Hello everyone!
I am going to travel within Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, and France. Can anyone post a link to an actual plug adapter that I need to buy for these countries? I would like to buy it on Amazon, as I have Amazon Prime and I need it to get here by Thursday! Thanks!!
Chelsea
All those countries use the Europe adapter. Search for that at Amazon and get whichever you want. You don't need to spend a lot of money on it.
Hi Chelsea, you need a two-prong adapter that looks like this -- https://store.ricksteves.com/shop/p/european-power-adapter. Have a great trip!
The adapter above is the "Europlug" adapter which will fit into the receptacles everywhere in Europe. However, it is not grounding and is limited by electrical codes in Europe to applications drawing 2½ amps (about 600W) or less. This is fine for most electronic with two blade plugs.
Appliances drawing more than 600W, should have a three prong (grounding) US plug and this kind of adapter. This adapter will work in all European countries except in Switzerland and some in Italy
I'll make it simple for you.
Look at the current plugs on your device chargers. If they have three prongs, get the adapters Lee referred to. If they only have two, the following will work fine.
If you don't like these, just look for ones that look like these and offer Prime shipping.
As for the "Europe Plug Adapter" linked above, the Amazon page says it is "CE Certified". You should know that. in most cases, CE does not certify anything. The manufacturer analyzes and tests the product for conformity with regulations, and the manufacturer certifies that the product conforms. In the case of these adapters, they are not completely safe. They will accept American polarized plugs (one blade wider than the other). The polarized plug is on the device because UL has required that, for safety reasons, it should be properly connected to a polarized power source. but this adapter allows the appliance to be connected to an unpolarized European power source, so the safety provisions of UL are defeated.
Chelsea, I, and most of the people on this board, use the two prong European plug adapter. I personally use the ones from Rick Steves. I have never had a problem. I doubt anyone else who uses them will say they had a problem in the countries you will be visiting. We have, as a group, stayed in all the countries you mention and in all types of accommodations.
chelsea,
In addition to Plug Adaptors, you will also have to check EACH device you're travelling with to determine whether it's designed for operation on the European 220 VAC. Any devices designed only for 115 VAC will self-destruct in spectacular fashion (possibly with smoke and sparks) as soon as you try to use them in Europe. That may also knock out power to a portion of the hotel, which will annoy the hotel staff immensely! I HAVE seen that happen - I was going to "educate" the offending party, but she didn't seem interested so the hotel owner and I just shrugged our shoulders and let it go.
