19 hours ago, MSRadell said:? Why? There's no advantage to 220 V appliances, maybe the rest of the road should join the US and go to 120 V ones, it would make the same amount of sense.
There's an advantage for things that draw a lot of power, like espresso machines and induction hobs. The assumption with appliances sold in the U.S. is that most houses have at least some 15 amp circuits, so standard appliances are limited to 1800 watts—and then only rarely, because they wouldn't be able to share the circuit with anything. Some heavier duty things come with plugs for special 20 amp outlets. These are one-outlet-per-circuit arrangements that take air conditioner plugs, and can handle appliances up to 2400 watts.
In the UK and France, the standard is 230v (it can vary by 10%, so people call it 220), with 13 amp circuits. This means any outlet in a non-ancient building can handle over 2800 watts. So appliances can be made more powerful.
Great if you want a professional espresso machine. Irrelevant with mixers, unless you need a Hobart that's big enough to climb inside.
