It will be a filter, to reduce noise on your electrical system. All electrical equipment, especially with motors, produce a lot of interferance noise, that could cause problems with other sensitive electronic equipment, PC's etc So they fit a filter in line, to reduce it, It will not reduce voltage. just the noise on the mains line. Thats how you can get these intercom systems that work by just plugging them in, they use the mains wire to transfer signals, If your machine did not have that filter, you would get a lot of noise from such a system, you would find it difficult to hear other person, while the machine was running. Hope this helps
SD
September 2011