I am thinkking about shipping my washing machine from Germany to Taiwan. It has 230V/50Hz compared to Taiwans (high voltage) 220V/60Hz.
Does anybody know what will happen, if I just plug it in? Any precautions? Is it feasible at all to do it?
Thanks in advance for some insight.
Nothing will happen…Nothing.
I wouldn’t do it. Just get one here.
Hi Pfeffersack,
I don’t think it’s a problem, we’ve brought a few appliances to Taiwan and run them either via our 220V/60Hz Aircon outlets or via Voltage converters that are available everywhere here in different sizes (i.e. max. wattage they can take). Can’t say for washing machines in particular, but I run all my power tools on the aircon outlets and it’s worked fine for close to 7 years now. The same goes for guitar- and bass-amps in my experience. Sorry, not a very technical answer …
My tip would be to only bring it though if e.g. your company pays for the move, otherwise you can find good front-loading washers here now for reasonable amounts. By all means don’t get a top-loader, most of these don’t heat up the water and/or will rip your clothes …
Hope this helps, bye, Xpet
pretty much any European/American washing machine, they sell them in Taiwan…i.e. Bosch, Miele, Asko, Maytag, Whirlpool, etc. If you are shipping an entire house full of furniture here with it, then I guess it is feasible…but if you are shipping it here by yourself, you mind as well just buy it locally from one of the shops…many shops carry these brands…
a new washing machine might cost about $10,000 NT for a top loading model.
[quote=“Pfeffersack”]I am thinkking about shipping my washing machine from Germany to Taiwan. It has 230V/50Hz compared to Taiwans (high voltage) 220V/60Hz.
Does anybody know what will happen, if I just plug it in? Any precautions? Is it feasible at all to do it?
Thanks in advance for some insight.[/quote]
Taiwan has 120V, not 220V.
If you just plug it into a 120V source, since the motor normally needs 220V, there won’t be enough potential difference to produce enough current to drive the washer motor (you’re only getting 1/4 the original current, if my math is correct). At best all the LED’s will light up, but the motor will spin slowly, very slowly…
BTW, TW washers have much shorter wash cycles than a typical EU one, so save some water and electricity and get one locally.
Thanks for the information.
Another issue to consider might be the after sales service … If that my Siemens machine from Germany breaks down, probably Mr. Siemens in TWN would care …
Siemens here will never have seen a front loading washing machine and it will take you a long time to convince them it’s not a tumble dryer.
I would bring it anyway if the firm is paying. A really basic front loading washing machine here is about NT20k. Anything comparable to what’s on sale in Europe is well over NT$30k.
You’ll be flabberghasted to see washing machines on sale here that haven’t been seen in Europe since the fifties. I bet you can get washboards and mangles too.
Oh yeah BTW, if you plug your washing machine into the socket outlets here it’ll go up in a puff of smoke. Also there is no earth here, so given that your machine will have a metal case, it could be a shock risk. (Or it could make a lovely Van der Graaf generator conversation piece in your kitchen) You’ll be able to get a Taiwanese “electrician” to run you a 240V (239.999V RMS ± 10% IYL* OAGD**)line from the fusebox to where you want the machine. He’ll charge you London rates (NT$1000 an hour) for it and won’t clean up afterwards. Don’t mention the words “earth” “ground” or “di xian” - you’ll just get laughed at.
*If You’re Lucky
**On a Good Day
We install 50 commercial espresso machines a month and they are all grounded. If you ask them to ground, they will do it… Hey
the 230 V actually means 320v +/- 10%, so you should be ok. Check that the frequency written on the machine is 50/60 Hz, as the problem might be there instead.
In Australia I have run a 220v espresso machine on a 240v outlet, so you might just be able to pull it off.
Have you ever checked the other end? 
If you want to run a European/German washing machine here you would need to get a 220V outlet installed as already mentioned, these are common for air-cons but most unlikely that there will be any near the place where you put your washing machine. They might run a ground cable even but expect that there is no ground in the distribution box or the entire apartment/building/house.
If 220, 230 or 240V shouldn’t be too much of a problem, most equipment can handle the tolerances.
Unlike the local power supplies we sold to our customer which got fried from 147V at standard 110V outlets …
Gruss aus Taiwan,
Rascal
Have you ever checked the other end? [/quote]
Precisely. You’ll find your earth is “grounded” to a big stone, or lump of concrete, or nothing at all.
Or they’ll earth you to the plumbing.
Electronics meant for 50 Hz will not work properly with 60 Hz … or am I mistaken.
Most equipment can cope with both, unless the power supply is strictly build for 50 or 60Hz only. Usually this applies only to very sensitive or sophisticated electronics.
Of course it might be advisable to check with the manufacturer of the washing machine.
You can always ground it to a water pipe. That ought to do the trick according to the engineers I work with here.
I thought the standard was all appliances grounded need to be connected to a 6 foot aluminim pole driven into the ground,
Why not just ground it to the water pipe, but then maybe I would avoid all water fossets etc when the washing machine is plugged in
Most equipment can cope with both, unless the power supply is strictly build for 50 or 60Hz only. Usually this applies only to very sensitive or sophisticated electronics.
Of course it might be advisable to check with the manufacturer of the washing machine.[/quote]
also check the manual or the washing machine for the min and max input volatges. You never know the PSU could have a large switching range.
Why not check with the manufacturer for their recommendations and not some local electrican come plumber come restaurant guy
That’s a compromise at best. You can do a lot of things, but they aren’t necessarily the right or best thing to do.
Though grounding to a (copper) pipe is better than no ground.
It should be copper (pole and grounding cables), a pole driven into the ground or embedded into the foundation (which of course is only easily done when you build a new house).
Normally (read: not in Taiwan) a house should have some copper bar, called MGB - Main Grounding Bar, near the main distribution. From there all AC outlets will be grounded.
The use of ELCB/RCD (Electric Leakage Current Breaker/Residual Current Device) is recommended for all wetrooms (bathroom, laundry room etc.) but they only work with a proper grounding in place.
As long as you have the same potential nothing will happen to you. You are then also ‘grounded’ (and thus have the same potential) and therefore no current will flow through your body and do you any harm.
Similar to why a bird can sit on a high tension line without being fried.
AFAIK washing machines don’t use switching power supplies, their motor runs directly on (230V) AC. Perhaps some electronic for the control logic though but I doubt it will accept the entire range of 110-240VAC.
In other words, try it, and don’t blame us, when the machine blows up.
At least you will get clean - but slightly scorced - clothes.