Will international power adapters cause damage?

[katyoshi]

I'm traveling to south Korea for a week this month. I have a US/Korea power adapter and was wondering if it's safe to use it for my iPad with my iPad charger? I noticed the voltage standards between the two countries are different but was wondering if it would cause any type of electrical damage?

Also what about for my MacBook pro?

 

[poloponies]

I'm traveling to south Korea for a week this month. I have a US/Korea power adapter and was wondering if it's safe to use it for my iPad with my iPad charger? I noticed the voltage standards between the two countries are different but was wondering if it would cause any type of electrical damage?

Also what about for my MacBook pro?

Apple portable devices have power adapters that can accommodate any voltage 110 or 220. A passive plug adapter is all that's required and it will not cause damage.

 

[ChristianVirtual]

Never had a problem beside the physical layout of the power plugs; worked well for me in UK, DE, CH, MY, JP ... there is a tiny label on your power adapter giving you the electrical parameter; just to make sure. They should mostly work from 100V to 240V; and have a look on the frequency; should be 50 or 60 Hz. But also South Korea should be fine with that.

If you want to use the MBP in the aircraft on your flight power supply might not work well; I had sometimes trouble with the 85W 17" power supply as the seat only provided 75W; in this case I had to close the lid and recharge while eating or sleeping; but actually if you fully charge before you fly it might not need to recharge.

 

[katyoshi]

Thanks! I guess I'll just get an adapter when I get there. Of course, I charge all my stuff before trips. I won't be doing any productivity work so I'm thinking I won't need my mbp. But I'll need my iPad for consuming purposes . I never thought I'd buy one but I think I should get the airplane travel charger huh? Flight from Hawaii to south Korea is about 9 hours...

 

[Tsuchiya]

I'm traveling to south Korea for a week this month. I have a US/Korea power adapter and was wondering if it's safe to use it for my iPad with my iPad charger? I noticed the voltage standards between the two countries are different but was wondering if it would cause any type of electrical damage?

Also what about for my MacBook pro?

I don't think it'll be an issue. Both my Macbook Pro and iPod (as well as my brothers and dads iPods) were brought from the US, and all we did was change the end connector on the transformers and they work fine. Also 3rd party chargers seem to work fine too.

 

[zhenya]

Thanks! I guess I'll just get an adapter when I get there. Of course, I charge all my stuff before trips. I won't be doing any productivity work so I'm thinking I won't need my mbp. But I'll need my iPad for consuming purposes . I never thought I'd buy one but I think I should get the airplane travel charger huh? Flight from Hawaii to south Korea is about 9 hours...

Unless you are going to use the ipad the entire time, you should have plenty of battery life. Many planes now have regular power outlets, especially on international flights.

If I were determined to have something additional, I'd consider an external battery pack that can charge usb devices rather than a dedicated charger that will see minimal use.

And yes, iPad's are 100-240v compatible, so all you need is a cheap adapter to adapt your plug to the local style.

 

[poloponies]

As a caveat, if you wander into North Korea, all bets are off. I'm pretty sure they don't have any power conditioning on their electrical delivery systems, on the off-chance they're actually delivering any power.

 

[cawesjmu]

...I'll need my iPad for consuming purposes . I never thought I'd buy one but I think I should get the airplane travel charger huh? Flight from Hawaii to south Korea is about 9 hours...

You can use www.seatguru.com to see if you'll have a powered seat. I assume you mean you'll charge your iPad through the MBP. As ChristianJapan said, you can't charge the MBP while it's in use with the Apple airplane power adapter, but you can charge the MBP while you're using the iPad.

Maybe flights to Asia are different, but I've had pretty poor luck on international flights down to South America. Only about a third of the seats seem to be powered.

 

[katyoshi]

Thanks everyone, I bought the isound power max 16000mAh on amazon for about $80...this should be better than buying a airplane power cord I'll never use often as this backup power source. Oh and for the adapter for different countries, I have a plug adapter for it in my house from a couple of years ago.

 

[ChristianVirtual]

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Don't want to scare you off but better check if you can take that on board of an aircraft. I remember to read some month ago that the amount of lithium per passenger is limited because of the risk ...
By the way: nice tip. Should get one here for power outages we might get in Japan. Sounds like lots power inside.