IRELAND ELECTRONIC HELP
 

I traveled a lot in the 90's. So it has been awhile, much longer than I ever imagined to travel again. However I am going to Ireland in June. My first time to Europe! I am getting many mixed suggestions and reviews on adapters and or converters to use in charging my items. I will be charging my SLR camera battery, ipad, iphone and a mini Mophie. My girlfriend and I are going, as my husband refuses to ever fly again. She has the same appliances to charge. No we are not taking hair dryers, fans, electric razors. Some people tell us to bring adapters to charge. Others are saying we need converters too, so we don't blow up our equipment! I cannot hardly believe this would happen. We do not want to haul a lot of extra gear. Then someone said I need two kinds of adapters (one with the 3 square prongs), the other (3 round prongs for "older parts of Ireland). Truthfully I believe I only need the 3 prong square unit. Which one is it?

Please share your knowledge and experience asap. The electric matter is all that is left to do in preparing for our 3 week trip. We know where we want to go, and how. I think it is silly that this electric thing has become such and issue, and there are a million opinions flying at us. I want what is right, what works. We want to take what we need. We are staying in nice B&B's and a few castles. All we want to do is come home with great photographs, and an adventure we will never forget.

You'll need the plug adaptors not the convertors. I go to Dublin all the time and they have the three pronged (squared off) plugs which are the same as the ones you'd find in the UK. Recently I bought a three pack of cheap USB adaptors to European plug adaptor (dirt cheap on Amazon) I've found them useful as with electronic devices you'll want to recharge everything at the same time.

Have fun in ireland I hope you love it!

THANK YOU!
This is the adapter that I too felt was all I needed.
I guess I needed confirmation and support, appreciate your help.

I KNOW we will have fun in Ireland, and yes we will love it. Already we are making jokes about never coming home...

These days nearly all chargers for electronic equipment are designed to work on worldwide voltages, and all my cameras and Apple devices do. Check the specs on the chargers and they will probably read 100-240V 50/60Hz. If that is the case they can be plugged directly into Irish electricity sockets with only a plug adapter. Using a voltage converter would do more harm than good.

I don't think I'd want to stay in a hotel that has round-pin sockets, if indeed there still are any. That would mean they haven't rewired their electricity for 50 years. I remember those old round-pin plugs from back in the 60s, but haven't seen one for years. ;-)

Check out http://tinyurl.com/2y9zvv for a comprehensive explanation of what you need for your electrical devices in Ireland and throughout Europe.

If you have room in your bag take a multi socket extension lead so you can charge several things with a single adaptor.

I brought a three outlet US adapter on our current UK France trip. It looks like little bar with 3 US sockets. I plug that into the adapter and the chargers into that. Sometimes I can only get in two chargers at once, depending on size, but it takes up less space than an extension cord and cost about $4 at CVS.

I have been all over the island, every year since 1999 (and often, multiple times, per year) and have NEVER seen any of the old-style plugs.

If you are driving, get a dual-usb charger plug -- that should keep the iProducts up and running. Then, you will only need to use the wall adapters to charge the dslr stuff.

As hetismij2 says, if your charger says: "Input Voltage 120-240" (and most semi-modern ones DO)you only need the plug adapters.
FYI -- I bring two or three each trip as we invariably end up leaving One behind -- somewhere or other! ;-)

Bob

Ooops! Whilst hetismij2's idea is good, I MEANT to give credit to Heimdall's comment ...

Bob

Thanks, Bob! ;-)

I agree with hetismij2 to bring a multi socket extension lead (power strip), which is safer than a multi-plug adapter. Most of those multi-plug adapters don't have overload protection. Also, the weight of several plugs can pull the adapter part-way out of the socket, another fire safety issue.