ilovetulips

I have a friend who will be visiting Ireland in Sept. I wanted to get her some travel related items for her birthday. Will she need a plug adapter or a converter for a hair dryer?

hawksbill

In which country do you plan to buy the hair dryer et al.?

Cicerone

She will almost certainly need an adaptor plug to “adapt” the plugs for her US electrical appliances to the wall sockets for Ireland. (I assume your friend is from the US as you are from Austin I know from your other posts.) There is a website called voltagevalet.com that in my experience is a fairly reliable source of information on the type of outlet configurations you are likely to find in virtually any country in the world. Another helpful site is http://www.escapeartist.com/global/W...wer_Guide.html. Take a look at these and buy some adaptor plugs with the configuration for Ireland.

As far as the hairdryer, Ireland, like the rest of Europe and most of the world, runs on different electrical current from the US. The US runs on 120 current, Ireland runs on 230. Therefore, your friend’s hairdryer will not work in Ireland unless (i) it is a "dual voltage" hairdryer or (ii) she has a converter to convert the electrical current. Many, many appliances made these days are dual voltage. If you can check your friend’s hairdryer and there is anything on it that says "120/240" or "110/230", then the item is dual voltage and it will work in Ireland.

If it is not dual voltage, then you may want to consider buying her a dual voltage hair dyer. That would be a nice gift. These are very easy to find in the US these days, either on-line or in shops like Linens and Things; your local drug store may even have them. Just read the box.

I would not bother to buy her a converter for her existing hair dyer. These are generally somewhat bulky and most importantly, don’t work very well, in my experience, with items meant to generate heat, like hair dryers. They work fine for things like electric shavers. I would just buy her a dual-voltage hair dyer.

Of course there is a good chance that hotels she is staying in in Ireland will provide a hair dryer, but it is a nice thought if you want to do it anyway.

rkkwan

This is my favorite site for finding out what plug they use in any country:

www.kropla.com/electric2.htm

Ireland uses the Type G plug. Same as the UK. Three square pegs, grounded.

Give your friend money to buy her own hairdryer in Ireland. Or buy something else for her.

hawksbill

I agree with the comment that the dual-voltage hair dryer shouldn't be so hard to find. In fact, the only hair dryer that I have happens to work on both 120V and 240V, and either 60Hz or 50Hz. And it wasn't bought specifically for travel purposes.

IrishEyes

Almost every B&B, guest house and hotel has a hair dryer in the room. If there is not one in the room one will be loaned if asked for. There is no reason to take up valuable luggage space with a hair dryer.

Instead buy her a guidebook about Ireland.

Budman

If the hair dryer is 110/220 (dual voltage), then this is the type of plug adapter that you will need.

http://www.voltageconverters.com/itemdesc.asp?CartId={14E04E68-F0E2-EVEREST48F9-983B-A54FB91C52BA}&ic=PB12

ilovetulips

Thanks everyone. I suppose I should ask her about the hotels she will be staying at. When I was in Amsterdam and Paris both places had hairdryers so I know that are pretty prevalent. Thanks for all of the input.