Electrical adapter for use in New York.

Would appreciate advice on the best electrical adapter to use in New York. Understand that it is totally different to here and that hair dryer and other electrical gadgets will most likely not work.

Is one adapter better than another from an electrical point of view? As you've gathered don't have a clue about this. I had a look at some in the Argos catalogue but still confused. One or two people have told me that the same ones used on the Continent will work but would have to wonder about this advice?

thanks.

Just get a universal travel adaptor and make sure that whatever devices you use are compatible with 120V/60Hz. See here: [broken link removed]

Phone/Laptop/Camera chargers you'll be fine with just a travel adaptor marked as suitable for the US (they'll sell them in the airport or many other places) ... With anything else be very careful and as Clubman says check that they can run on the lower voltage over there (I thought it was 110v over there rather than 120v ?) ... as if they don't run on US Voltage and you plug them into a US socket with just an adaptor then it won't be pretty - at best it won't work .. at worst you could seriously damage the equipment

No - it's nominally 120V in the US but 110V devices are fine with that. Just like it's nominally 230V here and not the 240V that people often assume. At least plugging a 240V device into the US mains will probably not damage it but it won't work but plugging a 110V device into the Irish mains will result in a bang and smoke!

There are two key differences between the US and here:

- different electrical supply (110-120V, 60 Hz as opposed to 220-240V, 50 Hz)
- different plugs

Most stuff that your're likely to bring, such as phone charger, notebook PC etc. will work on both supplies, and just need a plug adapter, but always check the supply (it'll say on it somewhere the kind of supply it'll work with). A plug adapter is a simple physical device that adapts one style of plug to another: a few Euro at most to buy (but do it here before you go!).

Anything that doesn't work with a 110-120V supply probably isn't worth the hasstle of bringing: just use a local one (e.g. he hotel's hair dryer). You can get adapters (some form of transformer) to convert the supplies, but they're expensive enough and can be bulky (typically depending on the power rating).

adaptors are available in the airport in the duty free

as above said, check the voltage on the appliance before pluuging in

most laptops and phone chargers will work on a range 100-240V so all you will need is the 3 to 2 pin adaptor for them

Physical adapters (UK 3 pin to US 3/2 pin) will be available but voltage adapters (i.e. transformers) usually are not. If you need to get a tranformer for device then one option may be RadioShack. There should be loads of them around and the are a great source of kit. As stated most of the standard travel devices that come with power adapters (e.g laptops, digital camera battery chargers, camcorder rechargers) will handle 110-240V 50-60 Hz input. By the way the hotels usually have hair dryers and irons.