Help the electro-stupid on holiday

March 20, 2007 8:22 PM

I'm going to London + Paris and don't want to blow up my electric/electronic gadgets.

I've read lots of posts here and elsewhere about power converters and plug adapters. But I'm just two electro-stupid to trust myself. I think I understand the basic concept, but I'd like someone to tell me the best solution for powering/charging the following devices that I intend to take with me. I don't want anything to blow up, and I don't want to buy more adapters/converters than I need.

Two iPods (one 4th gen and one 5th gen). I understand that Apple's own solution might be the best bet here. I have one of the white square power adapters. I think mine is a little bigger than the on in the photo (came with the 4th gen), but it's the same idea.

One Palm TX. The wallwart says "Input 120 VAC, 60Hz, 120mA; Output: 5.2VDC, 500mA." I'm taking this because it has WiFi and lets me leave the laptops at home. I intend to use internet cafes when I can and this when it proves handy.

Conair hair iron. Badge on it says "120 / 240 VAC, 50-60Hz, 180 Watts." The wife will leave this behind if it's a hassle, but, since it actually accepts both US and European VAC, it seems like it would only need a plug adapter. Right?

Finally, if I do need a converter, is this an okay one? It seems to be the only one on Amazon without tons of bad reviews and comments about things melting. If that one sucks, please point me to one that doesn't. Thanks for you time.

posted by wheat to travel & transportation (9 comments total)

IANAE so I'll let other people speak to the voltage and conversion. I can just relate my own experience travelling:

- For the iPods and Palm, you won't need a converter, just an adapter. The hair iron might be a different story.

- Don't forget that for your particular trip, you are going to be managing three different kinds of sockets: UK, Continental Europe, and USA. US-to-Euro adapters won't help you in London.

- Check with your hotels before you go, if you know where you'll be staying. In my experience, all the UK hotels already have at least a couple of Euro plugs in the rooms, and about half keep other kinds of adapters at the desk to loan you during your stay (caveat: I stay at business hotels, so that might affect the offerings. YMMV.)

- Do not spend extra money on the fancy multi adapter sets that have the Asian and African plugs. You don't need them and you can buy a la carte.

- I had a devil of a time finding US->intl plug adapters over here (logically)... but they were ubiquitous and cheap when I got to Europe (€10 or less). Since you'll be in big cities and big airports, you might consider just picking up what you actually need on the ground when you arrive; it's one less thing to pack and haul over.

I do hope someone later addresses the hair iron -- I would assume the same as you did from the UL sticker... but I know it's definitely considered a high-watt device.
posted by pineapple at 9:03 PM on March 20, 2007

Eesh. I would not buy the $40 adapter kit from apple. When in Spain I plugged my powerbook brick into a plug converter from a travel store that probably cost $3. That should work for the Conair as well - it's definitely dual voltage from your description.

If it were me I'd try and find a travel adapter for the Palm instead of lugging around a voltage converter brick and the Palm AC adapter.
posted by O9scar at 9:19 PM on March 20, 2007

I'd double-check the Palm - I fried a Palm IIIc charger in Australia some years ago. Of course we were in the boonies so it could have been out-of-spec power too.
posted by djb at 9:20 PM on March 20, 2007

"I do hope someone later addresses the hair iron -- I would assume the same as you did from the UL sticker... but I know it's definitely considered a high-watt device."

Make sure that the hair iron is already built to handle european voltage (some can handle both american and euro voltage), and do not bother with a converter! In many cases, it can cost almost as much as the iron itself and there's no guarantee that the iron won't get overloaded once you're overseas. I learned that the hard way when I studied abroad in Italy a few years ago.

I eventually bought hair iron there that could handle both voltages, so looking in the UK isn't a bad idea. Otherwise, salons or beauty supply stores can point you in the right direction of where/what to buy.
posted by deinemutti at 9:45 PM on March 20, 2007

This would be for gadgets whose power cables can be completely disconnected from the unit ... but please note that some power cables can be different at one end and the same at the other.

In other words, sometimes the end that goes into the wall IS country-specific, while the end that actually connects to the gadget IS NOT.

This results in happy-fun-time situations where you bring a gadget overseas, and someone hands you a cable that looks like it fits just fine into your gadget and BLAMMO! No more gadget.

The $10,000 Xbox development kit was like this -- the gadget end of the cables are identical, while the business ends are different. Yes, I blew one up. I saw two more blow'd up by other people making the exact same mistake. Sony Playstation dev kits had no such problems -- the cables were sufficiently idiot-proof to make this mistake impossible.
posted by frogan at 10:37 PM on March 20, 2007

Okay. The Palm III wall wart needs to stay home. It's only good on 120V, if you plug it in in London, it will die, unless you get a voltage converter.

I seriously suggest you don't carry both voltage adapters and plug adapters, because it becomes easy to plug the curling iron into the voltage adapter (which, if it can't handle the power draw, will be unhappy) and the palm pilot into the plug adapter (which will definitely make it unhappy.) If you get one, only get the plug adaptors you need to physically plug it in, and plug *everything* into it. Note the total power it can support, and leave behind anything that it can't handle.

The curling iron needs a physical plug adapter, but will be fine, mod the above.

If you are bringing a notebook, the easiest way to charge up all the electrical dodads is USB charging cables, provided that your notebook Power Supply supports 120-240VAC. Here, you just need physical plug adapters for the devices, since both the theoretical laptop supply and the iron both handle 240V.

Or, to simplify. Either carry a voltage adapter, and act like all of your electronics must use that, or carry only plug adapters, and make sure you don't carry anything that can't handle 240V.

If you carry both, be very careful -- a 120V rated transformer isn't going to like 240V, worse, the output power may be twice what your device was expecting, which tends to be a short, exciting, and fatal experience for the hardware you plugged into the output.
posted by eriko at 4:52 AM on March 21, 2007

A few follow-up questions:
1. So the Apple solution is really just an aesthetically pleasing but expensive plug adapter, right? In that case, I can either buy the pretty Apple version or I can just nab some plug adapters from Target or Amazon and use them with the iPod's existing wall wart, yes?

2. The hair iron says it supports both voltages, so I can just use a plug adapter with that.

3. The Palm TX seems to be the only real problem here and the only thing that needs conversion (+ a plug adapter). O9scar suggested a different (i.e. European) wall wart for it. That seems like a workable idea, though I can't tell from the photo what type of plug it supports.

The other option would seem to be a converter + plug adapter with the existing wall wart, but going from 240 VAC to 120 VAC to 5.2DC seems, well, crazy and prone to error.

I've also read a bit about low-wattage and high-wattage converters and, evidently, electronics like the low-wattage versions and electric appliances (hair dryers and such) need the higher wattage version. Some have both in the same package with a switch to move from one to the other.

I'm not bringing a laptop, so charging via USB isn't an option.

Sorry to be such a total noob about this. I've actually been to Europe/UK once before, but that was back in 1990, before the net and gadgetry became a part of my life.
posted by wheat at 11:35 AM on March 21, 2007

My solution:
I'm just following up to complete the thread. Here's what I ended up doing:

1) Bought some plug adapters for the iPods and the hair iron.
2) Bought a travel charger for the Palm TX.

Thanks to everyone for all the help. We're heading out this weekend!
posted by wheat at 10:53 AM on March 27, 2007

wheat, if this is still open when you get home, do let us know what worked? It'll be much help to know for my own next trip!
posted by pineapple at 5:21 PM on March 27, 2007