# Running 60 Hz Equipment on 50 Hz Generator



## Maxx62 (Dec 31, 2013)

Today my wife and I discovered a new store in our area which sales all kinds of slightly used appliances and other items from the West. I forget the name of the place, but I think it was called H&R or something like that. 

I noticed that they had really low prices on their gasoline and diesel generators compared to other places, (about 25% - 50% lower in some cases) but then I noticed that the output on most of the generators I was looking at was 50 Hz, not the usual 60 Hz. The salesman told me that it wouldn't matter, but the idea of taking this think home and using it to power my refrigerator and water-pump, without any negative consequences just seems to good to be true to me. 

So if I buy a generator putting out 220v @ 50 Hz, can I use it to safely operate the appliances I've purchased here in the Philippines? I've looked at a ton of information on Google, but much of it seems contradictory, and just wondering if anyone had some real life experience trying to run 60 Hz appliances at 50 Hz?


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## bmays1969 (Aug 12, 2017)

Maxx62 said:


> Today my wife and I discovered a new store in our area which sales all kinds of slightly used appliances and other items from the West. I forget the name of the place, but I think it was called H&R or something like that.
> 
> 
> 
> ...




I think it will affect motors. Maybe run slower ?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## Maxx62 (Dec 31, 2013)

bmays1969 said:


> I think it will affect motors. Maybe run slower ?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


I think that someone told me that they will also get hotter, and burn up more quickly? Not sure, but starting to sound more and more like a bad idea.


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## expatuk2016 (Mar 20, 2016)

Hi i
We bought a lot of electrical things from the UK IN 2011 JVC TV, COMPUTER AND MONITOR, BLENDERS,GRILLS,COFFEE MAKERS,AND A JVC SOUND SYSTEM THE ONLY THING THAT STOPPED WORKING WAS THE JVC SOUND SYSTEM.

WE EVEN RUN 220V FANS ON 110V AT NIGHT IN THE BEDROOM THEY RUN SLOWER AND QUIETER 
AND USE LESS WATTAGE.


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## hogrider (May 25, 2010)

Maxx62 said:


> Today my wife and I discovered a new store in our area which sales all kinds of slightly used appliances and other items from the West. I forget the name of the place, but I think it was called H&R or something like that.
> 
> I noticed that they had really low prices on their gasoline and diesel generators compared to other places, (about 25% - 50% lower in some cases) but then I noticed that the output on most of the generators I was looking at was 50 Hz, not the usual 60 Hz. The salesman told me that it wouldn't matter, but the idea of taking this think home and using it to power my refrigerator and water-pump, without any negative consequences just seems to good to be true to me.
> 
> So if I buy a generator putting out 220v @ 50 Hz, can I use it to safely operate the appliances I've purchased here in the Philippines? I've looked at a ton of information on Google, but much of it seems contradictory, and just wondering if anyone had some real life experience trying to run 60 Hz appliances at 50 Hz?


Most electronic items like laptops, TV's, etc., are designed to run on 110-220v, 50/60Hz. So no problem there. The problem will come with some electrical equipment that incorporates motors or compressors, so AC units, fridges, fans etc. They will run at lower speed and will run hotter which will lead to premature failure. They will not burn out immediately. In fact some modern power tools will operate at 50/60Hz. It's really not a good idea to run 60Hz equipment on 50Hz, especially if you are talking about expensive equipment like AC units etc.


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## Maxx62 (Dec 31, 2013)

After doing a bit more poking around on the Internet it seems that buying one of the 50hz generators I was looking at it is really not such a good investment, due to the fact that my refrigerator and water pump appear to be 60hz only. Also, a frequency converter to convert 50hz to 60hz is actually more expensive than the cost of the generator itself, so either I would be looking at the costs of a refrigerator and pump with a shortened life span, or the cost of buying a very expensive frequency converter. Bottom line, buying one of the cheap 50hz generators I was looking at to power my 60hz appliances just doesn't seem to make much sense. 

I've paraphrased the below information from another site, and it appears that "Volts per hertz ratio" increases when alternating current reverses direction, and this may lead to overheating in the motor, and thus shorten its life span. 

"60Hz motor will run 20% slower on 50Hz power supply, this also results in 20% less power. But the critical factor here is the V/Hz ratio (Volts per hertz ratio). It will go up 20%, which is Not good! This means that during parts of every power line cycle the magnetic structure of the motor will be overloaded. Since the higher V/Hz ratio will likely cause excessive heat, and the cooling fan of the electric motor will be turning 20% slower - the life span of the motor could be significantly reduced." 

Below is a link to the original document if anyone would like to read it for themselves. 
60Hz motor running on 50Hz power supply or vice versa


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## hogrider (May 25, 2010)

Maxx62 said:


> After doing a bit more poking around on the Internet it seems that buying one of the 50hz generators I was looking at it is really not such a good investment, due to the fact that my refrigerator and water pump appear to be 60hz only. Also, a frequency converter to convert 50hz to 60hz is actually more expensive than the cost of the generator itself, so either I would be looking at the costs of a refrigerator and pump with a shortened life span, or the cost of buying a very expensive frequency converter. Bottom line, buying one of the cheap 50hz generators I was looking at to power my 60hz appliances just doesn't seem to make much sense.
> 
> I've paraphrased the below information from another site, and it appears that "Volts per hertz ratio" increases when alternating current reverses direction, and this may lead to overheating in the motor, and thus shorten its life span.
> 
> ...


