Hi Everybody,
We moved back to my country Hungary in 2010 and brought along all of our 120V household- kitchen-appliances and electric tools as well. I also brought a 2kW auto transformer with us so, that we shouldn't have any problem using anything up to 1500 Watts.
What happened a few months after we finished settling in one day I plugged our not too old DC14 in the 230V side of the transformer by mistake and when I turned it on, the motor of the DC14 spun off like the propulsion engine of an F-16 and even though I shut the power off a few seconds later that was enough for the 230V to destroy the 120V motor.
Half of the commutator got burned off completely so badly that I could take those broken parts out completely without any effort after I took the DC14 apart.
Back then I contacted a few places for replacement motor but I found the US version (made by Panasonic) quite pricey for me shipped from the US, paying for the shipping and customs fee, so then I figured that maybe I should try to put in an EU version and I won't have to use a transformer with it either in the future.
But since I didn't get a straight answer from any source that I contacted back then I'd dropped the whole subject.
But now I want to have it fixed and decided to get more info about converting a US version to the EU one if it is possible at all.
Back then someone wrote me that besides the motor, I will also have to replace the offset motor bearing mount and the rubber fan case seal and maybe something else too, I can't really remember now what else.
I was also wondering about that the motor that got broken was a 120V/60Hz 1370W motor but the EU motors have the power of 1700W. Would that mess up (break) anything in the rest of the unit?
Does someone know the difference in the rpm of the EU and US motor?
(Right now I have all the parts in a box in the cellar so I cannot check whether the rotating brush in the head is driven directly by the motor (through belt) or just by some air turbine that is driven by the vacuum in the head area.)
Or has someone already converted a US DC14 to an EU one and it was a successful project?
I could use any help in this matter.
I could post pictures and measurements of the US motor if that would help.
Geza
(pronounce the first part "Ge" like in the word "game", and "za" like you'd say "Zapata" with the accent being on the "Ge".)