Question regarding different types of power system

[J.b091]

Guys, I have one maybe not related to computers question, but don't know where else to ask it. My wife, when she was coming from USA to here in Europe, brought Heating Pad which was perfectly working there in USA, however it doesn't work here. As we know USA and European countries have different type of power systems and outlets. So I had to use converter, but it's not working. That converter is working, because I have Philips hair trimmer which I ordered from Amazon which also has USA outlet system and I'm using that converter on that shaver and it works. So my question is: Is it possible, that reason that heating pad isn't working could be incompatibility of country power systems or most likely it broke during travelling? Or maybe it needs different converter? I'm not good in such things and that's why I'm asking this question. She wants me to buy new heating pad from Amazon, but I want to be sure that it will work and it's not the case of incompatibility of power systems.

[Kleine IJsbeer]

It's not just the plug that is different indeed, there's different voltages as well. For most 'advanced' appliances like pc's the power supply is built to handle either voltage but it might be your heating pad doesn't adapt to the difference and 'expects' the US voltage while it gets a european voltage which is too high compared to the US standard. I'm just guessing as I have no experience with this whatsoever but it might be overvoltage protection or so blocking the device from working?

[tikker]

Voltage difference most likely  (110/120V vs 210/220/240V) and the device is either protecting itself from overvolting or it's fried from overvolting.

On 1/29/2019 at 1:17 PM, J.b091 said:

She wants me to buy new heating pad from Amazon, but I want to be sure that it will work and it's not the case of incompatibility of power systems.

Just buy one from a European (Amazon) store, i.e. ones that are built for Europe's power network.

[STL-10]

Another thing that could be affecting it is that in the US we have 60hz AC power whereas some places in Europe have 50hz power.