Holiday Electricals.....Voltage

Paulj · 19 Jun 2006 at 03:22

Bad thread title but simple question

Off to mexico very shortly but want to take some gadgets with me, now i understand some gadgets have switching thingies in them so that you can use 110v or 240v which is all good.
But i have an ipod speakerish docking station thingy

and on the adapter it says only 240v input, so what will happen if i use it in mexico where i presume the voltage is 110-120v?

Dont really want to fork out for a step up converter to use just once.

Cheers muchly

UOcUK Poopscoop · 19 Jun 2006 at 03:24

One of two possible outcomes I would think.

1 It won't work.

2 It will damage the docking station.

gary996 · 19 Jun 2006 at 05:34

If it says 240 volt only then it wont work there. Also its 60hz there not 50hz which ok you could still use it but it would affect it after a long period. Find a dryer plug and plug it into that its 240

Mickey_D · 19 Jun 2006 at 07:25

Or run it on batteries. Don't most iPod accessories run on batteries?

(I personally have no clue as I don't own an iPod, and probably never will)

Paulj · 20 Jun 2006 at 20:40

gary996 said:
Find a dryer plug and plug it into that its 240

Hair dryer or a clothes dryer?

Trigger · 20 Jun 2006 at 20:48

gary996 said:
Find a dryer plug and plug it into that its 240

What??

For a start, foreign electrics are pretty crap on the whole really and don't follow anywhere near as strict standards as ours. You need to get an inverter to use your iPod or as suggested, get a 110v battery charger and run the iPod off it's batteries. I would go with the former to be honest because they aren't at all expensive anymore

Trying to run it off their system would probably break your iPod due to the different number of cycles per second.

Usher · 20 Jun 2006 at 20:51

We have used various UK electrical items on 110 volts when in N America , in simple terms it means that if you plug in a UK hairdryer then it runs at around half speed & is not quite hot enough lol, a battery charger for camcorder /laptop charges up o.k but takes twice as long . Its when its the other way round & yanks come here & plug stuff in that damage can occur

Trigger · 20 Jun 2006 at 23:46

Usher said:
We have used various UK electrical items on 110 volts when in N America , in simple terms it means that if you plug in a UK hairdryer then it runs at around half speed & is not quite hot enough lol, a battery charger for camcorder /laptop charges up o.k but takes twice as long . Its when its the other way round & yanks come here & plug stuff in that damage can occur

As I said above, it's not just the voltage that is different, the cyles per second are also different