Using a Balmuda "The Range" in the United States

To avoid some of the the crazy experiences I had long ago (before Google Translate's picture mode) when I posted an English translation of the iDog manual, let me say this up front real loud: 

• I've never worked for Balmuda, nor am I affiliated with them or any of their vendors in ANY way
• Using a Balmuda "The Range" outside of Japan voids its warranty
• If you attempt any part of what we've done and it blows up, I take no responsibility
• If you can't afford to have US$800 burst into flames if you mess up, then you absolutely should not do this
• Does your home have a working fire extinguisher? Do you know where it is?
• I do not provide technical support. Lemme say that one more time:
• I DO NOT PROVIDE TECHNICAL SUPPORT

...that said, I'd love to have you share your experiences in the comments section if you're using one of these outside Japan yourself. 

FAQ

Does Balmuda The Range have the cool steam toasting option that their toaster does?

No, it does not. In fact, they try to sell you a combo with both appliances, so they're incented to not replicate the functionality. You can broil things pretty easily in it (bagels come out great), and you could probably put a little tray of boiling water in the bottom to add some steam to try and replicate it. 

Can you use the microwave and the broiler functions at the same time?

No. The wattage needed to run both at the same time would exceed the maximum you can pump through a normal household plug, so it's one or the other. If you try to microwave AFTER you've just used the oven, you have to use Manual mode because it's too hot for the smart sensors to detect the done-ness of your food on the automatic modes.

Can I use a temperature probe when I'm cooking food in oven mode? 

Yes, but only a wireless one like this Meater one on Amazon. We tried using our existing thermometer and the wire lead that you'd normally gently close the oven door on triggers the oven's safety system and it shuts off. Given that it's also microwave, it probably needs to be very sensitive to door gaps. 

Is the display only in Japanese?

Mostly, but it doesn't really matter, honestly. 90% of the time you're just going to use Auto mode and push the big start button and it will show "ENJOY" (in English) when it's done. Manual mode, you're dialing in Watts and times, so no Japanese there. The Oven mode is in Japanese but there's only two options Preheat YES (スル) and Preheat NO (シナイ). Other than that you're dialing in temps and times.

What's the deal with the name, wouldn't a name like "The Range" cause grammatical awkwardness when you try to write about it in English? 

Yes. But they don't sell it outside of Japan so they don't have to care :) 

The details

We bought a Japanese Balmuda "The Range" from Wafuu. It comes in white, silver, or black. Shipping came via FedEx Priority and took 3 days.

We read conflicting reports about whether or not The Range would work with North America's 110v power when it's expecting Japan's 100v. While most modern electronics work fine with slightly higher voltage, appliances that produce a lot of heat (like The Range, or a rice cooker) can overheat because they will produce significantly more heat at 110v than they would at 100v. This can apparently lead to a bad situation where the device will appear to function fine, but will have a much shorter lifespan because it's being used on a regular basis well above its designed heat tolerances. Again, I'm not an electrician, so I'm not sure how verifiable this claim is. 

Precisely because I'm not an electrician, I decided I'd rather be safe than sorry and got a step-down transformer for our "The Range". We got this 1800W model on Amazon. The manufacturer claims that it will work at temperatures up to 105ºC (220ºF) and I don't really believe that. The reviews make it sound like this transformer doesn't do well when multiple things are plugged into it. Again, YMMV here. 

our Balmuda in place

The next thing to contend with is how most Japanese homes don't have grounded outlets and The Range needs ground. The way Balmuda deals with this is there's a loose ground wire just dangling off the back of The Range that you need to connect to ground somehow. In our case, we opted for an adapter from the hardware store where you can attach the ground wire to the inside of a power plug, and then plug it into a wall outlet. (The two prongs where electricity would normally flow are just plastic dummies). We used a ground tester to make sure the electrical outlet we used was properly grounded. (the state of NYC construction being what it is, we wanted to make sure it was functional). 

top plug for the transformer, bottom is a mock-plug for ground

Part of why we wanted The Range is because none of the combo microwave/toaster ovens we could buy in the USA would fit into the odd space where our recently-deceased American microwave went. We put the transformer behind (but not touching) the Balmuda in our odd little nook. It seemed pretty clear that this was going to violate the general spirit of their guidelines which say to leave 10cm on the sides and back of the unit. But I also know that for like 90% of use cases, we'll probably have it on for less than 2 minutes, 5% of the cases will be 2-5 minutes, and 5% will be us attempting to bake something in it during the summer so we can avoid powering up our big oven on a hot day. I'm not worried about overheating in those first two use cases, but for the 3rd, I was definitely worried. To that end, I bought this USB rechargeable clippy fan to point toward the rear of the unit to keep it all cool when we're doing a long bake.

clippy fan

Some quirks

1. The display is always in katakana, even for 'hiragana' words, which completely throws off Google Translate's image mode. It even threw off my brain – it took me way too long to realize スル was する.
2. When you're cooking on Auto mode and decide to just open the door and remove the food, The Range will sit there in Standby mode with door lights illuminated until you press the Cancel button. It should time out after like 10 minutes but it doesn't
3. If the interior is hot from being in Oven mode, the done-ness sensors for Microwave Auto mode won't work so you have to use Manual mode...
4. ...annnd your brain might simply forget two minutes later that the interior is hot and you could, say, chuck a plastic package of tortillas in there to microwave them and instantly melt the packaging to the still-hot oven floor 

oops!