Adapter for Overseas Battery Charging (Page 2): Just an FYI. Many (most?) hotels supply a hair dryer and they are almost always NOT used in the bathroom. They only work in another...

Gatorcoach Loc: New Jersey

JimGray wrote:

You will probably find many hotels have irons and/or hair dryers.

Just an FYI. Many (most?) hotels supply a hair dryer and they are almost always NOT used in the bathroom. They only work in another outlet in the room.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

MaryFran wrote:

My husband and I are planning a trip to Portugal and Spain late April. Haven't been out of the States for 50 years. Naturally, I am taking my camera, a Nikon D7100, and will need to charge the batteries a number of times. What, exactly, do I need to buy for an adapter? Thanks.

When ever I travel I call the folks I am going to travel with. For example, I call Viking and asked if I needed an adapter on their ship, they said no, I would not need an adapter.
So, call your travel person, hotel, or tour company.

Tote1940 Loc: Dallas

MaryFran wrote:

My husband and I are planning a trip to Portugal and Spain late April. Haven't been out of the States for 50 years. Naturally, I am taking my camera, a Nikon D7100, and will need to charge the batteries a number of times. What, exactly, do I need to buy for an adapter? Thanks.

Non photographic tip
A friend of ours, in same advanced age range, well experienced traveler taught us this trick
Take along a couple of rechargable flaslights. Placed them on path to bathroom and where luggage or other objects may make crash when walking at night.
Also a regular extension cord with plug adapter to recharge batteries in daytime Our flashlights recharge on 220 or 11O volts and cycles do not matter Have a great trip!

foathog Loc: Greensboro, NC

MaryFran wrote:

My husband and I are planning a trip to Portugal and Spain late April. Haven't been out of the States for 50 years. Naturally, I am taking my camera, a Nikon D7100, and will need to charge the batteries a number of times. What, exactly, do I need to buy for an adapter? Thanks.

Do you have a Batteries Plus store close by??? give them a call

aphelps Loc: Central Ohio

MaryFran wrote:

Okay. No, I will do without a dryer and an iron. I will just look like I walked out of Appalachia.

Hair dryers and other heating appliances usually don't have dual voltage settings so a converter adapter is required. Just make sure the wattage limit on the adapter is higher than watts drawn by your hair dryer. Look for 1500 to 2000 watts or more.

MrPhotog

MaryFran wrote:

Thanks. I have put two of these in our cart. The extension cord is not available. The only things we will have to charge are my batteries. We will have to buy disposable phones since our Tracfone phones don't work overseas. Have to research that. Not sure about charging disposable ones.

Extension cord should not be a problem. Bring a US extension cord. You probably have one at home already.

Put the socket converter on the plug end of the extension cord and your items plug into the socket as they normally would.

If your extension cord has a triple socket, you can plug use it to charge three items at one time using just one wall socket and the socket adapter.

If you buy a disposable phone in a foreign country it should come with a charger compatible with the local electric supply. Hopefully the instructions have English pages.

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

MaryFran wrote:

My husband and I are planning a trip to Portugal and Spain late April. Haven't been out of the States for 50 years. Naturally, I am taking my camera, a Nikon D7100, and will need to charge the batteries a number of times. What, exactly, do I need to buy for an adapter? Thanks.

Take a small outlet strip with surge protection so you can plug in enough items at one time.

47greyfox Loc: on the edge of the Colorado front range

bajadreamer wrote:

We traveled extensively in both Portugal and Spain... (show quote)

My wife and I try and take two out of the country trips a year. She told me we had to catch up while we can. What the bajadreamer has proposed is “exactly” what we use plus a couple cheap and simple two prong universals from REI. The power cube extension is a life saver. Most usb chargeable batteries and devices (like phones, for example) can handle higher charge rates than in previous models. I recommend you buy adapters/chargers that can support the higher rates. Enjoy your trip!

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

MaryFran wrote:

My husband and I are planning a trip to Portugal and Spain late April. Haven't been out of the States for 50 years. Naturally, I am taking my camera, a Nikon D7100, and will need to charge the batteries a number of times. What, exactly, do I need to buy for an adapter? Thanks.

We were in Spain, France, and Italy, back in October. All our chargers and power adapters worked fine on 220/240 volts @ 50Hz with the plug adapter linked in the first response here.

We never travel with anything electrical or electronic that isn't marked as "100-240 volts, 50/60 Hz AC". Most hotels and VRBO or Air B&B type places have irons and hair dryers, anyway. The tourist apartment we stayed in Barcelona did. Our cruise ship supported all voltages in the staterooms.

Do secure your valuables. Pick pockets are everywhere. Several people around us were hit, including our local tour guide in Aix en Provence.

Our T-Mobile iPhones worked fine at low data speeds for emails and text messaging. Phone calls were $.25/minute. Faster data plans are available for reasonable fees. We did find that our iPhones kept trying to upload our smartphone photos to iCloud, draining the batteries rather rapidly. I turned off that feature until we got back to where we could plug into AC.

Fredrick Loc: Former NYC, now San Francisco Bay Area

JimGray wrote:

Be careful with the hair dryer. I have seen several instances of hair dryers getting ruined by the wrong voltage.

Most hair dryers have a switch for 120 or 240 volts.

BebuLamar

Fredrick wrote:

Most hair dryers have a switch for 120 or 240 volts.

I haven't had one that has such a switch. Some are dual voltage but many are not.

Fredrick Loc: Former NYC, now San Francisco Bay Area

BebuLamar wrote:

I haven't had one that has such a switch. Some are dual voltage but many are not.

I guess they’re just on the newer models. We recently bought two and unbeknownst to us the came with those switches.

KLambar Loc: New Jersey

When I went to Germany in Nov. 2022 I went with this BESTEK Universal Travel Adapter, Worldwide Plug Adapter 110-220V to 110V Voltage Converter with 6A 4-Port USB Charging 3 AC Sockets and EU/UK/AU/US/in International Outlet Adapter(White) on Amazon as I used it to charge iPhone, camera batteries & iPad with no problem.

Burkley Loc: Park City

It’s a rare year that I’m not in Europe for a few weeks. You do not need an electrical converter for your chargers. It has been over a decade that chargers were not worldwide compatible. Promise.

Go onto Amazon and get a six pack of US female to Europe male adapters for a buck or two a piece. That’s it. Don’t waste time or space for a 220-110 volts converter. They are a total waste of money for battery/phone/iPad chargers.

Also most hair dryers are also 110/220/240 compatible now, but your hotels and cruise suite will have them so don’t bother taking one.

Burkley Loc: Park City

I just saw something about power strips. Most power strips are not 110/220V compatible. They are one or the other. You can buy them 110/220 compatible but you have to look for it specifically. Anker makes some great 110/220 compatible strips.