Questions tagged [appliances]
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78
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How can there be 0 volts difference and yet I can feel electrical tingle? [closed]
While the background for this question is quite practical and probably off-topic for this site, what I'm asking here for is why this happens and not how to fix it. I want to understand the electrical ...
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3
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123
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Is it acceptable to connect a car battery and an AGM battery in parallel?
I power a 12V fridge in my car either via the car battery (when the vehicle is running) or via an AGM battery. There is an Anderson outlet in the car connected to the car battery to which I attach a 3 ...
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1
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12V-only (and no 110V/220V) household electrical installation [closed]
Power outlets are in 220V/110V in houses for historical reasons (light bulbs and other appliances probably required >100V voltage) but nowadays as:
we use a USB charger 220V->5V for phones, ...
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112
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Using electrical equipment made in the US, in Japan
A lot of (good) US stuff is available in Japan through international online sales (Amazon).
However, most equipment purchased in Japan from the US are shipped as-is, without any change, while the ...
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2
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Can I safely remove the buzzer from a Philips air purifier?
I am trying to silence my air purifier (Philips AC5659/10). I think it uses a piezo-buzzer (front & back of PCB visible on page 4 of this document). In a similar vein to this question, I would ...
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Are there non-unscrewable microwave oven bulbs? [closed]
I recently emptied a Samsung microwave oven of its components and came across the lightbulb, which appeared at first glance to be fitted in a diamond shaped holder.
Though when I looked through the ...
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3
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123
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Can I reduce the power used by an AC heater? [closed]
I have a 2000W resistive heater that plugs into 220V AC. Is there any device that I can place between the heater and the outlet that will make it, simply speaking, not heat as much, and behave as it's ...
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Laptop battery - Appliance class - Is it safe for ungrounded outlet? [closed]
I have some ungrounded receptacles in my house that are GFCI/AFCI protected. I wanted to check if my laptop (power brick) can be safely used on these receptacles. On the power brick I see this ...
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3
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206
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Solving for using 120 V, 60 Hz washing machine and dryer in 240 V, 50 Hz environment
Thanks in advance for the feedback. My family will be building our dream home and moving to Europe in a few years. I’ve lived in various regions of the world and one of the biggest conveniences that I ...
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What causes an induction cooker to lower heat level by itself [closed]
It's more than 5 years old. It is difficult to cook in high temperature because the minus sensor appears to be activated all the time. I end up going from 1600 to 400 every time. What must be the ...
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Why do European motorized appliances draw less inrush current than their American counterparts?
I have been trying to tease apart the history and evolution of arc fault circuit interrupter requirements, and in the process, came across a curious historical sidenote early in its genesis, namely ...
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Rated voltages for the Cage clamp connectors?
what does the rated voltage for a connector means? How should we select the connector for a 230V AC application?
Let us say can I use this connector for my 230V AV application?
https://www....
- 1,755
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Calculating wattage of electrical appliances
I need some help from you. I don't know how to calculate wattage of my refrigerator. It has a warmer part and cooler part. Below is its configuration.
Also, if you guys don't mind, please roughly ...
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Securing a very, very old 220V switch
We recently acquired a very old saw that accepts either 220V or 120V.
It came with a suicide (male-male) cord, in turn going to a female-socket cable:
which in turn goes to a DPST switch:
in turn ...
- 3,022
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207
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Do thermal cutoff fuses wear out if used below rated temperature?
I tend to keep my electrical applicances alive for decades and have had several thermal fuses (the non-resettable axial kind) repeatedly wear out for no apparent reason, some of them in expensive ...
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Why do household appliances use DC motors? [closed]
Couldn’t appliances like fans also use AC motors? What is the advantage of converting to DC?
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Need help designing a hairdryer
I'm designing a hairdryer as project for a university class, but I'm having trouble regarding the choice of the motor. I need it to have two possible speeds. My first idea was to use an AC motor and a ...
