Hair Dryers 110/220
 

It seems the 220v to 110v converters for 1800w hair dryers are very expencive. Should we just buy a 220 one when we get to Europe this summer?

Thanks, JV

Hi Jon, I have found that many hairdryers that are sold in the US are dual voltage and can be used either way with just the flip of a switch. This does include many 1800 w dryers. Barb

Even if the hair dryer is dual voltage, don't forget to take outlet adaptors.

We picked up a hair dryer in England and then got one when we were in France. The one we got in France will work just about anywhere (may require an adapter in some places). My wife does take her dual voltage curling iron and uses it with an adapter. We found that the dual voltage hair dryers didn't work very well on high.

My Lady Wife got a 110/220 V 1800 W hairdryer at WalMart for under $10.00

((I))

Hair dryers are very inexpensive in Europe. If you need one and the local electricity doesn't match the one you have, just buy another one at the nearest appliance store. Sometimes you can find them for just a few euro. Even if they are cheap, they'll last more than long enough for your trip.

Converters are expensive and don't always work, as only a minority of converters can really handle the very heavy load of a hair dryer.

The problem with an 1800 watt hairdryer is that the electrical systems in many european hotels are old and cannot handle this wattage. You are likely to burn out the hairdryer - and the elecrticity in the room. (This is why so many hotel hair dryers in europe are wimpy - a standard US one blows the fuses).

Double check with your hotel - first if they have hair dryers - most do, then you won;t need to bring yours - and if their electrical system can handle 1800 watts.

(Note: this is also true of many apartments in europe).

Hi NYT,

That's why my LW will use it only on "Medium".

I don't understand two things (pardon the hijack):

Why wouldn't a dual voltage dryer work as well on 220V as on 110V? It would make sense to have two elements of equal resistance that are connected to the mains either in parallel or series, depending on the voltage switch setting.

Why would an American dryer strain a European hotel electrical system? For the same heat (watts), it draws half the current as a 110V device, and it's current that hurts stuff (such as wiring and fuses).

I don;t pretend to be an electrical engineer - in fact,, I don;t know any more than how to plug an appliance into the wall.

But I do know the first time I used my dual voltage hair dryer in europe it fried the hair dryer and the fuses for the room. The hotel elecrican gave me this explanation. And housekeeping lent me a wimpy hair dryer - and said the stronger ones would fry as mine had.

I have since asked in a bunch of other hotels - and all agreed. (A couple said I could use my hairdryer since the building was new - but confirmed that anything more than about 30 years old the wiring wouldn;t take that wattage.)

Sorry -

isn;t this the same reason that I had to have a electrical line run into my apartment for the living room/dining room AC? After consultation with the super and electrician they agreed than anything more than 14,000 BTU would blow the regular lines (the building is from 1925).

If you use the dual voltage dryer on low with 220 current it works the same as on high with 110. Then you just need an adaptor plug, which is very inexpensive. It certainly works a lot better than the hotel dryers.

The reason the hairdryer blew the fuses has nothing to do with the hairdryer being 1800w - it blew because you probably did not have it switched over to 220v. It happened to me in Paris a few years ago, travelling from the US, I forgot to switch it over and it blew the moment I turned the hairdryer on. I live in NZ, and we have 220v here, I have hairdryers and curling irons that are dual voltage, and take them to the US or to Europe and have no problems - providing I remember to switch them over. Some do not need to be changed, they can be used for both 110/220v.Just remember to take adaptors.

I agree with Barb, that's exactly the way my dual-voltage hair dryers work. They work fine in Europe and I've never blown out anything. Perhaps I've never stayed in a hotel with wiring older than 30 years, though, that wouldn't surprise me. I don't know how a hotel could operate with modern appliances on wiring that old, though. I know houses generally can't; my house had to have upgraded wiring as the original was from around 1950.

If one reads the instructions of a dual-voltage hair dryer, it should explain how to use it. Mine tells you that you should only operate it on LO when at 220-240V. It is not wimpy at all, it operates as if on high in the US. The instructions say that, also. That is the only disadvantage to it -- you can't have both high and low speeds in Europe, only high (but set at low).

One should not operate a dual voltage hair dryer on high (as Bob's wife tries to do), and reading the instructions is a good idea in case there is something unique about the one you buy. I might worry about that if you were planning on staying in places that you thought had very old wiring, however, but I don't know if that's the reason or just that it wasn't being operated properly, as skylark says (sounds reasonable to me). I do know I've never had a problem with them, and I always have them set correctly.

OK, here's my take.

If you plug in an 1800W hairdryer into a 220v socket and forgot to switch a dual voltage hair dryer from 110v to 220v, you'll fry the hair dryer. The circuit breaker/fuse may or may not flip.

If you flip the switch to 220v and turn on a 1800W hair dryer on high, you may blow the circuit breaker/fuse. A hair dryer/curling iron/coffee pot all on at the same time and same circuit will probably blow a 15amp breaker/fuse. ((b))

Most newer dual voltage appliances don't have a 110-220 switch. They automatically adjust just like your chargers for your digital and video cameras. I have dual voltage curling iron and hair dryer and neither has to be switched. I've stayed in old hotels and not had any problems even when I had 110 appliances and lugged around a voltage converter.

No - I had it switched to 220 - but I did have it on high - nowhere did it say not to put it on high. (I may not know much about electronics but I do know how to read.) And the folks in the hotel were quite clear on not using ANYTHING that drew that much power (I think that's why in a lot of older hotels in europe they have only seem to have 60 watt light bulbs instead of the 3-way 50/100/150 we use at home).

If I can put in my 2 cents, I've used a number of dual voltage hair dryers purchased in the US and they all have had a 110/220 voltage switch that when set to 220 will lock out the high setting. You can only turn it to low, which at the higher voltage will be like high. You can test this at home. If you could turn it to high on 220V setting, then it malfunctioned. 3 trips ago, we bought a cheap unit there and it is the best solution.

Hair dryers are not like other appliances or chargers that might automatically adjust voltage. They generaly do not use a transformer.

you may not beleive it, but you can buy dual voltage hair dryers also in Europe. Anywhere. Adapters are the problem, even from country to country. Same aplies to Laptops etc.

Check if your lodging accomodations provides a hairdryer.