A friend has given me some ELU brand cordless tools. This was the European equivlent of Dewalt until last year when they intoduced the Dewalt name to Europe. The tools are indentical to US Dewalt except for the charger. The ELU charger is for 220 volts. Now I could purchase a Dewalt charger which would work fine or I could spend that money on a knife. In the interest of buying a knife, I ask could I just cut the pliug off the charger and put on a US plug. I would normaly not consider this a I know all the bad things that can happen to motors etc. Dut this is a transformer, it converts 220 AC to 12 volt DC. Is there any reason it would not do the same to 110 AC. Seems to me it would just be overbuilt for the job as I am putting less voltage in than it was designed for. Any thoughts?
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Using foriegn 220 battery charger in the US
- Thread starter SPHayes
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Problem is it would probably give you 6 volts instead of 12. The way a transformer works is to do ratio type of reduction or increase in voltage. The primary winding will have a certain number of turns of wire; lets say 100. To keep it easy say we want 22 volts from the 220; the secondary windining needs 10 turns (1/10 the primary). So 1/2 the voltage in will give 1/2 the voltage out. Maybe the company can swap the 220 one with a 110 for you?
Anthony Lasome
Anthony Lasome
Cougar Allen
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I am really hesitant to say anything here because I only have a vague idea what I'm talking about ... but for what it's worth ... most homes in the US have at least one 220 volt outlet (to plug an electric stove into). My understanding is it's relatively easy to rewire for it even if you don't already have a 220 outlet. I'm not so sure you can just plug that Euro charger in, though. Are you sure it's designed for AC? There ought to be somebody here who knows more about it than I do and probably he'll see this thread and post soon....
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Hi again,
I forgot about that possibility. I would check to make sure eurorean and us 220 are equivalent. I think (unfortunately not sure) us has two hot lines (110 v each and a neutral). Hopefully someone who knows more will chime in. I do know INTERESTING things happen if you plug a 110 device into 220. We needed power lines pulled for an instrument at the lab I work at; apparently the electricians had lost/misplaced the work order. They looked at the plug they were supposed to use (a special twist lock 110 one) and decided it looked like a 220 plug. After everything was finished the lab director decided to turn on the breakers and started to leave the lab. I say started because about the time he opened the door all hell broke loose. I half expected to see flames shooting out of it from the noises it was makeing. I have never seen the directer move so fast; he literally flew across the lab and hit the breakers. Moral be carefull esp w 220.
I forgot about that possibility. I would check to make sure eurorean and us 220 are equivalent. I think (unfortunately not sure) us has two hot lines (110 v each and a neutral). Hopefully someone who knows more will chime in. I do know INTERESTING things happen if you plug a 110 device into 220. We needed power lines pulled for an instrument at the lab I work at; apparently the electricians had lost/misplaced the work order. They looked at the plug they were supposed to use (a special twist lock 110 one) and decided it looked like a 220 plug. After everything was finished the lab director decided to turn on the breakers and started to leave the lab. I say started because about the time he opened the door all hell broke loose. I half expected to see flames shooting out of it from the noises it was makeing. I have never seen the directer move so fast; he literally flew across the lab and hit the breakers. Moral be carefull esp w 220.
Well the imediate problem of charging up the tools is solved. I was able to purchase a used Dewalt charger for $17. The tools work great I now have a Corldess sawz-all, impact screw driver and right angel drill. This rocks as my outdoor shed was broken into several months ago and I lost all my power tools to the tune of over $2000. Luckily my hand tools where in a locked box that is to heavy to lift so all was not lost only the expensive stuff. I would still like to find out if the euro charger can be made to work as I have 3 tools and 6 batteries but only one charger. So far I have found:
1 The chargers are smart they work on 7.2 to 18 volt batteries turn off and on automaticly for maintance charging etc.. Thus they are more complicated than simple turns ie circuit boards etc. Could be good or bad.
2.American 220 volt consists of 2 phase of 110 volt and European 220 volt consists of 1 phase of 220 volt.
3. American power cycles at 60 hzs Euro at 50hzs.
4. The charger is marked Input 220volt 50/60 hzs
Still researching this.
1 The chargers are smart they work on 7.2 to 18 volt batteries turn off and on automaticly for maintance charging etc.. Thus they are more complicated than simple turns ie circuit boards etc. Could be good or bad.
2.American 220 volt consists of 2 phase of 110 volt and European 220 volt consists of 1 phase of 220 volt.
3. American power cycles at 60 hzs Euro at 50hzs.
4. The charger is marked Input 220volt 50/60 hzs
Still researching this.