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Switches and functions of microwave oven unresponsive on cold start
I have an old microwave oven which performs most of its functions, considering its age.
There is a slight problem that the switches go unresponsive and the LCD display fails to operate correctly if I ...
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1
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238
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How could one "inverter control" convector heater be more electrically efficient than another?
I'll have to explain it step by step so that you have no chance to misunderstand what I'm asking about.
First, what a convector heater is. It's a plasma TV shaped box usually made of sheet steel. ...
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Wiring for solar powered house [closed]
I am trying to design electrical wiring for a small 1-bedroom house which will be only powered from solar panels. The minimum appliances in a house would be:
Appliances available in 12V DC:
LED ...
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235
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Is most of non-isolated power supply "safe"?
I need a large power supply (a little over 1kW) for a consumer appliance that only has a single on/off switch and some non-conductive handles. An off-the-shelf isolated supplies run at least $60 for ...
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2
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Why would bridging a varistor with the multimeter leads on any setting have caused the unit to turn on?
So I've been working on fixing this window AC unit for a while, and when I started I knew next to nothing about circuits. At present today, I know a bit about circuits -- enough that i at least know ...
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Kitchen Appliance Replacement resistor
I am trying to fix an old Kenwood Chef kitchen mixer that's motor is only working very intermittently. I opened up the unit and found that one of the power resistors are cracked - that is likely ...
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How does a "mains priority circuit work"?
Dometic makes a series of DC refrigerators and one capability is to hook the fridge up to both DC and AC and it uses a "mains priority circuit" to prefer the AC source to the DC source, if both are ...
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Is it possible that an outlet can kill AC motors?
I have two recently dead tower fans. The first, I've had for over 6 months, no problems. Recently, I moved it to a new room an plugged it into a different outlet. It died within a day: it seems to be ...
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Help in bypassing a defective knob in an airconditioning unit [closed]
I would like to ask for help fixing my airconditioning unit.
Please see image for a clearer picture of my problem.
So I have a defective knob for switching on/off my airconditioning unit.
Since its ...
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Can I safely use a 6 A, 600 V diode in place of a 6 A, 400 V diode?
Inexperienced electrical person here, but trying to save significant cost to repair an oven. The oven I have has a MR754 diode off the main convection heating element, that has failed. Unfortunately,...
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Need to operate ac appliances using 5V, 10A relay module with ESP8266 node MCU. How to do it. Please explain the schematics elaborately? [duplicate]
I am having problem in triggering the 5V relay with the output GPIO pin of ESP8266 node MCU. I think the voltage provided by the output GPIO pin is not enough to trigger the relay. I'm thinking of ...
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Is there a reason that dryers aren't grounded [closed]
One minute ago I cried out in pain, after being electrocuted again by my clothes dryer; probably the thousandth time in my life that this has happened.
I was taking out clothes after they're dry, ...
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Projection clock: how to make a custom display?
I have a projection clock which projects a red image of the current time on the ceiling. I want to know if it's possible to find/build a similar display that would be computer-controlled (project ...
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What causes a thorn like feeling when your put your hand in water in electronic appliances?
I live in India, the voltage supply in houses is 220V.
Sometimes, for example in my washing machine, when it is full of water and I put my hand in it, I get a feeling like a thorn/tiny nail is ...
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Wattage in US vs AU/EU household appliances
This oven is listed in both the US and Australia. You can see that it's the exact same model (BOV845). Yet if you open the specifications, the only difference is that the US model uses 1800 Watts ...
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What is the most efficient way to increase the frequency of a waveform?
More specifically, I have an electric induction kettle. From what I understand, it heats the water by sending a high frequency (voltage?) signal around ~24kHz. This high frequency signal causes a ...
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Bypassing refrigerator door alarm piezoelectric buzzer
My appliances keep beeping at me. How can I deactivate or bypass this refrigerator door alarm buzzer without affecting the rest of the circuit?
