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Post by gareth0127 on Feb 17, 2013 20:14:53 GMT
I would disagree that it is unsafe to use 240v rated items on a 2 phase ac system rather than a phase to neutral supply. The equipment is only looking for a voltage source and considering both phases are protected by a breaker the polarity is often unimportant. Yes you then have a centre tapped ground but this shouldn't affect operation and most equipment used around the home you buy today has no ground connection (the ground pin of the plug is plastic) as they are double insulated.
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Post by Overland on Feb 18, 2013 2:44:57 GMT
I heard this saying: Sometimes the rules are asleep and sometimes the rules are awake. The more info I hear, the more I am convinced that policies shift from person to person and from agency to agency. As to 110v items. I would risk it. Otherwise, it will be difficult and expensive to obtain and own normal appliances until houses are provided with 220 outlets.
TK- I would bring your stuff knowing there is that off chance they may grab it. My experience in late November in DMM indicated that the customs agent was most interested in his cell conversation and my cats...but hardly glanced at his X-ray of our dish barrel luggage (containing a few 110v tools).
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Post by Overland on Feb 18, 2013 2:53:51 GMT
G: From what I understood, it is kitchen outlet GFCI protection as most demand was for kitchen appliances. Also the plug configuration is British derived using one hot phase of 220. There are a lot of reports of adapter fires here due to substandard quality. That latter issue is a bit of a problem here with some building materials. I would advise anyone with a refrigerator with ice maker to bring a stop valve or two with 1/2" NPT female and 1/4" compression. The only ones available in the local market have nearly straight cut threads. Locals use heavy Teflon tape in an attempt to seal them...
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Post by wahoo65cavs on Feb 18, 2013 8:14:44 GMT
The employee shipment office is telling me that they are working dilligently with customs in Dammam to allow 110v devices in employee shipments to pass through with no issues. We will have to see. My sea shipment arrives in about two weeks. I had several in my air shipment (vacuum, microwave, mini chopper, mixer etc.) and had no issue.
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Post by CanPeng on Feb 19, 2013 5:09:08 GMT
Latest on this is that the gentleman from the paking company came in few days ago to do the survey, he didn't seem to know much about the issue. Today I heared from the personal effects shipping folks at Aramco, although they refer to attempts to explain to authorities the issues this will creat, they say that they informed all shipping lines about the 110V issue and that I should expect that my shipping company will net even allow me to include my appliences in the items I want to pack on the packing day, even if i wanted to take the risk of shipping them!
So now I ran out of another option, first it was the ebox, now I'm might not be able to include in sea shipment, seems that including them in my check in luggage is the only way
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Uman
Senior Member
Posts: 161
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Post by Uman on Feb 19, 2013 15:51:23 GMT
Aramco need to install safe 220vlt in ALL residences asap! worlds biggest energy co.
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Post by pinoycoolada on Feb 20, 2013 23:52:18 GMT
Dear all,
Just got this email from my recruiter:
Materials Logistics Department (MLD) hereby informs that employees who ship their personal effects in to Saudi Arabia should not include any electrical items of 110 Volt as part of their personal effects, effective immediately.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is on the verge of standardizing the residential and commercial voltage to 400/230V (three phase/single phase) and abolish 127V. As such, Company will not be able to Customs clear any electrical items of 110 Volt in future.
However, import of the auto dual volt (127/220V) equipment is allowed until 2017 only.
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Post by justthe4ofus on Feb 22, 2013 3:22:09 GMT
Is there a timeframe for the houses being switched over to 220? This is crazy because if you come from the states and can't bring your appliances, what are you supposed to do if you don't have 220 plugs in your home? Scour the area that you are not familiar with yet for 110 apliances only to have to repurchase them when the houses are switched over?
