Does anyone have a voltage converter that they are happy with? There are so many to choose from and need to ensure that hair dryer will not fry on trip.
All hotels on the Classic Italy Tour have hair dryers in the rooms.
If your battery chargers for cameras etc. were produced in the last few years they should accept 110 and 220 voltages. The device should reflect if either voltage is acceptable. All you will probably need are adapters for the plugs.
Hair driers are high wattage. Chances are if you use a converter, you will fry the converter. I think you're better off buying a dual voltage hair drier.
I you must use a converter, buy one that is rated with high enough wattage to handle the drier. Look for a wattage or amperage rating on the drier. If it's rated in amps multiply this by 110 to get the wattage rating. So if it's 12 amps you would need a converter rated at 1320 watts or greater.
However, as the previous poster said, hair driers are pretty much a given in all Tauck hotels. My wife has invested in a dual voltage curling iron. We never take a converter (though we own one), only adapters.
Amazon has pages and pages of converters- but they are all for low wattage devices with outlets only for phone and tablet chargers or have USB ports. You might find a few of the small ones "rated" for higher wattage, but I would not trust them at all. They are just too small especially to provide 1200 to 1500 watts or more needed CONTINUOUSLY by a typical hair dyer or curling iron. What you need is a high wattage converter like this step-down transformer. Most of the high wattage units are the size of a shoe box, darn heavy (unit at link above is 21 lbs!!), and can cost $100 or much more
The specs on one of the smaller devices appeared to be adequate, but in the description was this:
"NOTE: Light Duty Converter for Travel use only. Do not use any Household appliances, tools or Hair straightners etc."
I suspect many of these products are (dangerously) mis-labelled. Many also include disclaimers such as this:
"Legal Disclaimer
Actual product packaging and materials may contain more and different information than what is shown on our website. We recommend that you do not rely solely on the information presented and that you always read labels, warnings, and directions before using or consuming a product. Please see our full disclaimer below."
And here is a typical (one star) review of one of these converters:
"My wife and I were heading to Barcelona, Spain for 10 days and the apartment-hotel we were staying at reportedly didn't have built-in hair dryers with the room. Before I bought this I measured the voltage draw at the outlet of her Conair 1875 hair dryer. At the highest fan speed and with the hot air element on the MOST it drew was ~1,480 watts at 12 amps. Should be fine, right? We get to Spain last week, made sure the switch on the converter was set to HI (not LO), plugged everything in, and it started no problem.
But by the time the first minute went by (it takes her about 4-5 minutes to completely dry her hair) she noticed the dryer was losing power, like it was slowing down. So I stood there watching and listening as she continued and yep, by the second or third minute her hair dryer had seemingly painfully slowed to a crawl and the converter was ridiculously hot."
If they didn't stop using it, no doubt smoke and fire would have followed!
Note- 12 amps is a lot of current. Typical US house wiring and outlets are only rated at 15 amps. If you feel you must take your own hair dryer, it is best to buy one rated for both 120V and 220V, then you won't need to worry about a converter or wattage. Also, note that many European hotels have a 110V outlet in the bathroom, but it too is not typically rated for a hair dryer- just small stuff like electric razors.
Comments
If your battery chargers for cameras etc. were produced in the last few years they should accept 110 and 220 voltages. The device should reflect if either voltage is acceptable. All you will probably need are adapters for the plugs.
I you must use a converter, buy one that is rated with high enough wattage to handle the drier. Look for a wattage or amperage rating on the drier. If it's rated in amps multiply this by 110 to get the wattage rating. So if it's 12 amps you would need a converter rated at 1320 watts or greater.
However, as the previous poster said, hair driers are pretty much a given in all Tauck hotels. My wife has invested in a dual voltage curling iron. We never take a converter (though we own one), only adapters.
Amazon has pages and pages of converters- but they are all for low wattage devices with outlets only for phone and tablet chargers or have USB ports. You might find a few of the small ones "rated" for higher wattage, but I would not trust them at all. They are just too small especially to provide 1200 to 1500 watts or more needed CONTINUOUSLY by a typical hair dyer or curling iron. What you need is a high wattage converter like this step-down transformer. Most of the high wattage units are the size of a shoe box, darn heavy (unit at link above is 21 lbs!!), and can cost $100 or much more
The specs on one of the smaller devices appeared to be adequate, but in the description was this:
"NOTE: Light Duty Converter for Travel use only. Do not use any Household appliances, tools or Hair straightners etc."
I suspect many of these products are (dangerously) mis-labelled. Many also include disclaimers such as this:
"Legal Disclaimer
Actual product packaging and materials may contain more and different information than what is shown on our website. We recommend that you do not rely solely on the information presented and that you always read labels, warnings, and directions before using or consuming a product. Please see our full disclaimer below."
And here is a typical (one star) review of one of these converters:
"My wife and I were heading to Barcelona, Spain for 10 days and the apartment-hotel we were staying at reportedly didn't have built-in hair dryers with the room. Before I bought this I measured the voltage draw at the outlet of her Conair 1875 hair dryer. At the highest fan speed and with the hot air element on the MOST it drew was ~1,480 watts at 12 amps. Should be fine, right? We get to Spain last week, made sure the switch on the converter was set to HI (not LO), plugged everything in, and it started no problem.
But by the time the first minute went by (it takes her about 4-5 minutes to completely dry her hair) she noticed the dryer was losing power, like it was slowing down. So I stood there watching and listening as she continued and yep, by the second or third minute her hair dryer had seemingly painfully slowed to a crawl and the converter was ridiculously hot."
If they didn't stop using it, no doubt smoke and fire would have followed!
Note- 12 amps is a lot of current. Typical US house wiring and outlets are only rated at 15 amps. If you feel you must take your own hair dryer, it is best to buy one rated for both 120V and 220V, then you won't need to worry about a converter or wattage. Also, note that many European hotels have a 110V outlet in the bathroom, but it too is not typically rated for a hair dryer- just small stuff like electric razors.