Not sure where to put this topic.
I am considering should i bring my UK Washing Machine as its new and was very expensive so worth keeping.
I know I will have to change the electricity plug on it and the waste pipe will be the same, but will the water supply connection be the same or will this need to be changed.
Depending on the answers I will decide to bring it with me or leave it here in the UK
An American friend of mine who moved to London forty odd years ago (and later moved back to Boston) told me that when he first arrived in the UK, he was terrified of the domestic electricity because the cables were so thick compared to those in US that he thought they were ‘some sort of weird high voltage’ (mind you, he was a graphic designer, not an electrician).
Mind you UK mains cable is very stringy compared to high-end hifi loudspeaker cable which as we all know carries ten trillion volts of musical goodness…
S African plugs are also tiny compared to UK ones - they don’t contain a fuse because the domestic systems are designed to withstand lightning strikes (very common there).
My house got stuck by lightning once - there was actually a sort of explosive flash from the lamp above the dining table and I was deafened for many minutes by the thunderclap, yet was able to immediately flip a switch on the fuse box and everything was fine again - even the lightbulb.
Although the pipes are different sizes, the fittings they terminate with generally seem compatible. I’ve brought over kitchen and bath taps, and there has not been a problem at all using them because the connector for a flexible hose is the same on the hose end.
They would be we use the same connecting sizes here 1" 3/4" 1/2" etc.
One thing to be careful of is connecting ovens, cookers etc is many houses here have 3 phase so wire them in correctly
My mate Ben had a broken power adapter for his pedalboard. He had to use a BIC cap to press down the earth pin in UK sockets so that he could connect the adapter.
I’m often reminded of him when I see the flimsy plastic plugs the French manufacture.
Or they can be larger, where in the UK 15mm here in France will probably 16mm or in some cases down to 12mm for toilets, taps etc.
The larger the pipe diameter the larger the flow, in the UK this will be an advantage as mostly on low pressure systems, aka water tanks in the attic, here in France the water supply is direct to the system the pressure is usually much higher (I think my incoming pressure is +/- 5-6 bars) & we have inline pressure regulators to compensate for domestic use.
As the owner of aged fingers, I would advise choosing the loop type of French plugs for the change, I find the small grasp type almost impossible to disconnect sometimes.