Transformers are for the birds. Or at least, they are for people who pay attention to voltage.
Tonight, I ruined the last American kitchen appliance I’ve been using. (Bill was smart enough not to bring most of them. We didn’t even try to use our toaster after others said they are a very, very bad mix with a transformer.) I wanted to use my hand blender to puree some soup. So I plugged in the transformer, looked at the back, thought oh, we’re on 220 volts here, and promptly plugged my blender into that outlet. That would be, well, wrong. You are supposed to plug your appliance into the outlet for whatever voltage it normally runs on. Not the voltage wherever you are. Duh. They really should make the outlets so that you can’t make that mistake. Bill said he noticed the lights dim when I started up my mixer. I noticed the button you push to turn it on turned bright red. Then there was the distinct odor of burning (or melting) plastic.
Oops.