Foreign power and battery charging

Factual Questions
1

I’ll be travelling in Europe in a few weeks (UK and France). The guy at the Apple store said I don’t need a voltage converter to charge my laptop, just a plug adapter.

Is this true? What about the rechargable battery for my digital camera?

2

Most rechargers nowadays can work from voltages between 100 and 250.

Just check the markings on the actual charger to be sure.

You’ll need two adapters the French use a different socket than the British.

3

The battery charger for my camera works fine on both 110 and 240 volts, and many laptops are used by the kind of person who travels around the world. The writing on these things is often microscopic, and in black on black, but they should say what range of volts they will accept.

4

I highly recommend one of these if you can find that design in the US- it adapts from any socket to any plug, and if you have USB chargeable items it can do them too. Doesn’t change voltage, of course.

5

Thanks.

I already picked up an adapter set from Radio Shack, so I’ve got that covered.

6

Most modern electronics (computers and battery chargers) are designed to work around the world. They will need plug adapters, but not transformers.

Other items, like hairdryers, need a transformer.

7

I’ve gone to Europe with just a 2-prong adapter, and had no problem with my laptop, camera recharger, and iPod recharger. But take more than one adapter, so you can charge more than one thing at a time.

8

I’m still annoyed about the time my mom and I went to Ireland. Before we left, a guy at Radio Shack sold her an adapter (with a transformer) and assured her that it would work with her camcorder, when in fact it wouldn’t. And then, we didn’t realize that we could have just used a straight-through plug adapter until we were well out of any city where we could have bought one. So we ended up with about five minutes of video from the entire trip.

9

Better still, a multi-socket strip.

10

look at the markings on the power supply. If it says “100-240 VAC, 50/60 Hz” it’s good worldwide, with just the plug adapter.

most wall warts and power bricks are like this now.