I thought I could just cut/connect the wires at the ...
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In powering household devices, is the voltage preset and the amperage varies as needed?
When powering household devices, does a power adapter have a preset (or in some cases user-defined) voltage, while the device (while turned on) "selects"/draws whatever amount of amperage it needs at ...
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Do 240V AC switches only need to open the active wire?
I want to add a simple inline switch to a small, mains powered lamp (~240V AC, 10W Max).
It's earthed; it has a typical 3-core cable with a 3-pin plug.
I bought a bunch of switches, expecting ...
- 1,009
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Can i use an AC 15A 250V / 30A 125V rocker in place of a 15A 125V / 10A 250V one?
Amazon sent me the wrong replacement switch so i am wondering if i can use it?
Original switch is AC 15A 125V / 10A 250V
new one is AC 15A 250V / 30A 125V
can i use it without damaging the ...
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Oven power usage estimation [closed]
Does an oven draw less power when used at a lower setting?
I'm trying to calculate the cost of running my oven on the lowest setting as a dehydrator. Wattage is 4800 kWh/cycle is .92 and my cost for ...
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In an induction cooktop, what happens to the coils resistance when there is no pot? Does it vary between pots? How does the appliance respond?
An induction cooktop (or an induction rice cooker) uses a copper coil with a high-frequency alternating current going though. The magnetic flux heats any iron-alloy pot placed above.
But what ...
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Convert a blender into a dimmer lamp
I was sitting around and suddenly wanted to convert my old blender into a lamp. The control panel would act as a dimmer switch. (And maybe the pulse button would be a big hit at raves.)
Can I just ...
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Symbols: Double-arrow circle enclosed "10" on electronic appliances
What does the symbol that says 10 inside the double arrowed circle mean? I have seen a similar symbol on another appliance that had the number 25
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Transient Current Effects from Independent Charging Circuit
I've been working to automate a household appliance. The device is normally controlled by a switch that must constantly be depressed in order for the device to operate. Instead, I replaced this ...
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Replacing a blender circuit breaker
I'm replacing a blender's circuit breaker.
750W -Blender
Current breaker is rated at 2.8A ~230V
So the maximum power output is 640W
But the blender itself is rated at 750W.
So the lower rated ...
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Will a 2000w Step Down Transformer be enough to safely power a Japanese Oven Toaster? [closed]
I recently acquired a Japanese oven toaster, with a maximum power consumption of 1000w at 100v, and I would like to use this appliance in USA.
I was told that for safety reasons I should get a step-...
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Power reading in different places
Currently, I have a software which able to read voltage, current, active power, apparent power and reactive power from appliances which I assume the readings should be approximately same even though I ...
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3
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Air Purifier Circuit Mod Help [closed]
I have an air purifier I would like to modify the PCB to an always on state at high setting when plugged in. This would allow me to control the device with and Amazon Echo compatible smart plug.
...
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Is it true that when extending a high watt appliance with a extension cord I should use a thicker (higher AMP) cable than the cable of the appliance?
I am an European, so I am not sure if that matters.
All I know is that I need a cable with the right amp or wattage throughput capability. Our cables are named as 3x1.5, 3x2.5, 3x3.5 etc, I guess ...
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How to analyze time-varying current signal?
I want to understand the power consumption profile of my electric blanket in order to determine (a) if it's working properly and, if so, (b) how much power it's consuming.
I took some readings with ...
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Can I use an extended power cord for washing machine? [closed]
I have heard that the usage of a power cable to a washing machine is not recommended, however I do not have other option for connecting as I have no bathroom power outlets.
What is the general ...
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Why is the neutral pin hotter than the live pin?
I frequently use an Immersion Rod Water Heater (shown below) and I have noticed that the after unplugging the heater, the neutral pin of the 3 pin plug is quite hot (about 5 degrees more - but not ...
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