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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?
A surge protector for 230-240 volts is what's needed.
So get a power strip with surge protection for Schuko (Common style in most of Europe) connectors, replace the plug with a male connector same as power supplies as stationary computers have and then get a country specific power cable in the country visited.
The reason to use the Shuko connector is that most devices are available in European format alternative, fewer in the UK format and the Schuko plug is smaller than the UK plugs as well. Any talk about need to identify live and neutral is just bollocks on anything manufactured after 1980.
If all the power supplies connected are auto-ranging up to 240 volts there's no need to have a voltage specific surge protector, the power supplies can cope with it.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
Indeed. Even when you have a 100-240V device connected to 110V, you must use an 110V surge protector. The problem is that while a 220V surge protector would clamp at a voltage the device can survive, it can only survive reliably if it has been running at 220V because of the way these devices are designed. They have a rectifier and filter capacitor. If the filter capacitor gets charged up from 110V by a surge clamped for 220V (which clamps at around 400...500V), the inrush-current will likely blow the last-ditch fuse in the device and may well damage other components.
So, sorry, what you want is not possible. You must get both.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.