Travel Smart By Conair Adapter/Converter Combo with Surge Protection

Funny story at the end.So I took this thing overseas for a month long trip to Amsterdam. I brought this as well as another much more lightweight product that didn't perform conversion. I used this thing nearly every day. Note that an absolutely essential method of survival with these things is to buy a cheap power strip to use with this. That way you can plug all of your electronics into a single power strip that is connected through this thing.While I was in Amsterdam I stayed in an extremely wide array of homes, hostels, hotels, and boats. One of the hotels was inner-city with a 2 star rating but it had a private bathroom and was only a few blocks away so I took it. When I went into my miniature room I immediately started trying to plug my electronics in to get them charged up for the night. I noticed that only one plug worked in the entire hotel. No biggie.When I get back in for the night I plug all of my electronics into the power strip, the power strip into the adapter, and the adapter into the only working socket. I begin to read and in my drowsy state I hear a loud POP POP, CRACK and I hear the entire hotel go quiet. Seconds later I hear someone running up the stairs and cursing in Dutch. The power comes back on and I look at my power strip... it stinks like an electrical fire... but here's the thing, I HAD to be sure it was my power strip and not coincidence. I flip the power back on to my power strip a few minutes later and the entire hotel goes dark again. Queue maintenance running up the stairs and cursing again.It wasn't the adapter's fault as I used it several other places without any problems before and after this incident. It was their shoddy wiring. I don't think they ever figured out it was me.

I have been using this during my trip to Africa for the last 4 months and it works. I have noticed that sometimes when I plug in a two (2) pin plug (a regular 110 plug) that some some I have to unplug it an rotate the plug 180 degrees for it to start charging. I have been using it for my laptop, kindle and cell phone in adapter mode, and for my electronic toothbrush in converter mode.Because of the size some times I feel as if it would fall out from the wall plug, but it has never done so. All in all it works and I would purchase it again. Note that the maximum wattage is 1875, therefore you would not be able to use some hair dryers.

This is the ultimate adapter/converter; prepared me for any situation overseas. Bulky, but if you want to be prepared for anything, this will do the job.When I first used the converter aspect of this (while in Italy), my clippers clattered VERY loudly while operating - almost as loud as a lawn mower - and I was afraid they'd break! I thought that perhaps the converter feature of this particular unit wasn't working correctly, so I bought another converter from a store locally (in Siena, Italy), which was a sole-purpose converter. However, this also made my clippers clatter just as loudly. I came to find that it was an unavoidable side-effect of the conversion process and not due to any deficiency in the converters themselves.That having been said, I used my clippers every other day for 5 months (with earplugs, damn that was loud) but now that I'm back in the states, the clippers are no worse for the wear, they've gone back to functioning as quietly as before.I also used the converter feature on this unit for my Hammacher Schlemmer noise maker and that worked just fine, too. In fact, one time I forgot to use the converter (I was exceptionally tired and not thinking)... I plugged the noise maker in using another adapter (without converter functionality) and the noise maker emitted a loud *pop* and belched out a huge plume of smoke. Yeah I broke it. Ah well. When I got back to the states, I got a new unit but one thing's for sure: the converter functionality of this unit was actually working. When I used it :-\Also used this while in Ireland, as an adaptor - perfect.

The Travel Smart universal travel adapter came highly recommended but I would think twice about using it again. The biggest problem is size. While the adapter works as advertised, both to just adapt to the outlet or to convert voltage, there are many circumstances where it just to big and bulky to fit in the available outlet. Next time I would be more inclined to get a specific adapter for the area to which I am traveling. If you travel the world this might be OK. But I would still think that a couple of the smaller, specific adapters would work better.

I purchased this item to attend a week-long conference on high-performance computing in Ireland. All attendants were required to be "plugged in" for the duration, so I was really counting on the device. Consequently, I tested it ahead of time in the US on 120V AC, and carefully read the instruction manual, as this was the most I could do without access to an actual foreign power outlet.The first time I plugged it in upon arrival at my destination (with no devices yet attached), it blew up and tripped the hotel's circuit breaker. Within the first five minutes of arrival at my destination, I was worrying about how I could manage the rest of the week instead of finding some much needed food and sleep. I would rate this device at zero if possible, because not only did the device fail, but it failed when I was massively reliant upon its capabilities.If you are also considering this device, remember that most electronic devices (phones, laptops, tablets, etc) come with their own in-line converter that can handle 120-240V AC. These look like bulky plugs or small boxes on the power line, and will note the acceptable power input somewhere in text on the converter. If most or all of your devices have these built-in converters, just get a bag of cheap adapters that change the prong type. They should work much better for lower cost, and allow you to charge multiple units at once.