1

The Chinese sure have some strange ways. I purchased a little cheap radiant heater from Fasttech a few weeks ago. It had the U.S. plug so I figured it should be fine. Let me say, I’ve had good service from Fasttech in the past few months.

The heater arrived and when I took it out of the big padded envelope, the box that contained the heater was so tattered it looked like a returned item. I took out the heater and it looked okay though no instructions or anything in the box. I plugged it in, turned it on and nothing. I waited a few minutes longer and if you put your hand right up to it you could just barely feel a little bit of warmth.

Now here’s the kicker. I thought it was another cheap Chinese item that was defective. You never know with this Chinese stuff. I finally turned it off and looked at the back where the label that listed wattage, etc. Then there it was! This was a 220V European device with a 120V U.S. cord! No wonder it wouldn’t work!

What a head scratcher! Who in the heck would take a 220V appliance slap on a 120V cord and call it good to go for U.S. sales? Evidently the Chinese!

2

Well...I guess it could have ended worse. I don’t want to imagine what could happen if someone bought a „European“ heater with a 120V power supply and a 240V EU cord attached to it.

3

Indeed !

But maybe you can open it up and do some rewiring.
Could be that 2 halves are now in series, that should be in parallel for 120 Volts.

4

Buying overseas is ALWAYS a RISK. Got burned. So I buy from Amazon US. At least you have recourse to get back money of defective, wrong, broken, etc….

5

Buying overseas is not always a crap shoot but you have to read the specifications carefully. I retrofitted my home with LED fixtures ordered from China and to date have no complaints but I learned early that the default voltage worldwide is 220V. Check the listing at the Fastech website because some of their heaters specify 220V but are listed as having a “two pin flat plug” which would obviously be a US plug but usable only on 220V. It’s possible you ordered one with a US plug but 220V.
https://www.fasttech.com/products/0/10057570/9675020-400w-portable-touch-control-smart-electric-heater![](https://i.postimg.cc/g2tm8y3z/heater.jpg)

6

Yes, reread my post and that’s what I said I received but it’s still crazy!

7

Yep, there’s a whole lot of that going around from Chinese suppliers.
You’ve got to read the spec.

8

The problem is China uses 220v and their 2 prong plug is interchangeable with our 120v 2 prong here in the US.

https://www.tour-beijing.com/blog/beijing-travel/beijing-tour-reviews/plugs-and-sockets-in-china

Means when buying from an over seas seller you have to pay attention to product specs and make sure you are ordering the correct thing. This wasn’t a FT fault.

Seem to recall there are a hand full of other countries that also use a 2 prong plug similar to the one we use here but with a different voltage.

9

This sounds like an item for the EEVblog.

wow, I never had the wrong market/voltage sent to me. All items were correct or 120V-240V.

10

Banggood recently sent me a flashlight with a Euro 2-prong charger outlet plug by mistake. It has a built in battery pack so I have to use their proprietary charging cord. Luckily the input voltage range is 100-240V (specified on the converter which is part of the charging cord) so it will work the same anywhere in the world. I just had to purchase a Euro-to-USA adapter for $3. Banggood refunded me $8 for my trouble. Most modern electrical items have this wide voltage range. If they do not, then you need not only an adapter, but also a converter, whether it be step-up or step-down as in this case. The OP could buy a step-down adapter/converter combo to work at 110/120V if desired.

11

The last thing I would cheap out on is a heater. The potential for starting a fire is very high. 18650 and battery chargers are up there on the list of devices to be wary of.