How to use plugs from South Africa in United States of America
Plugs, sockets, adapters and other information needed for travelling from South Africa to United States of America 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 | United States of America | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Voltage: | 220V, 230V. | 120V. |
|
| Plugs Type: | M. | A, B. |
|
| Hertz: | 50Hz. | 60Hz. |
|
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.)
|
| Plug Type M |
|
| Outlet Type M |
... and in United States of America you will use: (includes Washington, New York, Las Vegas, Disneyland, Los Angeles, Chicago.)
|
|
| Plug Type A | Plug Type B |
|
|
| Outlet Type A | Outlet Type B |
Liberty
Voltage
Take care: United States of America uses lower voltage than South Africa
Your electric devices from South Africa will be expecting 220 Volts, but United States of America grid is of 120 Volts, this is a substantial difference that requires you to take some extra steps in preparation to your trip:
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). It is important that you pay attention to your device's voltage. Connecting electronics to the wrong voltage, in the luckiest of the cases, the device will break or stop working temporarily; but please don't take this lightly, in the worst of the cases electrocution and fire hazards are a real possibility.
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 will need a step down voltage converter a device that can be plugged to 120 volts and it provides an outlet with 220 volts for your South Africa' device. You will need to pay attention to the maximum power output of the converter and the maximum power consumption of the device.
Plugs Type
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 | 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 | 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.
Finally, by the way ...
We are revamping the blog! Visit our new blog here.
↬ a link from your website helps too.