Voltage Converters for the EU?

[wilfredo]

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Hi All:

 

I'm planning a move to Portugal from the U.S., and wondering if it would make sense to move my current I-MAC with the rest of my stuff.  Would I need a new EU APPLE plug?  Also, I store my photography in external hard drives, and do my own printing with an Epson 3880 printer.  Would I need a Step Down voltage converter for these?  

 

Thank You,

Wilfredo+

[Viv]

EU voltage is 220.

Plugs are 2-pin, earthed.

[John McMaster]

Most equipment these days works on both voltages, just change kettle/apple/figure8 etc leads as required - I have had NZ, EU and UK leads/plugs on much of my equipment , although they are all 220v..

john

[pop]

48 minutes ago, Viv said:

EU voltage is 220.

Plugs are 2-pin, earthed.

was 220V, now is 230V. Most reasonably recent AC adapters are multirange, as has been said before. The voltage an adapter is rated for is supposed to be shown on a label attached to the device. Use a magnifying glass or the loupe app of your phone, or hunt for the device specifications in the web.

[Alberti]

Wilfredo, the modern iMac for a long time has a switche-mode power supply. These work on variable voltage and frequency: Line voltage: 100–240V AC. So you just need an other power cord, or attach a new plug on it.
Or make an extension cord with a male EU plug  and a female socket with the two flat ones, preferably a strip with several. That will work fine, and allows the same trick with other appliances that have the modern non-transformer based power supplies. That is my way of handling it. I have made several such ‘multiple socket extension cords’.

Edited May 13, 2022 by Alberti
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[NigelG]

Wilfredo - as pointed out the most important thing to check is the acceptable input voltage for each item.

This is usually listed in the specs but also in often micro-sized type on the item itself or its power brick. Most modern computer equipment etc will be multi-voltage as they are designed for world-wide usage, but it is vital to check!.

Using a non-multi-voltage item in the EU will fry the device and possibly cause a nasty electrical fire.

The issue we came up against now we are in the US is we were looking to buy items from Dyson which when we purchased them in the UK/EU are multi-voltage. When we went to the flagship showroom in NYC we found the items were limited to 110V only and were told by the salesperson that they "can only sell 110V-only appliances in the USA". I challenged them on this as at the Apple Store everything is multi-voltage but they had no sensible explanation...

We left empty-handed as we didn't want to buy items that would be an issue when we move back to the UK.

This probably applies more to high-current items maybe but definitely CHECK each device and never assume it's a multi-voltage version...

Good luck with the move...

Edited May 13, 2022 by NigelG

[wilfredo]

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On 5/13/2022 at 12:03 PM, Alberti said:

Wilfredo, the modern iMac for a long time has a switche-mode power supply. These work on variable voltage and frequency: Line voltage: 100–240V AC. So you just need an other power cord, or attach a new plug on it.
Or make an extension cord with a male EU plug  and a female socket with the two flat ones, preferably a strip with several. That will work fine, and allows the same trick with other appliances that have the modern non-transformer based power supplies. That is my way of handling it. I have made several such ‘multiple socket extension cords’.

Thank you, this is very helpful!