Sojourntraveller

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Conair-Cer...roduct+Reviews

treecopswife

Update: I wasn't able to find a dual-voltage iron in a store here (none list it on the outside of the package, if you can believe that!) Tried to order one on Amazon and found out that it was actually coming from England and would not arrive before the trip. In the meantime, I had ordered a multi-port charger for the trip: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (BESTEK® Portable 6A Max 4-Port USB Charger Universal Travel Adapter & Power Converter Voltage 220V to 110V with Interchangeable Worldwide UK/US/AU/EU Plugs for iPod, iPhone, iPad, tablet, Samsung etc MRJ201GU) and it wound up having a power convertor built into it, which I didn't realize when I purchased. I highly recommend this charger--it was great having multiple outlets, plus multiple usb ports for your phones and other devices. I tried using the iron on low while plugged into this convertor. It was very interesting: I could actually hear the iron heating up, which I don't stateside. It was a little scary! It also would only stay powered on for about thirty seconds and then shut off. I finally gave up and just had less-than-photgraphable-hair on the trip. I did notice at the two hotels we stayed in London that neither bathroom had any outlets in them. Only an odd-looking one for a men's shaver. A blow dryer was supplied by both places, but in one hotel I had to use it in the bedroom and in the other hotel, it was actually permanently attached to the inside of a drawer in the closet so that you couldn't plug it in anywhere else in the room. It was quite odd, but I was happy to have use of it. So, being that both of these hotels seemed to be very sensitive about the outlets in the bathrooms, there must be some truth to the voltage issues and appliances from foreign countries. Thanks for all the advice you gave!

apersuader65

I think most apple products already have dual voltage capabilities. My chargers do, I just use a plug adapter. I'm likely going to buy the french plug charger this March on our trip for future trips.

PatrickLondon

Not having power sockets in bathrooms isn't to do with foreign appliances, but about building regulations' concern over the proximity of water and electricity.

Sarastro

The device you have purchased is absolutely unnecessary for most any electronic device, i.e. mobile phone, laptop, or tablet. Further, it is only rated at 200 watts, effectively useless for hair dryers, irons, or curly irons. I would caution you about using it at all. If you have, you are probably lucky you have not started a fire or blown hotel circuits if the device you plugged into it was rated in excess of 200 watts as most all are.

If it´s too late to return this device, I would throw it away. All you really have is an expensive USB charger. For less than what you paid for this item, you could have purchased a 220v curling iron at Darty in Paris, one that would not make any noise when turned on.

Sorry.

bilboburgler

Latest UK building regs stops you having power in bathrooms and even the light switches are moving to outside the bathroom. As rooms are refurbished you will see the change.

annhig

lol, bilbo - that's because of all the accidents us brits have been having with our bathroom light switches and share sockets, I suppose.

"health and safety gone mad", again. [or the building regs people have lots of friends who are electricians].

annhig

oops -"shaver sockets".

ParisAmsterdam

The British aversion to switches and sockets in bathrooms has more to do with 220 volts than anything else I would think. In North America we have a better chance of survival if things go wrong as we're only 110 v.

>>>I think most apple products already have dual voltage capabilities.<<<

Of course, as are any other modern electrical gadgets like cameras, tablets, laptops, mp3 players etc.

annhig

i'm sure you're right, PA, but so far as I'm aware, it's not a common cause of domestic tragedy. in the last year for which UK stats were collected, only 3% of domestic accidents were electrically related; have you ever heard of anyone being electrocuted by a properly fitted bathroom light switch?

chartley

The British regulations prohibiting switches and sockets in bathrooms - and I use the word to mean a room with a bathtub in it - are longstanding, and probably pre-date World War II.

Since European voltages are all in the 220-240 range, and many continental countries allow switches and sockets in bathrooms, it is more a matter of U.K. custom and practice rather than a specific danger because of the high voltage. If you have never had a socket in a bathroom, you see no reason to want one.

thursdaysd

I found the same "no outlets in bathrooms" regulation in Romania last fall. Although hairdryers pemanently wired into the wall seemed to be exempt! Of course, they were usually the feeble hose type. Otherwise I had to use a hairdryer in the bedroom, which often meant a plug in an awkward place nowhere near a mirror.

annhig

thursdays - we're allowed those useless hose hairdryers as well, but I prefer to use an ordinary one in the bedroom, which is what I'm used to doing at home anyway. So long as you've got a mirror, does it matter where you dry your hair?

thursdaysd

The room doesn't matter, but the location of the mirror certainly does! If the outlet is near the floor by the bed and the mirror is all the way across the room by the window....

annhig

i know all about that, thursdays. I've had cause to complain in several hotels about the fact that you need a socket adjacent to a mirror, and to be fair, most of them either have one, or will provide an extension if you ask. one place I used to stay at fairly regularly even inserted a new socket after I'd pointed it out to them.

wouldn't it be a good idea if hoteliers slept in their own hotel rooms?

thursdaysd

"wouldn't it be a good idea if hoteliers slept in their own hotel rooms?"

So true!