On appliances there is this little sign that reads: X Watts, where X is a number which becomes progressively larger as the years go by. Have you noticed the power hungry irons, vaccum cleaners and hair dryers of today?

Philips irons now boast 2400W. My iron is half as powerful and still does away with the wrinkles.

Miele offers 2100W vaccum cleaners. My old vaccum cleaner is a thousand watts behind and clearly bites the dust. Blissfully ignorant of this, it cleans my floor without complaints.

Braun joins the power struggle with a 2000W hair dryer. Will the user experience it as a sensation or a burning sensation?

Not to be outdone, the electric tool manufacturers introduce 2200W angle grinders. The lastest trend in work out, maybe?

You’d have to prize my 3 kW Russell Hobbs kettle from the clench of my cold dead tea-pot!

Amusing this really... I have a hot-air gun for paint stripping, shrink seals etc which distinctly says in the instruction booklet;
"Under no circumstances should this appliance be used to dry hair"!

The power? 2000W

Are we getting used to 'hugely' powerful appliances now?

I have an old (early 1970s) hair dryer sitting somewhere in a cupboard which is rated 400W maximum on the high setting.

I think we may well be getting carried away on some appliances.

Yes C-H,
You're not alone in noticing this trend of increasing nameplate wattages.
Being a person that used to service/repair a lot of home appliances, it was always interesting to actually have a look at the attached nameplate.
Heaters here are usually rated at the maximum that you can plug into a standard socket-outlet (10A), which gives you 2400W, which is a little worrying, considering that these appliances are invariably made with a plastic body these days.
I've also noticed in the various DIY brochures that turn up in my mailbox, the power tools are actually advertised, with thier power ratings seemingly the most important feature of the tool, what good is a 900W Drill if the user can't handle it?
Vacuum cleaners are really rediculously rated here, I mean a 2200W vacuum, must surely be referring to input power and of course once you've used it a few times, expect the suction to be less!.

uksparky, I wonder if you can use the hairdryer as a hot air gun? Perhaps Braun's numbers are just a lot of hot air?

Yes, Mike, it is always input power. Thus, the less efficient the machine, the bigger figure to boast on the nameplate.
I once sold vaccum cleaners among other things and a key selling point was to point out that the actual suction power of the vaccum cleaner was higher than cheaper competitors despite a lower nameplate wattage. A vaccum cleaner puts out maybe 300-400W of actual suction power when the nameplate reads 2000W. In other words, it is primarily a very noisy way of heating a room. Cleaning is secondary

Hutch has already mentioned the kettles of up to 3kW that no British kitchen would be seen without, although most of the newer plastic jug-style kettles seem to be more around the 2kW range.

The other appliances in the U.K. which have traditionally had higher ratings have been portable heaters. You could buy single or twin-bar heaters rated at 1 or 2kW, but portable heaters of up to 3kW maximum have been quite common here for many decades. It's said that the 13A rating of BS1363 plugs was chosen specifically to allow appliances of up to 3kW.

Good point about the input power rating of vacuum cleaners. Most people don't understand anything about efficiency and just automatically assume that a 1200W unit will have better suction than an 1000W one.

(I nearly said "suck more", but that could be misinterpreted! ).

Paul,
Interesting to note about vacuum cleaners,
that most of the losses involved in a cleaner is caused by the air path through it.
Therefore, if you took out the bag and the air filters, you'd have somewhat more suction.
Sure the motor probably wouldn't last too long and you'd have to be Hercules to move the head over the floor, but the cleaner would be more efficient.
One appliance that has seemingly escaped being turbo-charged, is the humble toaster,
I've got a relatively new one here and it's only rated at 300W, it can blacken toast like you wouldn't believe though!.

how come us hair dryers are rated at more than 1800 watts and don't have a 20 amp plug? nema 1-20P ?

I have an electric pot that I use to have hot soup on the jobsite in the wintertime. It gets boiling pretty quick. The power?...1300 watts!

Dave

"nema 1-20P ?" I had a look at a NEMA configuration chart for a 120V 20A connector & I could find a 5-20P but no such animal as a 1-20P exists...what connector would one use for a double insulated appliance that drew > 1875 watts?
http://www.hubbell-canada.com/wiring/bryant/pdf/b/b5.pdf

[This message has been edited by 32VAC (edited 10-08-2004).]

IMO use a 5-20, even for the sake of using the ground pin for polarity.

Strangely, there is a NEMA-standard DC wiring-device series… NEMA “FSL-1” rated 28VDC 30A.



See page 15 of www.hubbell-wiring.com/library/brochures/msection3.pdf

You're getting rather close to British ideas there, where a BS1363 plug has the ground pin whether it's needed or not. Some of the latest molded-on plug sets actually have a plastic earth pin.