As joyfully (aka hubby) said, these machines are more like semi-automated equipment. Not gas station level quality! We had a friend that moved her expensive 220 espresso machine back to the U.S. when she moved from the U.K. She had it rewired to accept 110 but it never had the same umph as before it was "demasculated" <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" /> I wouldn't want to try to use a good machine on different voltage even with a transformer.