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Ask Slashdot: Surge Protection For International Travel?
New submitter gaiageek writes: As someone who has lost a laptop power supply (and thus use of the laptop) due to a late-night power surge while traveling in a developing country, I'm acutely aware of the need for surge protection when traveling abroad. While practically all laptop and phone power adapters these days are voltage auto-sensing 100V-240V compatible, most so-called "travel" surge protectors are restricted to either 110V or 220V. Given the space and weight constraints of carry-on only travel, I'd like to avoid having to carry two separate surge protectors knowing I may go from Central America (110V) to Southeast Asia (220V). Strangely, laptop specific surge protectors typically are 100V-240V compatible, but this doesn't provide protection for a phone or tablet that requires the original power supply (can't be charged from a notebook USB port).
Is there really no solution out there short using a 110V-240V notebook surge protector with an adapter to go from a "cloverleaf" notebook plug to a 5-15R (standard US) plug receptacle?
Is there really no solution out there short using a 110V-240V notebook surge protector with an adapter to go from a "cloverleaf" notebook plug to a 5-15R (standard US) plug receptacle?
The problem is, 200 Volts on a 110V circuit is a surge and will fry a 110V power supply. So surge protectors need to be voltage specific or they become ineffective at lower voltages.
I would go another route: Make sure that your have spare/alternative ways to power or charge your equipment. For example carry a 12V charger for your laptop (also works on some airplanes). Only buy equipment (phones/tablets) you can charge from an USB outlet. Carry a spare USB charger.
This will get easier over time with the USB type C connector and USB power delivery, as modern devices get equipped with it.
From US, but spend 90% of my time abroad for work. I bought a US power strip w/ surge protector, for my devices to plug into, and then attach a voltage adapter to the input plug on the strip. I swap adapters depending on what country I'm in--each of which is only slightly larger than the length of the plug on the power strip, so it's not a big deal to carry a half dozen of them around in my luggage. This has served me well for about 3 years now.
I hope you realize that the optimal "waveform" from a USB charger is a flat line. There isn't such a thing as "waveform quality" with DC power, which is what USB uses. Ripple, maybe, from insufficient filtering, but not "waveform". That is only an issue with inverters that output AC mains voltage power.
If I had mod points I would mod this up - most sensible post in this thread so far. So called surge suppressors are only useful to minimize the amplitude of very short, very high voltage but low total energy transients of the kind created by lightning (nearby, not a direct his) and other arc like events, such as sparks created by connecting and disconnecting loads.
If you are somewhere third world, and the nominal 220V line goes to 260V and stays there for a while (fractions of a second to many seconds) the kind of surge suppressor found in power strips is useless. Your adapter will probably fry - and with luck fail in a way that blows a fuse inside without sending any damaging over voltage to the device it is powering. Better quality power adapters have added parts on the output that clamp the DC to safe limits even if the upstream parts in the adapter are being overvoltaged to failure.
So use good quality (expensive brand name) adapters and take extras. They may die, but should sacrifice themselves to save the attached gear.
PS - I spent years in industry designing power distribution, regulation and filtering gear for pro audio - including equipment designed for touring sound that had to run from generators that would sometimes put out excess voltage for a relatively long time if too much load was shed suddenly.