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Help - Convert Personal Blender from 230v to 110v
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Mike09:
Hi everyone,

I hope you can help me with this, or that there is a budget friendly solution for my issue.

I moved from Europe to Canada and took my trusted Personal Blender with me. Its only rated for 230v but still works on 110v half decently (didn't die so far).

Is there any way to convert the blender so that it works properly with 110v or swap the motor? I can solder and have a multimeter and other basic tools.

It would be great if there is a way to do that so that I don't need to buy a new blender.

Please let me know if you need any further information from me.

Thanks,
Michael
engrguy42:
Yeah, depending on how many watts you can buy an inexpensive adapter. Just search Amazon or whatever.
NiHaoMike:
I assume it uses a universal motor like most consumer market blenders do. (Some professional blenders use inverter drive motors, but I'm pretty sure trying to run one of those on half voltage will cause an error and not let it work at all.) Universal motors will also run on DC, so rectify AC to get 170V DC - you can easily find the bridge rectifier, NTC inrush limiter, and capacitors in a discarded PC power supply. Combine that with inductance no longer being a factor and it should get pretty close to the original 240V performance. Beware the original switch isn't designed for DC so use it to switch the AC going into the bridge rectifier.

There's also a trick of building an inverter to create another 120V waveform out of phase with the existing one, for a total of 240V, but that's a bit fancy for just one simple appliance. Might be worth considering if you have a lot of devices that need 240V.
Jay_Diddy_B:
Mike09,

Welcome to the forum!!

(Welcome to Canada!!)

You actually may (edited after reading other comments) have 230V available in your kitchen:






The mains supply in Canada is actually

115 - 0 - 115

In the kitchen, and only in the kitchen, the two sockets are wired to two phases.

The is a socket designed for this:





The pins are sideways instead of vertical.

Consult with an electrician.

Regards,
Jay_Diddy_B

Paul Moir:
It may be there but it's not guaranteed.  It was good practice in the 90s/early 2000s but as the GFCI requirements increased and copper got expensive it was much cheaper to install 120v 20A GFCIs and downstream protected outlets.  (The normal GFCI outlets you get here cannot be split for 240v and GFCI breakers are expensive and inconvenient.)    Before the 90s the use of a split plug was a bit rare.
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