of excess current. You may be able to find an electronic converter that has specifications that state that is suitable for starting a motor of a stated power rating.

A tranformer will be more tolerant of a brief current surge, but it will not convert the frequency from 50Hz to 60Hz. For your motor, the transformer voltage needs to be 92 volts rather than 110. Even though it will be tolerant of the starting current, the voltage will drop during the current surge, so it would still be best to select a larger size than needed for rated motor current.

Edit:

Another concern for 50Hz operation of a single-phase, capacitor-start motor is that the speed at 50Hz might not be high enough to operate the centrifugal switch that disconnects the capacitor when the motor reaches full speed when starting.