voltage and hair straighteners..?

[goodhairday1]

i have recently bought a pair of hair straighteners. however, i am planning to take them abroad with me as i am going to live temporarily in Asia. I have an adaptor but on the leaflet that came with them, it said that they are designed for 240 volts. but the power supply where I am going to live only has 110 volts. will my straighteners still work?

[lisaj]

On the assumption that hair straighteners are just heating elements within a case, then they should work, but not at the efficiency (temperature) that they were designed for. Ideally, you should have a step-up transformer that allows you to use 240V appliances on a 110V supply. My guess is that looking on somewhere like dabs.com would yield a result since the most likely use for this kind of technology is for plugging in laptops abroad.

[Hamish]

lisaj is right, the will not work at the right temperature. You can buy 110-240v transformers although portable versions do not funtion at high power ratings 3.5kW You should check the power rating of the device (it will be in watts (W) or can be calculated from voltage * current (the figure in amps (A)) Most laptops don't actually required these devices as they already have a dual voltage transformer. All the best and have a good holiday, Hamish