Low watt hair dryer??

[autorouter]

Which is how I came to be thinking that if you turn the switch on the device to 110v, maybe that means it'll do something internally (like cut off half the heating element) so it only draws half the current/watts/amps/joules/kangaroos or whatever...

For a simple heater with only one output power setting, it is actually just a switch. For 110V, two 110V heating elements in parallel will produce the required amount of power. For 220V, switching the same two 110V elements so they are in series will produce the same power from the same elements.

A real hair dryer will have several heat settings for each voltage. but the same principle applies.

 

[stuartholmes]

For 110V, two 110V heating elements in parallel will produce the required amount of power. For 220V, switching the same two 110V elements so they are in series will produce the same power from the same elements.

Thank you. I wondered what the simple switch would do but it's perfectly obvious once I think through that explanation, thank you.

But it does alarm me that there's no sign of a safety device to stop me putting 220v through 'the wrong way', with potential catastrophe in consequence.
There must be lots of people who switch their hair dryer to 110 for going to somewhere weird like America and forget to switch it back when they come home.. Why is the nation not on fire?

 

[Gromett]

Balls to it I'll just get the smaller inverter and she can stick her head out of the window. I'll have a look on Amazon.

This would require an even smaller inverter and fixes the problem for weeks on end

 

[Purrfecttune]

My wife uses this one and is happy with it. It's 1000watt but it's the only decent 'low wattage' one I could find.
Wahl Travel Hair Dryer, Hair Dryer with Attachments, Dryer for Travelling, Compact Hairdryer, Foldable Travel Dryer, Two Heat Settings, Worldwide Voltage, Portable Travel Hairdryers, Black https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B077Y62HGT/?tag=mhf04-21

Just had our upgrade by Offgrid Power Solutions including 1200w inverter.

After much research along with your recommendation we bought the Wahl hairdryer and I tested it today with a confusing result.

On the lowest setting (440w) the inverter switches off within 2 seconds. Before sending it back to Amazon, I decided to try the high setting (880w) and to my surprise, no problem.

This seems to be the wrong way round, have you had a similar experience?

 

[Larby]

My wife uses 1 or more of the following

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Itsmcb]

Just had our upgrade by Offgrid Power Solutions including 1200w inverter.

After much research along with your recommendation we bought the Wahl hairdryer and I tested it today with a confusing result.

On the lowest setting (440w) the inverter switches off within 2 seconds. Before sending it back to Amazon, I decided to try the high setting (880w) and to my surprise, no problem.

This seems to be the wrong way round, have you had a similar experience?

Ha, strange. No ours is fine but 880w shouldn't affect your Inverter either way.

 

[Purrfecttune]

Offgrid Power Solutions have answered the question in a separate thread:
www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/threads/inverter-anomaly-hair-dryer-causing-overload.299403/page-2#post-6324005

Very interesting and (for me) now makes sense.