I've have a few items I've bought with the US style cables (two straight prongs). I have been looking at the slim adapters (no grounding) rather than the bulky ones but they're not sold in any local store. Any insights on if I should be avoiding them and just go for the bulky ones for quality/safety reasons?
USA to NZ Plugs
kaz on 03/07/2024 - 12:22
Comments
All the devices are the right voltage, thanks for checking though!
I think you're right in replacing the cables, better plan in the long run rather than using adapters.
I bought two Govee lamps and another random lamp from a market. I don't have it in me to bend the pins, but I will look at replacing the cables if I can find the right type!
Yes, better and safer to replace the cables, or chop off the USA plugs and replace with NZ ones if the cables aren't generic. Bending pins or using cheap adapters isn't good. Especially if you have kids in the house. All NZ plugs are now required to have insulation on the live prongs. This is a safety requirement.
If there was a fire the bent pins would almost certainly void an insurance claim.
Lots of places sell travel adapters like m10. Trademe.m etc
As long as the device supports 230v as previosly stated, that is very important. Also even if supporting both current ratings some are automatic where others have a switchIf it is an AC cord, chop of the power plug and fit a rewireable NZ plug.
If they are wall warts (power bricks), buy decent adaptors.
I suspect you are thinking of these kind of adaptors:
https://www.vapeshed.co.nz/nz-power-adapter-plug.html
They are not legal to sell in NZ as they (badly) do not comply with NZ safety requirements.
They sell those everywhere at Bunnings, dollar shops, and on Temu/Aliexpress as well. I have like 20 of these, used them for over 10+ years with various appliances, never once had any issues. Of course, need to make sure the devices support the right voltage, otherwise need a transformer.
No major retailer is going to be selling those grey adaptors without pin insulation as it is illegal to do so (but they are common at small retailers who don't know better like the vape shop I linked to).
Should note with electrical safety stuff the likes of requirement for pin insulation isn't because you are likely to come to harm using a device with no pin insulation (and indeed it is still legal to use pre 2005 appliances stuff which typically doesn't have it). The requirement is to reduce the amount of harm over our entire population. Mostly the harm would have been kids trying to hide coins behind plugs etc, rather than adults.
If you are talking about adaptors in general, yeah they are common. Bunnings sells this monstrosity:
https://www.bunnings.co.nz/jackson-inbound-travel-adaptor-fo…
I have a few of these in my house:
https://www.briscoes.co.nz/product/1098274/korjo-world-wide-…
I just suggested rewiring as it is cheaper than those adaptors, and more slim which is what OP wanted.
The other safety issue, as well as not having insulation on the live pins, is that with the cheap adapters you can accidentally plug only one of the straight pins of the appliance into the adapter and have the other one exposed. If you are unlucky and plugged into the live terminal, the exposed pin can then be live and if you touch it you will get a nasty shock.
The adapters available locally are designed to prevent this by having a wide lip around the pins, e.g. https://www.briscoes.co.nz/product/1098274/korjo-world-wide-…
As a workaround to avoid this situation you can tape the adapter to the appliance, but it's not ideal. You can bend the pins of the appliance but this is risky, especially for phone chargers where you may be distorting or cracking the circuit board inside.
Do the devices support 230v? And might it be cheaper or tidier to replace the cables if they're not proprietary/ attached?