This is the 12th part of a series of publications - "Electrician Q&A". Who missed the past parts - as always, I remind you that in this and past publications (parts) I bring real questions from readers and my answers to them. I continue to do so in this part.
The question asked by the reader Anna was as follows (literally):
Good day! I have a dyson hair dryer with 120V 60 Hz 1600W. And also there is a hyted 2000w travel adapter combo. They don't work together. What does it take for a hair dryer to work?
I gave Anna the following answer due to my knowledge and qualifications:
There are no tricks in the joint work of the adapter and the hair dryer. To do this, you just need to plug the existing HYTED 2000 W travel adapted combo into a domestic 230 V type C plug socket. Plug the 120V hair dryer into the American type A socket on the HYTED 2000 W travel adapted combo and you can use it for its intended purpose.
Although there may be some stumbling blocks here:
- Some adapters have an additional switch or button. If this button is in the disabled state, the device will not work.
- Perhaps the hair dryer itself has some kind of lock that you need to turn off before starting work or select a certain mode.
- The real power of the hair dryer exceeds the permissible power of the converter.
- The adapter or the hair dryer itself is faulty, for example, if someone mistakenly turned on the hair dryer directly to a voltage of 230 V, it could easily fail.
To check if the adapter is working properly, plug it into a domestic power outlet and set the multimeter to voltmeter mode. Check the voltage at the output of the device, if the multimeter shows a result of about 120 V, then the adapter serviceable, otherwise the reason for the inoperability of such a connection may be in HYTED 2000 W travel adapted combo.
To test the hair dryer, set the multimeter to the continuity mode of the electrical circuit and connect it to the contacts of the plug. Turn on the device, if the multimeter shows a circuit between the phase and neutral terminals, the hair dryer is working properly. When you turn off the hair dryer, the circuit indication on the multimeter should disappear. Also measure the resistance value of the hair dryer circuit, if it approaches zero, insulation breakdown is possible.
P.S. Dear readers of my channel, if you have your own version of the answer to such typical questions, write in the comments. I and other readers will be happy to read them.
P.S. Link to some past parts - Part 11, Part 10, Part 9, Part 8, Part 7.