">We ask our travelers two questions in order to prepare them for travel overseas with electrical appliances:

Question One: What country or countries are you traveling to?

Question Two: What appliances are you bringing?


Question One will help determine what outlet(s) you will see and what the voltage is at your particular destination.  Please click here and scroll to the destination(s) of your journey.  Jot down the configuration of the outlet you will encounter.  The type of outlet will determine what prongs to utilize in your adapter plug set.  Also, notice the foreign voltage at the particular destination(s).  The majority of voltage you will see in the world is up to 240v outside our North American continent.

Question Two will help determine if you need a converter such as our Voltage Valet Auto Switching Converter. If you plan to take an appliance that is capable of working on high and low voltage, then you will not need a converter at all.  (PackingLight's Dual Voltage Appliances for example...).  You only need to utilize our Travelon Universal Adaptor Set, TravelSmart's several multi-adaptor units or Voltage Valet's individual adapters in order to get into the foreign outlet configuration.

If you bring an appliance that is not dual voltage then you will need a converter.  Please check your high wattage appliances such as hair dryers, irons, steamers and coffee makers and look for the switch to set to the high 240 voltage.  If they are dual voltage, they will have a switch clearly visible indicating 120v or 240v.  Also, check your low wattage appliances (appliances whose wattage is less than 50 watts) such as curling irons, shavers, battery chargers for camcorders, digital cameras, IPod's, Notebook computers, shavers, and oral hygiene devices for an indication of whether or not they are capable of working on high voltage.  These appliances commonly will have a list of electrical specifications etched on the appliance itself or on the battery chargers.  The etching will say, "120v/240v" if the appliance is dual voltage.  It will say 110v or 120v if the appliance is not dual voltage.

We have found that 98% of the appliances that possess a battery charger are dual voltage and will simply need an adaptor plug to get into the foreign outlets.  Keep in mind, these low wattage appliances do not have a switch for converting foreign voltage such as with dual voltage, high wattage appliance like a hair dryer.  These type of dual voltage, low wattage appliances have no switch and reduce the 240 voltage automatically.  Again, 98% of the battery chargers for laptops, digital camera's, video cameras, men's shavers, IPod's, etc. are DUAL VOLTAGE and DO NOT NEED A CONVERTER.

For a better understanding of these sometimes complex foreign electrical matters, please visit our friends at Voltage Valet.   It is important for travelers to understand they will harm their appliances by using a converter when they do not need one.  PackingLight urges you to make sure you check your appliances well and research what voltage and outlets you will encounter along your trip.  Once you have completed your research and determined your electrical needs, please come back to PackingLight to acquire these revolutionary products.