Newb electric question - US induction plate in UK

[R2Brew2]

Hi all, I moved to the UK last year and can't shake the itch to brew. I visited family in US for Thanksgiving and brought my induction hot plate back with me in my luggage. It has a 6-20p plug (20A, 250V). The device itself is 3500W at 208V, which by my novice calculations comes out to 16A and change. The plug fits into a pretty simple universal converter I have with standard UK plug on other side, but I understand UK home outlets are 13A at 230V, or only 2990W. This smells like trouble. However, the induction device settings - at least as far as I remember - dials up the settings by wattage used. And, again as best as I remember, I never needed to go full blast at 3500W (I tend to make 2.5 gallon BIAB batches). So, to get to the point, if I use the universal converter, but keep wattage within the UK home power range, will it be okay?

 

[brewbama]

Would the 50 vs 60 hz make a difference?

This brings back memories of my young son plugging a radio into the wall in Italy without a transformer. He let all the smoke out of that box.

 

[IslandLizard]

Would the 50 vs 60 hz make a difference?

This brings back memories of my young son plugging a radio into the wall in Italy without a transformer. He let all the smoke out of that box.

I just scoured the web for 50Hz compatibility info on the IC3500. Found nothing explicitly or on other brands/units.

That radio smoked not because of the 50/60Hz frequency difference but the net voltage being 220/240V in Europe. A transformer would change the voltage but not the frequency. Now most non-power electronics don't care about the net frequency since they internally operate on DC. For certain power electronics operating on AC it could make a big difference. Induction burners could well be among them as it uses frequency as a medium to transfer power.

UK home outlets are 13A at 230V

That's a good point! Perhaps some kitchen outlets or washing machine and dryer circuits are fused higher?

I never needed to go full blast at 3500W

Not sure, but the unit, being induction, may use the full 3500W power when actively transferring energy, but it's modulated (switched on/off, electronically, like PWM) to obtain lower power settings. The frequency of the inducing current is also changed for efficient energy transfer. You can hear the high pitch whine. That may be a valid culprit for incompatibility with 50 Hz circuits. Again, not sure about all that. Hard to find any hard data on that.