Chile Forum

Hi,
I am wondering if I am able to use a couple of key electrical items in Chile from Australia. I have checked inputs specifications and they are OK (ie Voltage and Current) and I expect to be able to simply use an adapter, but has anyone had experience with larger electrical items such as plasma television. Australia uses PAL and I think Chile is on the NTSC system. What about a large refrigerator?

We didn't bring our TVs as they were older, but a newer model should cope with PAL and NTSC - check the specs. Have had other aussie friends bring their newer TV and it was fine.

We brought our Fridge, freezer, and many smaller appliances. Fridge and freezer have not missed a beat, and they were both at least 3 years old when we got here. We brought all of our smaller appliances, but because they usually come without the earth in the wiring, they pretty much all blew due to irregular currents/voltages (not an expert here) in the Chilean electrical. We have surge protectors on all the big appliances. Friends also brought their washing machine and drier and they work fine.

Steph wrote:We brought all of our smaller appliances, but because they usually come without the earth in the wiring, they pretty much all blew due to irregular currents/voltages (not an expert here) in the Chilean electrical

That doesn't make a lot of sense. The earth is there to prevent you from being electrocuted if a metal appliance develops a fault; it doesn't do anything in normal use. If your fridges and freezers are working, I'm guessing the difference is not the AC frequency either (Wikipedia also confirms it's 50Hz like here). So I'm not sure why your appliances would have failed. Irregular voltage might do it, but that has nothing to do with your appliances being Australian (unless perhaps they have internal fuses and the Chilean ones don't?). There's a small difference in nominal voltage (downwards), but I don't think that should matter much. Maybe your electrics are just flaky? Sorry that doesn't shed much "light" on the situation, but I think the earth is a red herring.

Cheers,

James.

ok, well I don't claim to be an expert on all thing electrical . This is what (I think) the electrician explained to me. But the fact remains, small appliances failed, larger ones did not. Of course, when buying small appliances I am not nearly as researched as when buying larger ones, so perhaps they were generally cheaper models, or perhaps in general most smaller appliances fail easily.

jehturner wrote:There's a small difference in nominal voltage (downwards), but I don't think that should matter much. Maybe your electrics are just flaky? Sorry that doesn't shed much "light" on the situation, but I think the earth is a red herring.

Well, I agree with the earthing issue but as for the "small difference", I measured the 220V at 170V in El Tabo this summer.

Always unplug the more sensitive appliances during a power outage and don't plug them back in on power return till the power is fully stabilized. The only way to gauge this (do not rely on dimming and brightening incandescent lights) is a voltmeter. I got mine (Craftsman from Sears) in the States.

Thanks Everyone. We'll take the smaller ones in any case and try them - the impact isn't big if they don't work. The specs on the TV etc are all OK so I'll take them as well. Just didn't want to move larger items and they be unworkable.

I use my (and have been for two years now) automatic espresso maker, kettle, toaster, sandwich press, washing machine, tumble dryer, vacuum cleaner, mixer, beater, fridge, laptop etc. The only thing we are not using is our plasma tv, as it sounded really complicated to convert, but it was on the way out anyway. Everything else, we just had an electrician replace the plugs to Chilean plugs after we got sick of converter plugs (which you can buy really cheaply at Sodimac - Argentina has the same plugs as Aus, so they are a perfect fit).

Hair dryer - this is the only item that one didn't work so well, presumably voltage difference did affect, so I replaced

Hope that helps.

Bear in mind that many appliances are "stepped down" in voltage inside. the kettle, toaster etc probably not as they're likely more efficient at 220v but your PC, the TV, or stereo often have transformers inside bringing them down to 120V. This simplifies production for the various markets. I used a UK fridge, dishwasher and washer and dryer, apart from the crazy logistics, why not?

Steph wrote:This is what (I think) the electrician explained to me.

If that's really what he said, I would inspect your plugs and make sure they are wired properly! Do you have any appliances that only work when you plug them in one way around and not the other?

Cheers,

James.

James,

The problems we had were about 6 months after we first arrived and we had an "electrician" at the house fixing other things... my "I think" refers not only to my limited understanding of electrical items, but also to my limited understanding of spanish at the time. The items that failed were certainly not new when we got here, but I do think they expired before I would have expected - perhaps the guy was trying to tell me that the products were damaged due to the fluctuations in the power here??? anyway, either way, we replaced what we needed to replace but have not had problems with the larger appliances (probably because we always use surge protectors on those). Steph

we bought all our electrical items to Chile from Aus. So far we have had to replace a toaster and a microwave (the microwave was older and playing up in Oz though). I am assuming that the appliances even here would not be able to handle the many surges that the power system seems to have. We bought 2 Tv's one was older but was still able to be used here and the other was 3 yrs old and is working fine- there have been no major issues.

BUT if you have lamps etc- bring bulk lightglobes you will not be able to find many if any to fit them here- they use the screw ins here