Can a 110 volts rated appliance work on a 100 volts supply?

Question

Can a 110 volts rated appliance work on a 100 volts supply?

Answer 1

It sounds like you may be in Japan.  If that is the case, you are getting 100 Hz rather than the 60 Hz the appliance was designed for.

In addition to what the other person stated, you will notice that analog clocks will not keep time.  In fact, anything with a motor will run slightly slower due to the lower voltage or slightly faster due to the higher frequency depending on the type of motor.  That can cause the windings in the motor to get hotter than normal.  I have seen power tools burn out under lower voltage.  In general, anything that is of low wattage and solid state such as a radio, a small TV, etc. will be fine if you use a commercially available step-up transformer.  These devices convert to DC and don't care about frequency.  You can find the transformer on the Internet as in the example below.

Answer 2

Yes, it should work, however not as efficiently.  Many US appliances are rated for 120V as typical voltage.  However, they will work between 110-130 okay and 100-140 reasonably well.  For example, in a light bulb you might see this as a "brown" out.  There is always a bit of extra stress when you run a device outside it's rated design voltage. so to some degree you will be reducing the meant time between failure.

Now you may with to consider if it's 50Hz or 60Hz supply (or 400Hz) or AC/DC... as this can also affect the appliance.

Make sure you have a good circuit breaker in line and check the device occasionally to be sure it's operating to your satisfaction.