Yup as I said, not a good idea. There are electrical equipments that will operate on 50/60Hz. One of the reasons that I bought our Bosch kitchen equipment in Dubai and shipped here, oven, ceramic hob, extractor hood etc., is because they are 50/60Hz.


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## Maxx62 (Dec 31, 2013)

hogrider said:


> Yup as I said, not a good idea. There are electrical equipments that will operate on 50/60Hz. One of the reasons that I bought our Bosch kitchen equipment in Dubai and shipped here, oven, ceramic hob, extractor hood etc., is because they are 50/60Hz.


I should probably just give up on this idea, but it is possible to convert a 50hz generator into 60 by increasing its RPMs?


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## Gary D (Oct 28, 2013)

Maxx62 said:


> I should probably just give up on this idea, but it is possible to convert a 50hz generator into 60 by increasing its RPMs?


That sounds like a plan but you're again running something, the generator, designed for 50Hz operation at 60Hz. Overheating could still apply in the alternator.


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## fmartin_gila (May 15, 2011)

Maxx62 said:


> I should probably just give up on this idea, but it is possible to convert a 50hz generator into 60 by increasing its RPMs?


That was my initial thought too, but then doing a bit of serious thinking on it, I doubt if it would work out in the long run. Anytime one works a piece of mechanical equipment outside its designed parameters it tends to lessen the reliability of said equipment and will hasten its failure. This goes for most any type of mechanical or electronic equipment . 

Fred


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## Maxx62 (Dec 31, 2013)

fmartin_gila said:


> That was my initial thought too, but then doing a bit of serious thinking on it, I doubt if it would work out in the long run. Anytime one works a piece of mechanical equipment outside its designed parameters it tends to lessen the reliability of said equipment and will hasten its failure. This goes for most any type of mechanical or electronic equipment .
> 
> Fred


Well, I guess I'd better just put the idea of those 50Hz generators out of my head, because even though they are selling them dirt cheap, they are probably going to cost me more money on down the road. 

This morning I was thinking that maybe I could purchase a 50Hz pressure pump, and set it up in tandem with my existing 60Hz pump, but then I looked at all the work of redoing the plumbing, adding a couple of ball valves to switch between the two pumps as needed, and also adding a new dedicated power hookup for the new pump, but then I realized that the whole idea was crazy, and I'd better just focus on saving my pennies until I can afford the right type of generator. Besides, it still wouldn't solve the problem of not having my refrigerator running during a power outage, so that's pretty much the end of me scheming over buying a 50Hz generator.


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## fmartin_gila (May 15, 2011)

The unit would have to be run about 16.7 percent faster which would make 3500 RPMs from a 3000 RPM unit or 1750 RPMs from a 1500 RPM unit. I am just basing my thoughts to not recommending it on many years of Hot Rodding and maintaining/repairing on all different types of vehicles, equipment, & aircraft. There is always a tradeoff when increasing performance beyond what it was designed for and it is normally a decrease in reliability up to and including complete failure.

All that being said, I do think it may work by adjusting the govenor to overspeed the engine. Just don't have any thoughts on how long it would last and if only used during brown/black out periods you might get several years use out of it. Just food for thought and you might feel it may be worth the chance to take.

Fred


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## Maxx62 (Dec 31, 2013)

fmartin_gila said:


> The unit would have to be run about 16.7 percent faster which would make 3500 RPMs from a 3000 RPM unit or 1750 RPMs from a 1500 RPM unit. I am just basing my thoughts to not recommending it on many years of Hot Rodding and maintaining/repairing on all different types of vehicles, equipment, & aircraft. There is always a tradeoff when increasing performance beyond what it was designed for and it is normally a decrease in reliability up to and including complete failure.
> 
> All that being said, I do think it may work by adjusting the govenor to overspeed the engine. Just don't have any thoughts on how long it would last and if only used during brown/black out periods you might get several years use out of it. Just food for thought and you might feel it may be worth the chance to take.
> 
> Fred


I agree, taking things outside their design tolerances usually shortens their service life quite a bit, and in the long run it will probably end up costing me a lot more money than if I had just gone out and purshased a 60Hz generator to begin with. -- However, just so I'm certain, your saying that paying around with the governor, and raising the RPMs of the gasoline engine wouldn't have any negative effects upon the gasoline engine, and it would only be the AC generator that might experience a shortened life span?


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## fmartin_gila (May 15, 2011)

Even the 3500 RPMs is not really an excessive RPM to run an engine. If one was to have just as a for instance a 3KW load and you used a 5KW generator, it seems to me that it would not be overloaded and should not overheat. Same as on the line of working a small 30 HP engine with a 30 HP load vs working a larger 50 HP engine with a 30 HP load, the 50 HP engine will outlast the 30 HP engine 2 or 3 times over. All this will somewhat depend on how long your power outages usually last and just how much electrical load you would be placing on the unit. Another depends would be just how expensive would a slightly larger 50 cycle unit be in comparison to a just right sized 60 cycle unit.

Fred


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