Curling Irons/Hair Dryers on River Ships
Was doing some reading through the "Before You Go" section for a Danube cruise and noticed the following quote under the Electric Current section:
"Due to limitations in your riverboat’s electrical system, heat-producing appliances from the U.S. or Canada (such as curling irons and hair dryers) may not be used in the 110 V outlets on the ships. These devices may only be used in the 220 V outlets with an appropriate voltage converter. Even with the use of a voltage converter, there is a slight risk of damage to the device. There is no such issue with small dual-voltage electronic items such as laptops, smart phones, and tablets. As noted above, hair dryers are provided in each cabin aboard your riverboat."
I know this has been discussed several times and I dimly remembered on our first cruise the ship telling us not to use these but could never find anything in my paperwork that said it.
Like British said on another thread, don't bother bringing a hair dryer since the ships and hotels always have them. For those of you who can't leave the states without a curling iron, you might want to learn to do without or wait until you arrive and buy an inexpensive one at a local store. I've read too many horror stories using these in Europe.
"Due to limitations in your riverboat’s electrical system, heat-producing appliances from the U.S. or Canada (such as curling irons and hair dryers) may not be used in the 110 V outlets on the ships. These devices may only be used in the 220 V outlets with an appropriate voltage converter. Even with the use of a voltage converter, there is a slight risk of damage to the device. There is no such issue with small dual-voltage electronic items such as laptops, smart phones, and tablets. As noted above, hair dryers are provided in each cabin aboard your riverboat."
I know this has been discussed several times and I dimly remembered on our first cruise the ship telling us not to use these but could never find anything in my paperwork that said it.
Like British said on another thread, don't bother bringing a hair dryer since the ships and hotels always have them. For those of you who can't leave the states without a curling iron, you might want to learn to do without or wait until you arrive and buy an inexpensive one at a local store. I've read too many horror stories using these in Europe.
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The Tauck official answer is "For safety reasons, Scylla prohibits all hair tools and heating devices on riverboats, even when
used with power converters. Hair dryers are provided in every cabin."
The reason for the restriction on certain 120 volt appliances that use a lot of power is that for the same power, you will draw approximately twice the current at 120 volts as on a 230 volt outlet. Sure, the generator on the boat has to generate the same power, but the size of the wiring is determined by the current, not the voltage.
If you used the same size wire for the 120 volt circuits as for the 230 volt circuits, the 230 volt circuits will supply about twice the power at the same current.
There are not many small appliances where the difference in Hz (50/60) makes an difference. Any motors in these small appliances are universal motors and will run at the same speed on 50Hz as on 60Hz. They'll run the same speed even if the power was DC. Sort of why they're called "universal motors".
Note that the standard voltage in the United States is 120 volts, not 110 volts. Much of the power system was 120 volts by the 1950's - light bulbs sold at that time were rated at 120 volts. The standard which made it official was passed in about 1967 and by 1984 it was universal. [Edit: It looks like ANSI C84.1, passed in 1954, was the first standard to specify 120 volts in the US.]
In Europe, the standard is 230 volts but that was not until 1997.
But people keep referrinig to 110/220 volts. Old habits die hard.
[Added note: many of the appliances sold today are rated for 120/230 volts and 50/60 Hz (sometimes 100/250 volts). Some even auto detect so you don't have to switch anything manually.]
[GFCI is available for both 120 volt circuits and 230 volt circuits. GFCI was a significant improvement in safety of residential power circuits. It was especially important for European construction workers. A 230 volt shock to a construction worker on a tall building could result in a fall, even if the shock was not enough to kill him. Prior to GFCI they sometime used special low voltage (110 volts, center tapped) tools on construction projects, but that was expensive.]
More than you ever wanted to know about power circuits. It's why engineers don't do well in social situations
You’re very lucky you have waves and curls. I’m jealous. Embrace them.
If you're having a bad hair day, hats are a beautiful choice 😂
Mike - you're wrong about motor speed and 50/60 HZ, unless it's a DC motor. An AC motor will run about 17% slower at 50 Hz. Same is true for AC clocks that don't have a DC tranformer/input.
There are different kinds of motors. What you say is true for an induction motor. Universal motors are different. Universal motors are used in a lot of places where small physical size is required. Essentially all small tools - such as routers, sanders, circular saws, planers, and many others, as well as small household appliances with motors - use universal motors. The armature windings and field windings are in series, and the speed is controlled by a semiconductor device that cuts off part of sinusoid, thereby limiting the power to the motor. As you reduce the power to the motor, it slows down. Old tools with universal motors would slow down when you loaded the tool. Modern tools have a sensor that monitors the RPM, and when you load it down and the RPM starts to drop, the input power is increased to keep it at the same RPM.
Since the field and armature are in series, as the voltage swings from positive to negative, it swings in both the armature and the field, so the same relationship is maintained in the magnetic field.
[Note: Modern small tools now use what's called a "brushless motor". I won't go into that unless someone is just dying to know about it.]
Note that in an induction motor, only the field is energized by the input power. The armature is energized by the rotating magnetic field in the field windings. Current is “induced” in the armature and that’s why it’s called an induction motor. It has some similarities to a transformer.
There’s a practical limit to the upper level of Hz in a universal motor but for 50/60 Hz it doesn’t matter. You can run a universal motor down all the way to DC and it will still work the same.
Side note: horsepower is torque times RPM times a constant. Universal motors are smaller with a smaller diameter armature which produces a lower torque. To compensate they run a universal motor at a much higher RPM than an induction motor. In the US a two-pole induction motor is rated at 3450 RPM. A universal motor may run at 25,000 RPM (but usually less). Universal motors are a lot louder because of that and put more stress on the bearings because of the higher speed.
[Note: 60 Hz would produce an RPM of 3600 RPM, but since there has to be a difference in the speed of the armature and the rotation of the magnetic field in the field windings, two pole motors are rated at 3450 RPM. That difference is called "slip". A four pole motor would run at 1725 RPM. Since it runs at a lower RPM, to produce the same horsepower as a two pole motor the four pole motor usually has to be physically larger. It has to generate twice the torque since the RPM is half.]
The motors in clocks are synchronous motors. They need to be to keep the correct time. A synchronous motor is synched to the line frequency so it will change speed (and time) if you use it on different Hz.
Most oscillating fans use a universal motor. We talked earlier about how fan motors have a third power relationship between RPM and input current. Reduce the fan RPM by half and the input current goes down to 1/8 what it was at full speed.
One of those really interesting subjects for a social gathering.
Thanks for the education, MIke. Universal vs. induction motor sounds similar in concept to linear vs. switched power supplies.
OMG, that's another rats nest of discussion. And complex design. They now require that small devices, such as phone chargers have a unity power factor. Let's not even go close to that.
Please…let’s try to remember the subject matter of this thread and that this is a travel forum, not an elementary electronics course.
Mr. Reynolds - thank you for the reminder!
You mean you don't find this fascinating? I guess that's why people avoid me at parties
No, Mike. I think it was that butt shot of you getting into the shower in one of your blogs
And kfn, nothing elementary about the electronics discussion.
My wife is a professional musician and has a ton of stories about gigs she's done and entertainers she's played for. People always want to hear about her work. But try to talk about electric motors and people suddenly realize they left a pot boiling on the stove.