Samovar: where to buy?

[Emily Saunders]

I spent a bit of time looking for a converter that would convert up and  
was told by dealers that this sort of things work for appliances that  
don't need much electricity to operate (computers, CD players), but is  
problematic for heating appliances that are much more energy intensive.  
  It's like you'd need some converter that could suck up electricity  
store it and then put it out in large chunks so that the electric coil  
could actually put out enough heat to get the water up to temp.  These  
dealers told me that I was just fine plugging my samovar in with just a  
plug converter (which I have done) since there isn't enough juice  
coming out of the wall to make an impression on my samovar.  I would  
treat with a degree of healthy skepticism the ads that say they have an  
up/down converter that can do 1000W.  My guess is that the 1000W  
capability applies to the down conversion from 220 to 110 and not in  
the opposite direction.

But then I am not an electrician.  If you do manage to get yours to  
work, please let me know as I'd like to be wrong.  I've wanted for  
years to use my samovar the way it was supposed to be used.

Best of luck!

Emily Saunders



On Sep 1, 2006, at 12:18 PM, Edward M Dumanis wrote:

> One just needs a voltage converter. 1000W should be okay.
> Check, e.g.,
> http://www.dvdoverseas.com/store/index.html?loadfile=catalog6_0.html
> Disclaimer:
> It is just the first one that Google brought up.
> This message is not intended to advertize any particular dealer.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Edward Dumanis <dumanis at buffalo.edu>
>
>
> On Fri, 1 Sep 2006, Peter Scotto wrote:
>
>> Well! All the sites that say sell Russian-made samovars say they work  
>> fine with
>> 110v - they just take a little longer to boil.
>>
>> Thanks for the tip!
>>
>>> Just a note:  I possess a working electric samovar, purchased in
>>> Russia, and have discovered the following point.  Because of the
>>> 110/220 difference and because the samovar is a heating unit, you  
>>> won't
>>> actually be able to heat water to boiling in a Russian (or even
>>> European) made samovar if you plug it in in the US or Canada.  You  
>>> can
>>> vaguely keep previously heated water warm in it, but... it'll
>>> ultimately serve a more decorative than functional purpose.  There is
>>> just no adaptor that'll make a 110 electrical source provide enough
>>> juice to get a 220 heating coil up to temp.  I suppose that an
>>> electrically minded person might be able to change out the heating
>>> coil, though.
>>>
>>> ;-)
>>>
>>> Emily Saunders
>>>
>>> On Sep 1, 2006, at 6:25 AM, Peter Scotto wrote:
>>>
>>>> Can anyone recommend a nice, reliable distributor of working Russian
>>>> electric
>>>> samovars in the USA or Canada (so the shipping doesn't kill me)?
>>>>
>>>> I would like to purchase one for our Russian Department.
>>>>
>>>> Peter Scotto
>>>> Mount Holyoke College
>>>>
>>>>
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