I’m going to Korea tomorrow to get my daughter. I’m in the United States.
While I know my laptop computer can be plugged in overseas, I’m not sure about the camcorder and portable DVD player I’m taking.
Electricity in Korea, South is 220 Volts, alternating at 60 cycles per second.
How can I tell? Is there something on the power adapter that will tell me?
What should I look for?
Somewhere in the area of the battery or recharger should be a small plate or sticker which reads something like, “AC 110-220 volts” or some such. If it reads that, go for it. If it cannot be plugged into a 220 circuit, it will read “AC 110-120 volts” or something like that.
On the same plate or sticker, it’ll also list the frequency range it can use. The US uses 60 Hz, but most of the rest of the world uses 50 Hz. If it can handle a broad range of voltages, it can probably also handle different frequencies, but check to be sure.
if it can use 110 or 220, as well as being labeled, there would possibly be a be a switch to select which voltage; remember to switch it appropriately there and on return.
Often, if it’s a transformer to convert from the mains 110-240 V to the applicance’s lower voltage, the transformer automatically detects the mains voltage and adjusts its operation.
My experience is that the devices that you are likely to carry around the world (like laptops and cameras) are designed to work with any voltage. It’s only those that are likely to stay in one country that have a fixed voltage. (I bought a scanner in the US earlier this year, and took it to Australia with me. I then found that I needed to buy a 240V to 110V transformer to use it there. I guess most people don’t carry scanners around with them as they travel.)
Agree, look on the adapter. They almost always have the specs written right on them.
FWIW I have traveled a lot in the last few years and have been able to use two different laptops, three different camcorders, several different cell phone chargers in Egypt and Europe, all 220v 50Hz. The only thing that wouldn’t work on 220v was my son’s Nintendo DS Lite.
I have never been to Asia but in many bathrooms in European hotels there is a 110v outlet usually labeled “Shavers Only” that you can use to charge electronics that don’t like 220v.
that is if the devices are recent and have that feature. camcorders and dvd players last for years and could be older without that feature.
I’m dense, so I will paste what some of my equipment says on the plug adapter:
DVD Player(portable)
Input: 100-240V 50/60hz
Laptop:
Input: 100-240V 50/60hz
Uh, our camcorder is packed, but this one is it:
JVC Averio
I am guessing all these work then, right?
Yeah, those will all be fine pretty much everywhere. Poking around a bit, it looks like this is the AC adapter that comes with your camera, and it’s 100-240, 50/60 also.
You will probably still need a physical adapter, to be able to match your prongs to the Korean outlets, but those are about five bucks, and can be bought in electronics or department stores anywhere that ever sees tourists.
I’m in Canada, but if I could get it at Radio Shack I’m sure you guys must be able to get it from someplace similar. Before I took a trip to Ireland a few years ago I bought a multi-plug adapter for not very much money. It has prongs of various shapes and spacings on it to cover a lot of different countries. You could probably grab one of those before you left and it would probably be fairly likely one of the plugs would fit. Note that what I got doesn’t have a transformer, so anything plugged into it would need to handle the voltage/frequency itself.
Thanks. We have these.