Don't need to act all that hard to tell the truth.

Only made the mistake of allowing the wife to do the talking to the customs people once......never again and have always sailed through. ^

Not that we've ever brought in much right enough - just can't be bothered lifting the cases on and off.

Are you sure? I have in my office HP, Xerox, Lexmark and Canon printers (laser, inkjet, AIO, Prof. photo printers etc) all are 100-240V. Most Brother's printers are 100-120V but I'm sure Flying Machine will buy HP or Epson , otherwise he will need to buy a lot of cartridges.

Actually had my eye on the Brother HL-2140 ( I have one already and works like a gem ) for $49 USD with a free handheld label printer ( special at Office Depot this week ) Its a laser and the Cartridge that comes with will last over 4 Packages of paper. Thats over 2000 pages. Additional cartridges are $20 from the refillers..

So Fly.. Thanks for all the tech advice. So what is the cheapest and best transformer my friend can buy in Argentina.. Otherwise the HP link is somewhat interesting. Thanks to all whom have taken the time to reply.

I had no problems bringing in multtiple latops all kinds of foreign equipment and two pairs of skis. The only question from customs after xray was were I'm from and that was it. Maybe the Lufthansa PA standing next to it was helping by giving me some authority, no idea.

Using that scheme I even managed to get six 5 litre barrels of beer into Malaysia

Fedechat, if you are in Argentina ... then the products you are seeing are manufactured for the "international" market.

Products sold in the US have to meet US Federal (and some State) requirements for safety and energy efficiency (and have to carry the appropriate certification). Because the market is so large, it's more cost efficient to produce products specifically for this market.

The only computer products that I have that are 110/240V, are a couple of laptops and a desktop computer. All the rest are 120V only - sometimes with a wall wart (which could of course be changed to 240V) - but the external hard drives, DVD drives, laser printers, routers, etc. are all 120V only. The same goes for stereo equipment and TVs. The only notable exception appears to be flat panel monitors. Mostly the products are the same internally as sold elsewhere in the world, but the internal step-down transformer is only for 120V.

John

It's probably cheaper to replace the whole printer when the cartridge runs out

I'm in the US at the moment, so I can't tell you the price of a step-down transformer. The place to buy them in BsAs is: Alamtec - La casa del Transformador
http://www.alamtec.com.ar/home.htm

John

Well I live in Miami and I work in the technology department, all our laptops/netbook/desktop/tablet pc (HP, DELL, Compaq and Toshiba) and macbooks are 110/240V, on desktop you have the voltage switch on the back (usually is pink/magenta). Remember, I said most Laptops/Pc and Digital Cameras, I didn't say small electronics

Flying Machine a real 750w step-down transformer will cost you around 25 u$s, 45 for 1000w. Check on MercadoLibre.com.ar and look for "transformador PS3", must be at least 750w

Technical Details for HL-2140

# Power source: AC 120 V, 50/60 Hz
# Energy Star compliant: Yes
# Power consumption: 5 W (sleep), 80 W (standby), 460 W (peak)

Alamtec is one of the top places.... Im a happy customer... ^

LOL

Data point. I checked my Dell 1110 for the heck of it (only paid C$50 for it on sale - refill costs C$80 from Dell ). Only takes 110-127V.

Because is a Dell !!! you can't bring one of those to Arg, you will not find any cartridge and Dell printers are garbage.

If you live in US, buy a decent HP, Canon, Epson, Xerox, Lexmark or Brother (HP cartridges are expensive) but if you live in Argentina buy a HP or Epson (Epson cartridges are cheaper).

If you need to buy a digital camera, you will buy a Canon, Nikon or
Sony, you will not buy Polaroid, Samsung or Kodak right?

I happened to be in an Office Depot in northern California this morning, so I checked out the power requirements for the printers on sale.

All the laserprinters (including AIOs) - 12x HP, 10x Brother, and 3x Lexmark were 120V only.

As I'd mentioned upthread the HP inkjets (including AIOs) have a dual voltage wall wart. The Lexmark inkjets had a dual voltage transformer plugged into the back of the machine.

The 6x Epson, 2x Canon, 4x Brother inkjets (including AIOs) were 120V only.

John

Original HP toner is very expensive here in Buenos Aires... I wish I could buy mine at US prices...

Okay I just purchased the HL-2140 for $49.99 with a free spiff of a handheld label maker.. I will be in BA for one half day before I go to MDZ to bring the printer to my friend as a gift. Are the step down transformers readily available in MDZ or should I go to the Mercado Libre site? PS3 750W correct??

They are a great spot - saved me when my cordless phone adapters got fried from a forgetful moment of plugging them in directly to 220V.

To avoid: the place across the street (not sure of name) which tried simply to tear off the label showing voltage/current ratings and then to convince me that it would work fine since the pin coming out was the same size as my original...