When traveling to Europe from North America, do I need to purchase a different power strip?
- By
- Aparna Patel
- |
- 4 Aug, 2023
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The seller of that specific item has since answered a question stating that “The Voltage Range of this power strip is 100-240V“. Assuming you trust the seller / manufacturer claims the voltage shouldn’t be a problem for the power strip itself, though of course you’ll need to ensure that all devices you plug in to it are rated for 240V.
Your power strip is rated at 125V and has overvoltage protection. 230V is clearly an overvoltage for a 125V device, so your strip should not work.
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Since the power strip voltage rating is too low for European voltages, leave it at home. It might be fine, might not, and peace of mind is worth at least $50.
There are purpose-built travel power strips that are rated for Europe. Google ‘travel power strip’ (without the quote marks).
Here’s an example:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01I5R1LNO/
Note: This adaptor isn’t for high-power use. If you want to plug in a high-power thing e.g. hairdryer, you should use a hairdryer rated for 240 VAC, and a simple plug adaptor, and plug directly into the European wall.
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It’s worth treating this as 2 separate devices – a USB charger, and a power board.
The USB charger is simple – it’ll work fine in Europe. It specifically states that it’ll handle 100-240 volts, which means that it’s designed to work in all European countries (plus all other countries around the world!)
The power board itself is a different story. It states that it’s rated for “1250W (125V 10A)”. Power in European countries is ~220 volts, not 125 volts, so the question becomes can I use a power board designed for 125 volts in a country that uses 220 volts, and the answer is ‘maybe’.
Without getting too deep into electrical theory, the difference between a piece of wire (which is basically what this is) that is designed to handle 125 volts and one that is designed to handle 240 volts is the thickness of the insulation around the wired. Google will tell you why this is the case, but simply put the higher the voltage passing through a piece of wire, the thicker the insulation around the wire needs to be.
Given the types of loads you will likely be using with this board, odds are that the insulation it includes is “good enough”, although it may or may not actually meet the European legal requirements for 240 volt insulation.
Presuming you only intend to use low-power devices like mobile chargers and laptops then I would not expect you to have any issues with this device, but technically it may not meet the legal requirements to use it in Europe, and could potentially be a safely risk as a result.
The question of why would it states that the USB charger in the device supports working on 240 volts when the board itself is only rated at 125 volts is something you would need to ask the manufacturer…
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For a product like this with conversion to USB, switches and protection I would not use it outside its rated input. Much simpler to buy a product rated for 240V.
If all your chargers are 240V input rated then the easiest way is to buy enough plug adapters for the number of devices you need to charge simultaneously. One charger with multiple USB outputs and a travel adapter for it, and a second for a laptop charger (assuming that charger is 240V rated).
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You don’t need that much hardware for regular electronic gadgets.
I (canadian) only bring a couple of plug adapters and a couple of cables (usb and apple).
All my gadgets (phone, watch, kindle, laptop, camera chargers) are all rated 110-220v.
I’ve been (recently) to France, Italy and Spain and did not have any problems.
It is basically a complete unknown whether that would work with 240V AC or not, for example it has a switch, who knows what’s that rated for. There are any number of power strips on Amazon (example there’s a table for related devices, look at those too) rated for 240V, go with those.
However, if you don’t need a ground (which very often you don’t) then the MOGICS Bagel / Donut and its spiritual successor (and licensee), the upcoming Maru (& Masa) Kickstarter is vastly superior to these devices because of their size and international adapter.
Credit:stackoverflow.com‘
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