Power Adapters And Converters for Overseas Travel.
I'm preparing for a trip overseas. I'll have my laptop (a fairly recent HP model), a digital music player, and my digital camera, and my wife will bring a hair dryer. I'm confused about the difference between power adapters and power converters. What should I get and how many should I take?
Elgin Smith
A power converter takes in the wall current and converts it to power settings that are safe for your hardware. The adapter simply allows you to plug your gear into the different-shaped plugs used in other countries.
I recently traveled to the U.K. and had to carry along a similar array of hardware, including two different portable gaming devices. I needed both a power converter and a power adapter.
You have to shop for an adapter that works with the plugs in the country you'll be in. If you visit several countries, you may need more than one, but you can buy universal kits that contain multiple adapters.
Converters are a tougher issue. There are a number of converters, some of which boast appealingly light weight in addition to high capacity. Read the fine print before buying. We've seen ultralight converters that advertise 1,800-watt capability and that work fine with hair dryers, but not with digital devices such as laptops or camera battery chargers.
Universal power bricks have made traveling much easier. On my trip, both the laptop and the camera battery charger worked with various voltage and AC cycles, so I didn't need multiple power converters. I did take one converter for use with other devices, such as my daughter's Nintendo DS Lite. Three of us carried iPods, but we could charge those off the laptop.
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