As we now sell many grain mills internationally, we’ve had the question pop up a time or two as to what kind of plug adapter will I need?
The WonderMill 240v model comes with what is known as a CEE 7/7 plug. It looks like this:
CEE7 Plug
In order to bridge the differences between sockets E and F, the CEE 7/7 plug was developed. It is polarised [sic] to prevent the live and neutral connections from being reversed when used with a type E outlet, but allows polarity reversal when inserted into a type F socket. The plug is rated at 16 A. It has grounding clips on both sides to connect with the CEE 7/4 socket and a female contact to accept the grounding pin of the type E socket. It is also used in Spain and Portugal. Currently, when appliances are sold with type E/F plugs attached, the plugs are CEE 7/7 and non-rewirable. This means that the plugs are now identical between countries like France and Germany, but the sockets are different. -Source: Wikipedia
So what if that plug won’t work for you? Fear not! A simple plug adapter will work well. When we sell our mills, we haven’t included adapters with the purchases primarily because so many customers do already have them. They will look something like this one for Australia/New Zealand:
We encourage you to learn more about worldwide electrical systems and to see what type of adapter you would need.
Remember, these adapters DO NOT convert 110-120v electricity into 220-240v (or the other way around). They simply change the plugs from one style to another. Plugging a 110-120v (USA style) device into a 220-240v outlet could cause significant damage. That is why we sell two different models of the WonderMill (110-120v and 220-240v).
And on that note, have you ever wondered why some people call it 110v, others call it 120v, and even some call it 115v? In America, the power companies desire to produce household electricity (after going through all the transformers and such) at 120 volts. Because of many variables including line loss, loads on the power grid, etc., the voltage may vary somewhat. Because of this, appliances are designed to accommodate a wide range of voltages and still work. If you look at the little black boxes near the plugs of many of your appliances, you may see the range it allows for.
In any case, something listed in the neighborhood of 110-120v will work pretty much anywhere in the United States. If something is listed with a voltage approximately in the range of 220-240v, then it will work pretty much everywhere else.
We hope this helps, and happy milling!