Electrical Adapters For Deep Sockets

take 2 normal ones and piggyback them.

Yes but....they pull apart leaving one in the socket.

Over the last five summers, I've made three trips to Europe (Germany, Austria, Czech Republic), stayed 49 nights in 19 places. I have used one of an adapters similar to these everywhere, without a problem. They have always been long enough. (Note: these cannot be stacked) I've stayed in small places, not multi-starred chain hotels.

Before that I used a narrow 2 pin adapter like the one sold on this website. That adapter was about 5/8" long. It had an "omega" shaped opening that would accept either American plug blades or European pins, so you could stack two of them, but I never needed to.

I have a grounding plug on my netbook power supply, so I chose the cylindrical grounding adapter. The barrel on mine is 19 cm (about 13/16") long and protrudes about 5 cm (3/16") out of the face of the receptacle.

The Schuko style receptacle is used in all western European countries with the exception (I believe) of Switzerland and Italy. I've seen pictures of receptacles used in some installations, but not all, in Italy that have Schuko as well as traditional Italian sockets.

I once (2002) found, in a hardware store in Germany, an adapter that was made to fit in the deeper recess and take a plug with a shorter extension. The male end of that adapter was the same length as the one I use, so I expect that what I use is the "longer" one to which you refer.

I've also had to go to a hardware store in Europe and England a couple of times to get an adapter to work. It's the easy way to get the wiring right.

Of course, you could get a generic set of adapters online, and I'm sure that'd work.

I just use two if I need to. You can tape them together so they don't pull apart, but it's but not like you can't just pull out the second one if they do. The sockets aren't so deep that you can't reach it.

Bruce,

I have bought several different brands/styles of adapters over the last few years. I have the separate style in a bag too.

Ive never had any issue with any of my adapters reaching into the recessed outlets. If you are concerned, there are some out there that exends further for that style of outlet.

Everytime i travel i look at whats out there for smaller/better and with USB(s) outlets.

happy trails.

I've never had a problem with an adapter and making the electrical connection. It's when I try to retrieve the adapter that the little bugger preferred stay put despite the efforts of my fat hands. Doubling adapters and securing with tape may be fine. Lee's solution is what I remembered but could not find in the Helpline search function. Thank you so much Lee!

Bruce,

I've never had a problem just using the normal two-pin Euro (Schuko) Plug Adaptors, as they fit into the recessed socket and are then flush with the surface. It's sometimes a bit tricky getting them out without Pliers, but I usually manage. I've never had any occasion to use two of them, but as the others suggested you could always tape them together with Duct Tape.

Cheers!

Field tested Lee's suggested extended electrical adapter with grip ring and it worked great. No need to fuss with nail clippers to dig shorter adapters (zap!). Thanks so much Lee. [I added to this older thread as it may be helpful for folks going to Europe in the coming months.]

"you could always tape them together with Duct Tape."

There are two kinds of problems in the world, those that can be fixed with duct tape and those that can be fixed with WD40.

I travel enough and have enough good stuff that I worry about that I purchased some of these. Unlike the little skinny ones these fit the socket correctly and are grounded. They never lean over and fall out.

http://www.amazon.com/Grounded-American-European-German-Adapter/dp/B0038L54ZO/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398446827&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=schuulko+adapter

I also have a few of those plugs adapters which I use because I have a power supply with a grounding (3 prong) plug. But if you have a two-prong, polarized plug, these adapters can defeat the safety provisions provided by the polarized plug.

Lee, I am no expert on this but since European circuits do not have polarized outlets, its not the adapter that defeats the US device, its the design of the European power supply? Just guessing.

EDIT
And now I cant remember what country we were in, but I think it was France. I ran across an outlet that the cheap little adapter would not go in. I got down and looked in the hole and saw that one of the two prong holes was blocked. Then I noticed a mechanism on the side of the outlet recess that when pushed opened the blocked hole. What this did was restrict the use of the outlet unless you used a grounded plug. Previous to that experience I had run into a couple of outlets were the cheap little adapters did not fit into the outlet tightly enough to carry the weight of the charger transformer that I was using and they kept falling out of the wall. I overcame all the problems but decided it was time to purchase something well designed that wouldn't give me problems.

If all else fails, reception at your hotel probably will have an extensive collection of plug adapters that are exactly the right type, those left in the wall sockets by prior guests.