International standards

As we (mostly my wife) work our way through the boxes stacked in our garage, we discover more projects that require some additional assembly in order to work in America. Over there, they’d call all of this “kit.” I rather like that word and it’s one of the pieces of language I hope to retain, along with “bits” and “bespoke.”

Whenever we bought things of any significant value (more than £100 or $200 US at the time), the rule was we had to find it usable or useful when we moved back to the US. So, that meant with electronics, it needed to run on both US 120v power as well as UK 240v power. Anything with a light or a motor in was likely not going to work. For instance our close American friends sent us home with a Cuisinart coffee maker they’d received as a wedding present and taken with them to London. They plugged it in once, but thought it might work for us in the US. No chance. Dead as a doornail. Perhaps Good Will can fix it.

We took no lamps with us and disposed of the few we bought there before coming home (the IKEA floor lamp lasted just weeks short of  our return). Likewise the LCD TV had to be sold and the Bose radio. (I’m a huge Bose fan. One of the reasons is their customer service. Bose gave me an unsolicited $200 credit on my 10-year-old Bose radio that I left in the US when we returned!)

But, we did buy this barbeque. It’s a Weber Q – a lightweight, portable model perfect for tailgate parties, picnics or camping. Knowing this was a popular brand sold in the US, we figured there was little to no risk even though it was priced about 70% higher than the same model in the US. It worked perfectly for us and even perched on our second story kitchen window sill. We enjoyed grilled steaks and hamburgers just as we had at home.

When we got it home, however, I quickly realized that the disposable propane bottles sold here have a different connection that those sold in Europe. Argh! Called Weber who refused to help.  (I’m assuming liability issues are just too high.) Went online without luck. Then I mentioned it at a cocktail party and was steered to a propane supplier near our home. We were fixed up with a simple converter for $10.

The other one was the Tivoli table radio. Also sold in the US, the Tivoli is a wonderful, compact, simple AM/FM radio. Drat! It runs only on 240v. Called Tivoli. Very helpful. They knew exactly the problem and steered me to Radio Shack for a small power plug like you’d use to charge a mobile phone. Bingo! Working fine. How refreshing to get that kind of customer service from both Tivoli and Radio Shack. I suspect it’s people like me who are keeping RS in business.

I really feel like we dodged a couple of bullets here in converting our kit with minimal problems. We have one more piece of electronics we brought back – a Fatman iTube iPod player and speakers. It, however, runs on 120v, which I made sure of before purchase. Called the US distributor this week and they’re sending me a new power cord free. So, we’re now 3-for-3. Can’t do a lot better than that.