Best electrical outlet transmitter from american to european outlets?

Question

The guys at best buy looked at me like I was stupid, but they still had me buy one that blew up my friends 150 dollar straightener in paris (my bad). Needless to say they weren't too helpful in determining what I need.

I don't mind paying $50 - 100 because I'd rather not blow the fuse on my camcorder or nikon.

We're not planning on going to England, so I'm mostly looking at France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Holland, Czechia, Slovenia, and maybe Hungary (do they change the further east you go?)

Answer 1

Power converters from 230 to 110 Volts to operate US electrical items in Europe start from 13,99 € to 149,99 €, depending on what you would use them for.

For an alarm clock or other low electricity consuming device, a 100 Watt converter will cost 13,99 €.

To operate your camcorder or Nikon, at 200 watt divice for 49,99 € will do.

If you want to operate high electricity consumption items, like hairdryer or an iron, you need to go for the expensive one cause the others will blow.

If the device has a two-pole euro plug, you are good to go for all countries except Italy. If it has two-pole plug and grounding, you should get one with a hole to fit in the French wall outlets, which have a grounding pin. Otherwise you might need an adapter for that purpose, too.

Edit: The list that Keskese provided actually shows the different grounding system for higher consuming electrical devices between France (Type E), Germany(Type F), and Italy (Type L).

Answer 2

Just have a look on this map:

http://users.pandora.be/worldstandards/e...

As you can see all sane Europe uses the same sockets, so one adapter (230V - 110V), should be absolutely fine.