Laptop Adaptors?

[She]

Just purchased a Powerbook a few months back… I explained to the lady at the store that I do travel o/s and do plan on taking my laptop with me and she insisted that I had to purchase the Apple World Travel Adaptor kit which comes with the specific adaptors for different countries (shown below)

But then I am thinking, the Portable Power Adaptor (the thing below) has printed on it- ‘Input- 100-240V’

and seeing as Taiwan is 110V… couldnt I simply stick on a generic 2-prong adaptor (which I do with my mobile phone charger, etc) and use that?

I apologise if this is a stupid question to ask (I am clueless when it comes to this sort of stuff)… but I’ve searched this topic on various internet forums and some people say one thing (you dont need the apple one… any will work), while others say another (you must have the apple one otherwise you’ll screw your laptop up)

which is it?

[jlick]

The World Travel Adaptor kit is just a bunch of plug adaptors. If you buy the kit it will look better, but it won’t do anything that a generic adaptor wouldn’t do. You can get the adaptors here for TWD15-30 each depending on the type. I assume that Apple charges their usual premium on things so that it would be much cheaper to buy the generics.

[She]

thanks, that’s what i needed to hear

It’s when I read comments like this which confuse me-

I spent last fall studying in England. I bought Apple’s World Adaptor kit from the Apple Store. It includes plugs for nearly every electric outlet you will encounter in the world. A british plug is included in the kit. You simply pull the US two-prong plug off your power adaptor, stick on the british plug, and plug it in. The kit costs $39 and it is worth every penny. I had two friends fry their laptops using power convertors. I had no trouble with Apple’s World Travel Power Adaptor kit.

[robert_storey]

@She

I had two friends fry their laptops using power convertors. I had no trouble with Apple’s World Travel Power Adaptor kit.

The power brick can get fried if you use it in a place where the voltage is very unstable. In some countries (Mongolia, to cite one memorable example) has some serious power surges (also called “power spikes”) due to crappy generatoring equipment. Another cause is when lightening hits a power line. In such cases, the only thing that can protect you are “surge protectors”. I don’t know if Apple builds power surge protection into their Travel Power Adaptor Kit, but I seriously doubt it. From the photo, it looks just like old-fashioned plug converters to me.

It’s conceivable that surge protection is built into the power brick too. Can’t be sure about that though. Power surges can sometimes be over 1000 volts.

regards,
Robert

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