A lot of plugs

WhatPlug.info

Guide for the traveller with plugs

How to use plugs from South Africa in Saudi Arabia

Plugs, sockets, adapters and other information needed for travelling from South Africa to Saudi Arabia in this page. If you want a report for other countries, re-start the wizard to find to electric adapters for your trip here.

Quick Chart at-a-glance

  South Africa Saudi Arabia  
Voltage: 220V, 230V. 127V, 220V. icons/teeth.gif icons/exclamation2.gif  
Plugs Type: M. A, B, F, G. icons/exclamation2.gif  
Hertz: 50Hz. 60Hz. icons/note.gif  

If you are electrical savvy, perhaps the previous chart is all you need. If this is not the case, you can continue reading and discover what the chart is saying!

Plugs and Sockets at each country

In South Africa the following plugs are used: (includes Pretoria, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Stellenbosch, Port Elizabeth, Maseru.)

South Africa' Plug Type M
Plug Type M
South Africa' Outlet Type M
Outlet Type M

... and in Saudi Arabia you will use: (includes Riyadh, Jeddah, Mecca, Tabuk, Taif, Al Ula, Yanbu.)

Saudi Arabia' Plug Type A Saudi Arabia' Plug Type B Saudi Arabia' Plug Type F Saudi Arabia' Plug Type G
Plug Type A Plug Type B Plug Type F Plug Type G
Saudi Arabia' Outlet Type A Saudi Arabia' Outlet Type B Saudi Arabia' Outlet Type F Saudi Arabia' Outlet Type G
Outlet Type A Outlet Type B Outlet Type F Outlet Type G

Al Qurayyah

Al Qurayyah

Voltage

Take extreme care: the electric network is not homogeneous

Different voltages are used within the countries. So perhaps different voltages are used in different regions or cities. You will have to exercise extreme caution about this. Before pluging any electric device, you should check your device voltage and you must ask a local for the voltage used in the electric network. If you move to different city or region, you should ask again. Using electric devices in different voltage network could incurr in a broken device and even fire. Please read further the page for more information.

On the positive side, nowadays many devices will switch automatically to the network voltage and they will work just fine, i.e. mobile phone chargers are typically multi-voltage (but please, do actually check your own).

High-power devices don't usually handle different voltages due to the high-currents involved i.e. anything that its main purpose involves generating heat (or cold) like hair driers, baby bottle warmers, kettles, etc. On the contrary, modern low-power devices are likely to auto-detect and auto-adapt to different voltages i.e. usb chargers, laptop chargers, etc.

You might either need a step up voltage converter, a step down voltage converter, or maybe, nothing at all. When a country electronic grid is not homogenous, there is not much we can help but ask you to exercise caution.

Plugs Type

Different plug systems

Different plug systems

Sorry, none of the plugs used in both countries are common. You will definitelly need plug adapters, please continue reading for more information.

Adapters

Lists of adapters you can use in your travel:

Adapter: generic

front view of generic adapter to use plugs type A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N from South Africa in outlets type B from Saudi Arabia back view of generic adapter to use plugs type A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N from South Africa in outlets type B from Saudi Arabia
Front Back

This adapter allows you to use plugs type: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N into outlets type: B.

Adapter: generic

front view of generic adapter to use plugs type A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N from South Africa in outlets type E, F from Saudi Arabia back view of generic adapter to use plugs type A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N from South Africa in outlets type E, F from Saudi Arabia
Front Back

This adapter allows you to use plugs type: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N into outlets type: E, F.

Adapter: generic

front view of generic adapter to use plugs type A, B, C, D, E, F, I, M from South Africa in outlets type G from Saudi Arabia back view of generic adapter to use plugs type A, B, C, D, E, F, I, M from South Africa in outlets type G from Saudi Arabia
Front Back

This adapter allows you to use plugs type: A, B, C, D, E, F, I, M into outlets type: G.

This is a very cheap adapter without loose terminal and finger protection; it does have earth pass-though (good); but no good grip because of so many different supported plugs. We recommend to use a more expensive option if available.

Adapter: generic

front view of generic adapter to use plugs type A, B, D, G, I, M from South Africa in outlets type C, E, F, L from Saudi Arabia back view of generic adapter to use plugs type A, B, D, G, I, M from South Africa in outlets type C, E, F, L from Saudi Arabia
Front Back

This adapter allows you to use plugs type: A, B, D, G, I, M into outlets type: C, E, F, L.

This adapter has a safety protection so you don't plug only one terminal into the adapter while touching the other with your finger, because it is generic, when you buy it pay attention to this safety mechanism. Overall a good adapter that has the earth connection pass-though (notice the metallic connector on the side.)

Adapter: generic

front view of generic adapter to use plugs type C, D, E, F, G, M from South Africa in outlets type A, B from Saudi Arabia back view of generic adapter to use plugs type C, D, E, F, G, M from South Africa in outlets type A, B from Saudi Arabia
Front Back

This adapter allows you to use plugs type: C, D, E, F, G, M into outlets type: A, B.

This adapter is probably illegal in some countries, we put it here for educational purposes; it does not have earth connection but it allows earthed plugs to be connected to it. It has no finger-terminal protection. Try to go for a more expensive and safer alternative.

Adapters you can buy

You can buy the following multi-purpose adapters from Amazon. Please also take a look at the recommended gadgets for your trip.

Hertz

No equal Hertz

This is not a big issue. Unless you are using an electric alarm clock or some motors when speed is an issue. Explanation: Some alarm clocks uses the frequency of electricity network to measure time. So, time shifts could be experimented. Almost every home electronic device works perfectly with different Hertz.

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