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Post by bloomingdisposition on Feb 22, 2013 3:49:13 GMT
CanPeng, I appreciate you starting this important thread on shipping. As a possible future Aramco compound resident, I find this news disheartening since many of my families appliances/electronics would be irreplaceable in Saudi, not to mention the financial hit this ban could impose. One of the reasons moving to the KSA was appealing to my family was the ability to bring with us the "comforts of home" while adjusting to a new way of life. Shouldn't Aramco be able to get an exception on this ban for residents inside the Aramco compounds? Given 110 volt housing is the predominate form of wiring in all the Aramco camps currently and I'd gather for quite some time in the future, such a request is undeniably reasonable.
Knowing a little about electrical wiring, I can tell you rewiring all the camps on the compound will be an involved, lengthy process. Rewiring an entire house from 110 volt to 220 would essentially consist of a new breaker system, running new wires through all the walls in the house by punching out numerous holes in the walls/ceilings and installing new electrical receptors = a mess! I couldn't imagine housing management doing this while tenants are living in the house, therefore, its safe to assume such an event would only occur while a house is vacant. In my humble opinion, camp wide conversion could take years to complete. During this time, if 110 volt appliances are banned and our homes only run 110 volts of electricity, I fear Aramcons will go into an electrical dark age in the 21st century!
With that said, I plan on addressing this issue when my husband & I go to orientation. We're also going to request for safe passage of all of our 110 volt appliances as part of our negotiations with Aramco. In the meantime for people packing up now, I'd definitely take Vpainter's advice on labeling your entire shipment so if you should have any items taken, they could hopefully be easily found and returned to you. If Aramco is unable to intervene on this matter, does anyone know if confiscated items by customs can be reclaimed by sending items back out of the country or is it a total loss?
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Post by CanPeng on Feb 23, 2013 23:59:47 GMT
Hi Bloomingdisposition,
I'm sure someone at Aramco is negotiating something with someone at Customes, if they eventually succeed or not I wouldn't know, but those of us who will relocate in the coming few weeks will probably be tossed under the truck. What I hear is that Aramco staff typically get preferential treatement, so there might be a possibility that customs guy will be more forgiving when he learns that this is an Aramco shipment. I'm just speculating, however one of the earlier posts under this thread mentioned that recently two Aramco families were not so lucky.
I doubt that that you can effectively use this as a point of negotiation with Aramco HR, by the end of the day Aramco and the Saudi Customs are two different things.
If customs decides to confiscate the appliences, my understanding " and I think it's mentioned in the guide" that they will not lock them away, but you will have the option of shipping them back home, I have no idea what are the cost and headeach implications of this.
This whole thing is very unfortunate, especially for those of us who would be the the first ones to experiment with the new policy. Those who dealt with Saudi Customs before, can help us by sharing their experience, anybody had a hard time with Customs for checked in luggage?
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Post by Hadia on Feb 24, 2013 3:49:21 GMT
This was last summer, but I had a hard time at the airport customs with my son's asthma nebulizer. They were baffled and a little freaked out by the tubing and compressor. After some stern conversation between the agents, with me pleading my case and demonstrating its use, they let us through. I'm not taking it with us next time because it's 110v, and I wouldn't want to chance losing it if they take it out to investigate it again.
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Post by Texas on Feb 25, 2013 16:30:38 GMT
I travel on business and usually fly from Bahrain and never had an issue. They don't have x-ray machines on the causeway and Bahrain don't care about 110V devices. This is a less hassle option for those who are bringing 110V to Saudi and until Aramco fully addresses the 220V dilemma.
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Post by vpainter on Feb 25, 2013 20:57:41 GMT
Just a note for FYI: They do have x-ray machines on the causeway. Not used often, but are used occasionally. How do I know, my luggage was xrayed once on the causeway.
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Post by Hadia on Feb 26, 2013 8:48:12 GMT
I successfully received two 110v household items via Aramex this week. One item was really opened up and scrutinized, but it was delivered.
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Post by CanPeng on Feb 26, 2013 9:23:08 GMT
Thanks Hadia, Vpainter and Texas for sharing your experience in dealing with customs. today I went to Uhaul and picked up two dish barrel boxes, each will take two appliences in original packing moulds.will eat up part of the luggage weight allowance, but seems to be the only way
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