[tlug] [OT] Taking appliances between J and US power

["David J Iannucci" <jlinux@example.com>]

Sorry for the OT post, but I'd really like to get an answer to my
question, and this seems the most likely place to get some good info.  I
*strongly* encourage respondents to respond to me directly, and I will
summarize the information that I get back to the list in short order.

Long story short, we've got a suihanki that we bought and used in Japan,
then brought to the US and ran on a transformer for several years.  At
one point it seemed the transformer had stopped working, so we just
started running the suihanki on US 110v power.  It has started to
overflow suds, at first only on larger loads and rarely, now more often,
and on smaller loads (according to my wife).

I have convinced myself the transformer is ok, and I'd like to put the
thing back on it, but my wife has heard from her friends that Japanese
appliances, after being switched for some time to higher voltage, will
die if then returned to 100v power.  She's got a couple very
unscientific anecdotes to back this up :-)

Does anyone know whether there's any reason I should believe this?
Should expect this sort of result?  If so, is it relatively well-known?

Thanks,
Dave