Travel Adapters

Travel Plans in the near future?  Finding the correct Travel Adapter for your travel destination can make for a difficult shopping trip.  Sales staff at electronics stores often have difficulty advising beyond the packaging description, and until you’re half way across the world plugging it in, there’s no guarantee the Travel Adapter will work.

Some of the confusion surrounding Travel Adapters comes from the terminology. Quite simply a Travel Adapter isn’t always the correct term.  Other descriptive names include AC Adapters, Voltage Converters and Universal Power adapters.  Don’t let the product names confuse you, instead shop for a travel adapter by product functionality.  There are two main things to consider when using an electrical product in a different country: 

1.     What voltage and frequency range does the product accept?

2.     What types of plugs and sockets are in use at my destination?

Range of Voltage and Frequency

Most countries throughout the world operate on a system somewhere between 220V to 240V with an intended standard of 230V.  Only a small selection of countries, including the United States and Canada, have a 120 standard voltage.  Before buying a voltage “transformer” or “converter,” check the voltage accepted by your electrical product.   Many electronics such as laptops and cell phones include their own power bar or AC adapter. These laptops and cell phones are sold worldwide and the manufacturers produce an AC adapter that accepts voltage worldwide, anywhere from 110V to 240V and a frequency of 50 or 60 Hz.  Some products, like Hair-dryers, come with a dual voltage switch that will accept both 120V and 230V.

If an electronic device has its own 100-240V, 50/60 Hz adapter, your only other requirement is the physical plug adapter.  Plug adapters are often referred to as a Universal Adapters, but don’t always offer worldwide adaptation.  Commonly these adapters are designed to convert one particular plug, either the UK or North American plug into any other world standard.  Better Universal Adapters can accept any style of plug and convert into any other world standard.  Recognize that some countries have no standard and even when a plug appears to match the socket the electricity still will not flow (speaking from experience with a long layover in an airport in Asia).

If the voltage for your device is not the same and doesn’t include an adapter, then you will need to buy that voltage transformer.  Some physical plug adapters will also provide an in-house voltage converter, but these will be more expensive, or they will limit the conversion to two styles of plug.  Frequency is less of a concern and worldwide is always either at 50 Hz or 60 Hz.  The difference in frequency doesn’t affect the operations of an electronic unless it has a time sensitive operation such as an analogue music player.