Travel

Voltage adapter help

  • Last Updated:
  • Jul 17th, 2018 1:28 am
Jr. Member
Oct 23, 2006
187 posts
12 upvotes
Toronto

Voltage adapter help

My wife and I are traveling to Europe and Australia in the next year and a half, and I need to buy a voltage adapter for her hair dryer.

She has the Panasonic Nanoe EH-NA27-K, and although it is marketed as a travel hair dryer, it is not dual voltage... Thanks Panasonic.

According to the website the specs are as follows:
125V - 60Hz / 1400 W

I'm looking to buy are decent voltage converter so she can use her hair dryer when we travel.

I've looked on Amazon, and searched for general reviews on these converters, and so many of them mention that they're not recommended for hair dryers.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike
5 replies
Deal Addict
User avatar
Feb 14, 2009
1280 posts
518 upvotes
mike28j wrote: My wife and I are traveling to Europe and Australia in the next year and a half, and I need to buy a voltage adapter for her hair dryer.

She has the Panasonic Nanoe EH-NA27-K, and although it is marketed as a travel hair dryer, it is not dual voltage... Thanks Panasonic.

According to the website the specs are as follows:
125V - 60Hz / 1400 W

I'm looking to buy are decent voltage converter so she can use her hair dryer when we travel.

I've looked on Amazon, and searched for general reviews on these converters, and so many of them mention that they're not recommended for hair dryers.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike
You have at least 3 options, listed in order of convenience:

1. get 220V hair drier with European plug.
Also get "geometry" adapter Europe-Australia
("geometry" adapter means no voltage change, just for
different plug geometry)

2. get "half-wave" voltage adapter. Such adapter
gets normal sinusoidal electrical voltage and
transmits only first half-of it.
The peak voltage is still ~200V but effective power is
like for 120-140V. This is ONLY for heat appliances.
Not for motors or electronics.
Such adapter is relatively small, even for 1400W

3. get real transformer 220-to-125V. For 1400W you need at least
1800-2000W rated transformer and it will be several kilos of metal!
It would be least convenient option.

For all option you still need "geometry" adapter(s).

Cheers!

P.S.
Option-4, some hotels provide hair drier
Option-5, Accurately suggest change wife's cut to go without hair-drier for some time.
(Accurately..... prepare to run)
Jr. Member
Oct 23, 2006
187 posts
12 upvotes
Toronto
I'm at work and I definately laughed out loud at option 5, thats awesome.

It will likely be cheaper for me to find an voltage converter than buy a new hair dryer (that she'll like).

Does that mean a product like: https://www.conair.com/c/32a73i94/1875w ... er-set/385 will work? It will only be used for a hair dryer.

Thanks again for your help.
Deal Addict
Jun 15, 2015
2879 posts
2271 upvotes
Toronto
Have ruined many hair dryers, flat irons and curling wands over the years I find that it's gotten better in terms of voltage adapters (I thankfully haven't killed anything in the last 3-4 years). Not home right now but I've purchased most of them through Amazon.

If you are going to spend most of your time in Europe I would probably just purchase a new dryer or flat iron/wand. Mind you, like your wife my "Travel" one is not as great/nowhere as expensive as the one I have at home but it does the trick and is cheaper then replacing my North American one.
Deal Addict
User avatar
Feb 14, 2009
1280 posts
518 upvotes
mike28j wrote: I'm at work and I definately laughed out loud at option 5, thats awesome.

It will likely be cheaper for me to find an voltage converter than buy a new hair dryer (that she'll like).

Does that mean a product like: https://www.conair.com/c/32a73i94/1875w ... er-set/385 will work? It will only be used for a hair dryer.

Thanks again for your help.
>> laughed out loud at option 5

:-) I had this conversation several weeks ago!

Yes, this Conair adapter looks right for the job. the set of plug
adapters is also very useful. Amazon has it for 56 CAD.
Read reviews: several people complain on plug adapters
do not fit. It can happen when prong diameter differ from country to country.

Also there is a complain that iron did not heated up.
Or they forgot to switch to HIGH setting or
there was some smart controller on this device that
does not like half-wave electricity.
The concern here if your hair drier (and hair iron? and curling tool?)
has some "smart" components and will refuse to work in old world.

Cheers!
Newbie
Jul 16, 2018
1 posts
If I'm not mistaken there are different several different plug/socket types in Europe, so I always bring an "universal" adapter to avoid any potential issues.

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