What do you use to recharge your phone/GPS/camera battery/laptop when in foreign countries?
What do you use for your other things like hair dryer and such?

I wasn't having much luck with my local stores helping me. I had found something last year online, it was expensive and heavy, but if that is what will help me recharge my stuff I will be happy.

Small consumer electronics, phone, camera, etc.... I use a USB cord to my laptop. The laptop should take all voltages through the existing transformer on the power cord, all you need is a plug adapter which should run you about $5 at most.

I would not bring a hair dryer, most hotels have then in the rooms, or for borrow from the front desk.

always make friend with hotel staff, when I was in Brazil a few years ago, they brought me a hugh UPS to me when I needed to have my laptop recharged. And it stayed in my room for a week-

My computer, phone, camera charger are all dual voltage, so all I need are plug adapters. I use the hotel hair dryer (tho I have a dual voltage one, too). Plug adapters are cheap. I have a ton of European ones and a few others.

My son bought a voltage converter for his toothbrush at a Brookstone.

When's the last time you stayed at a hotel that didn't have a hair dryer?

All you need are plug adapters that you can get from dealextreme.com for $2 or so. Typically you really only need one, because you can usually charge everything else from the laptop, but even if you can't you can charge them one at a time if you have to.

-David

A dual converter that has a switch for up to 50 watts and the other position is for higher watt items like hair dryers. Be advised though that if the hair dryer is not rated for 50 Hz you can burn it out if used with any regularity.

Most devices these days are multi-voltage and will handle anything from 100 to 250 volts. Most modern electronics are usually multi-voltage. Interestingly enough some devices such as Sonicare are only available in 120 volt or 230 volt but not universal.

The best type voltage converter for stepping down 220/240 has two settings. One for 50 watts for small stuff, one for 1875 or 2000 watts for heating appliances like hair dryers, water kettles, irons. You wil still need a plug adapter for the foreign outlet because the converters prongs are not long enough to fit in the round recessed Euro outlets. Converters only take two prong US plugs so you also need an adapter to fit your US three prong plugs down to two prong, commonly found at any hardware store or even Walgreens. Converters get hot so give it a rest, don't use more than an hour at a time and unplug when not in use.

Are you referring to this product?

Reading bad reviews from Amazon, it seems this thing melts or blows fuses if you try to run hair dryers or other heating appliances. Actually sounds quite dangerous.

To step down 2000 watts of power you are going to need a pretty hefty transformer. Something like this.

I am aware that voltage converters are not transformers, but a converter serves well enough for average traveller's gear. Transformers are too large and heavy to be practical to pack.

The best kind of converter has two settings.

One setting allows high enough wattage to handle today's 1875 watt hair dryers and other heating-up appliances; the other setting is 50 watts for the small stuff.

Also needed is a foreign plug adapter with the correct prongs for the electric
outlets. Even if your voltage converter has the right prongs, in Europe the outlets are recessed so the converter prongs will not reach and you still need the adapter.

When you go to plug your US plug into the foreign adapter, it only has two slots. If you have US three prong plugs, you need a US grounding adapter that takes your three prong plug down to two prongs. This is the same kind of grounding adapter used in older homes to enable three prong
plugs to be inserted into old fashioned two prong outlets, easy to find in any hardware store.

The cheap high-wattage voltage converters should only be used with hair dryers or curling irons -- essentially pure heating appliances only. I'm not 100% sure, but I think they work by using a diode to convert the 240v AC to a half-wave output. This will really foul up any electronic device, and lots of items (like electric toothbrushes or shavers) have electronics in them now.

Virtually all electronic items have multi-voltage adapters, so you just need the plug adapter.

If you need to power something that's electronic but doesn't a universal adapter (microwave oven, for example) you'll need the expensive and heavy transformer.

If you just need a hairdryer, you're better off just getting a dual-voltage hairdryer.

I'm headed to the S Pacific (Sydney, New Zealand, Fiji) for a couple of weeks. Was wondering if it's worth taking a power strip and that way only having to worry about one adapter. and gives us multiple outlets since it's a group of four.

I do this when I travel. As long as you make sure all of your equipment can work at both 110v and 220v, you should be fine.

I decided to buy the Monster Cable 6-outlet power strip for this purpose, which is overpriced but nice and compact. It is helping power my laptop in Sydney as I type this.

As long as it's just a straight power strip. If you plug a surge-suppressing strip rated for 120v into a 240v outlet, it may blow.

Very good point... It is almost impossible to find a power strip which doesn't have a surge-surpresser on it these days. One of the reasons I went with the Monster Cable strip besides its compact size is that there were reviews for it that made it clear that it did work.

I should note that I also travel with two other power-related items:
1) A ground removal plug that you can find at any hardware store


2) A small three-to-one plug device



I rarely use either, but they take little room and can be a lifesaver when I do end up needing them.