One adapter, one plain strip

Because the part of it that makes it a surge protector is built for one voltage. Many people explain it, and some people point out the detail that settles it: a plain extension lead is copper and does not care what voltage runs through it, but a strip with surge protection or a residual-current breaker contains components rated for the mains it was sold for — 120 V in North America, 230 V across Europe, Britain and much of the world — and on the other supply those components fail. One person blew theirs up in Europe, some people say it is a familiar story, and one person warns the failure can be fire rather than a bang. The plug adapter does nothing about this; it changes the shape of the pins and the electricity behind them is whatever the wall carries. Two things follow from people. First, your chargers do not care: one person points out the switching power supplies in phone and laptop chargers work on either voltage — the label on the brick, this page adds, says 100–240 V, so read it — and a plug adapter really is all those need. Second, the exceptions are things that heat: one person warns: do not put a heater, a coffee maker or a hairdryer — anything drawing more than about 800 watts — through a plug adapter, and one person says those behave very differently on the wrong supply. One person carries a deliberately plain strip with no surge circuitry for exactly this reason, and one person warns even a plain travel strip can have shutters that freeze or shatter when a mismatched plug is forced in. How to tell from the outside whether a given strip is safe for 230 V, and which models are, are not covered here — the label is the only answer this page has.

Many people say the same pair: one plug adapter for the country, and one strip whose label covers the voltage, so that a single adapter feeds every socket on the strip instead of buying an adapter per device. Some people add a power bank, which frees you from the wall for a phone altogether. People then argue about the strip itself. Some others say that if everything you carry charges by USB, a multi-port USB charger — a single brick with several ports, which one person says is now what their devices want — does the job with a fraction of the bulk, and one person says a full strip is only needed for international travel or for something that plugs in with a mains lead. One person charges phones from the laptop’s own ports; one says a strip’s built-in USB ports are low-powered and fine overnight but slow in a hurry. One person says a universal adapter beats a bulky strip for a light packer; one says a strip only helps once you have found a wall socket, and cannot conjure one. One person says buy a good one rather than the cheapest; one marks the strip so it is not mistaken for the airport’s; and one keeps a go-bag with a strip, a short network lead, headphones and a battery pack. Which brands, which amperage rating to look for, and how a strip fares at airport security are not covered here, beyond one person who keeps it in the carry-on and one who says screeners have seen stranger things.

People split, and the split is rendered below. Some people say rooms come up short: one or two sockets, several already taken by the lamp, the television and a phone, and others describe rooms in older buildings with two sockets between two people. Business travellers with a laptop, a phone and a tablet they must carry, and travellers with a medical device — one person names a sleep-apnoea machine — say the strip is not a luxury for them; one person with a family says the usual four to six sockets do not cover a family’s cameras and phones, and one says cruise cabins are worse. On the other side, one person says modern hotels provide ample sockets and USB ports, some people say if you need that many you are packing too much, and one says the answer is to bring fewer devices. Other discussions run the same argument. One person simply asks the front desk for a strip. The decider people give is how many things you must charge and how old the building is — and whether any of it is medical, in which case the strip goes in the bag and the voltage check matters twice.

Some people say a strip turns one contested socket into several, and others say the same for crowded terminals; people call it a small kindness and one says the same trick works in a lecture room with too few sockets. The social side is real: some people describe the gratitude it earns, and some people describe the person who objects when you unplug to board — some people say some people become possessive of a strip they do not own. Some people say the courtesy is simple: people ask before plugging in, you say when you are leaving, and one person marks the strip so nobody mistakes it for the airport’s. One person says the strip only helps strangers who use your plug type, so abroad it is largely yours. Some people joke about charging for the sockets, and argue it half-seriously; this page does not.

Some people say bring your own charger and plug it into a wall socket, or use a power bank, rather than a public USB port, and people’s own warnings give the reasons: a badly wired port can damage a cable or a device — one person had a cable fried in a hotel — and a USB port carries data as well as power, so a tampered one could in theory read or write to a phone. This page checked the second worry: the United States communications regulator and the FBI have both warned travellers off public USB ports and recommended a wall socket and your own cable or a power bank; the regulator has also said it knew of no confirmed real-world case, and modern phones ask before allowing data over a connection. So the advice costs nothing and the risk is small: if a phone asks whether to trust the connection or offers charge-only, choose charge-only. One person warns the wiring of old hotel sockets themselves can shock, and one says several sockets in a room may share one circuit, so a heater and a kettle and a strip full of chargers can trip it; how much a hotel circuit will take is not covered here.

Some people said yes, in the older discussions, and the people arguing against them are the more recent: some people say the wall jacks in hotel rooms are dead now in their experience — the socket remains, the switch behind it was removed — and some people agree; one person warns a lit status light does not mean the port carries data, and one person found the cable in the room had no clip. People for the cable say wifi collapses when the hotel is full and a wire does not; people against use their phone as a hotspot or the café downstairs, and one has not plugged in a cable for years. Since a new laptop may have no network socket without an adapter, one person warns, the cable is a bet on a building. Some people treat hotel wifi as untrusted and use a private connection; one person warns such software is restricted in some countries, which is a question for your destination and not this page. The rest of people’s kit — a short video cable for the room’s television, a spare drive, earplugs — is theirs to carry; how to unlock a television a hotel has locked comes up, and this page does not carry it.