[FightingIrish]

Hi, Guys,

I am moving to Hong Kong,. This forum gave me a lot of useful information. Now I have question to ask.

I love my home entertainment center here in US. I wonder that I can find power transformer to use my US home entertainment system in Hong Kong?

Major items would be a Plasma TV, a receiver and a speaker systems and the total power requirement should be about 700W or 800W.

I hope there is a way to work this out. Thank you, guys!

[PDLM]

Yes, you can certainly get transformers to do that job here, no problem.

[Sleuth]

Just so you can watch ND lose football games?

PDLM--Will the transformers ruin the appliances?

[PDLM]

Originally Posted by Sleuth

PDLM--Will the transformers ruin the appliances?

I don't see why they should - one electron looks pretty much like any other...

[Submariner]

I've looked into a few transformers in the past for travel purposes, and it seemed like they were not recommended for prolonged use. The few that I saw recommended no more than 30 minutes of continuous use. Any more info regarding this aspect?

[jayinhongkong]

I've had serious problems with those travel converters. They made my US hair clippers clatter terribly when I tried to use them here. I'd sell your system off and buy one here. Perhaps a heavy duty one might be better..never seen one for sale though.

[ontheroad]

I've been using a 110v-240v : transformer on some kitchen appliances and also my computer, printer, speakers and a stereo, no problem whatsoever, they work just fine. I've been told it's discouraged on things like a vacuum cleaner because these sorts of appliances lose power when plugged into a transformer.



Also, check that your home entertainment doesn't have an automatic built in system that adapts to 110 or 240v, like some computers do (apples for ex).
For my pc, I ended up asking them to put in a new built-in 110-240v power thingie so It freed up a transformer, it cost peanuts to do.

[connecta]

at first you should check whether your AV appliances have got a small 240/110V switch at the back, like you will find it on many PC power supplies.

if you still need one, then good voltage transformers can indeed run for a long time. they are very popular here in HKG to run e.g. AV equipment and video game consoles from japan (110V as well). if you don't mind having a small adventure, then checking out the ap liu street in the district sham shui poo will most probably lead you to a result. there are good and bad ones and i think it depends as well on how clean the sine signal will be processed after transfor. it doesn't hurt if the transformer has got an own fuse.

but for a total power requirement of 700W-800W you probably won't find a single transformer, as this would require a huge transformer. 300W transformers (e.g. for a japanese Xbox360 ) can already have the size of a box with the volume of basketball and maybe even running a fan inside to cool it down. so probably you will need to buy two or three of those ones to scope with your total power requirement.

whether shipping all your AV equipment to HKG and worrying about transformers makes it still worth, is another question of course...

[jgl]

If you want to be really anal about your converter, you should be able to buy one in the US and bring it over with you, rather than rummage around the backstreets of Kowloon and end up with something of potentially dubious provenance to run lots of expensive and power-hungry gear off.

I've looked into voltage converters in the past, and there are lots of companies on the net that make fairly monster converters. And they are invariably US-based. Examples:

http://www.voltageconverters.com/vol...onverters.html
http://www.world-import.com/transformers.htm

Still, I've never looked for these things in Hong Kong- maybe big and good ones are easy to find here. But I kinda doubt it- HK is better for cheap and cheerful electronics.

[connecta]

apparently, at least exactly the "style b" transformer of one of the above links is available in electronics shops sham shui po, if not even all models are available here. not everything is made in USA only because they sell them there there are plenty of good good engineers in the USA, but it doesn't mean that after R&D they wouldn't produce them cheaper elsewhere - e.g. in china.