Appliances to bring or leave in the United States

This information about what appliances will and won't work is probably the most sought after info when PCSing to Germany! So here it is, all laid out and explained so please read, re-read and share this information. I wish we had known all this before we moved here!

 

                             Things to leave in the states: 

Washer, dryer, and refrigerator. The Army will provide all of these for the duration of your stay in Germany. You also do not need to bring any clocks that plug in. The hertz system is different in Germany and your clock will lose 10 minutes every hour.

 

                                      Things to bring: 

Lamps, TV, computers, kitchen appliances, game systems. Some of these items may be duel voltage meaning they can run on 110 or 220 V.  Look at the bottom of the appliance and it should say 110-220V. Some of them may say 100-240V, these items will definitely work in Germany. Yes the plug is different and will not fit in a German outlet but they have adapters. All you do is plug your item into the adapter which will then fit the German outlet.  All lamps will work even if they only say 110V. All you have to do is use an adapter and change the light bulb to a 220 bulb. Don’t try a 110V light bulb, it will blow. This means you can use your Scentsy! You just need to find a consultant over here that sells 220V bulbs! Most computers are duel voltage. If the bottom of your computer doesn’t say look at the actual charger, if it says 110-220 then your computer will work with an adapter. It is the same with phone and camera chargers. Most TV's are duel voltage. We made the mistake of misreading the information about TV's. We read that the operating system would not work in Germany, what is really means is that we can not watch German DVD's. The TV itself will still work but the European operating system for media is different. So bring your TV! We had to buy another one once we got here. 

                               Items that are only 110V: 

These items can still be used. You need to look at the bottom of the appliance to see how many watts it runs on. With these items you can use a transformer. A transformer changes the 220V to 110V. If you have an appliance that runs 550 watts you will need a transformer that is slightly bigger (600W) so it will cover the initial surge when turning the appliance on. If you have a 1,000W transformer and only have a 330W appliance plugged in, it will still use 1,000W no matter what and will run up your electric bill. So use only what you need.  

 

                            Appliances to think about: 

Appliances that use heat typically run very high in watts (crock-pot, iron, griddle, coffee maker, hair straighter). These items can be used but will take a large transformer. The bigger the transformer the more expensive it will be. It will be easier to either go without or find a German version of some of these items once you get here. 

 

                                   Items with motors: 

Stand mixer, hair dryer, blender, food processor: These are the only items I’m not 100% about. I know the hertz system is different in Germany and these items can be used with a transformer but over time the motor will get used to running on a different hertz system and once you bring it back to the states it won’t convert back and you can blow the motor.

 

                          Things we bought in Germany: 

We were not given all this information so we brought everything we owned. We ended up buying a German hair dryer, hair straighter, iron, and microwave. An American microwave would work but would take a very large transformer so I would not bring it.

 

Tip: Write down all your appliances BEFORE you pack HHG along with the voltage and watts. We had to wait until our HHG arrived to know what size transformers we would need.