Technology
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The technology of those who still use body parts as units of measurement. It always amuses me how tourists who come to Europe buy an adapter instead of a 60 to 50 Hz transformer and converter for their laptops and wonder why smoke and sparks come out of their laptop when they plug it in.
Huh. Are laptops made for the US market not able to take multiple voltages? Idk, all my electronics are rated for both 120 and 240 volt and when I went to europe, they didn't seem to care about the frequency at all.
Which always just made sense to me -- Computery electronics like cell phones and... Well, computers. Actually use DC current and so they have those power bricks that act as converters.
Then again it wouldn't surprise me if manufacturers went "eeeeh this one is for the US market, they just get the same voltage everywhere, make the power brick only take this specific configuration so we can make it cheaper", since my country has different voltages depending on which state you are in.
In Europe the 240 V and 50 Hz are unversal. Yes, you can change the voltage in most electric gadgets for the international market, but only if you remember to do it. Those which I saw only use a adapter from US plug to European Schuko plugs, and only this, well, a 120 V gadget at 240 V = unheard new vocabulary of the insured user.
In Canada, every one of my switched mode adapters (phone and laptop chargers, power bricks, etc) say something along the lines of 100-240v, 50-60Hz.
I've also taken them to China, which uses 220v 50 Hz, and they've never had a problem. In fact they charge a little faster thanks to the conversion from 220v being more efficient than Canadian 110v.
Can confirm for US laptops. They all have 'wide range' adaptors.
🤔 I won't argue because it does sound like something that can happen. It just sounds -- Weird -- To me. Lmao.
It depends on the power supply. Some really cheap electronics will have a power supply built to a single spec, but most are built to be universal.
Just check to make sure before plugging anything in. The specs should be on the label. 🙂
Yeah I'm kinda used to it. As said before, in my country (Brazil) the power grid is... It depends on which state you are in. It's 120 in my state, but directly south of us is one that uses 240, and to the north two that use 120. I'm used to reading labels and flicking voltage switches.