Preparing for Your Trip to Prague - Will My Electronic Equipment Work?

We use electronic appliances, phones and computers every day of our life. They have become an inseparable part of our daily routine, so much so that it is easy to forget that there are slightly different rules surrounding them in other countries. Things like what plugs you should use, what voltage sockets in the Czech Republic have and more. Here’s the run-down of the most critical facts.

There are four voltage ranges around the world: 100 volts in Japan, 110 to 120 volts in the US, Canada, Taiwan, many Central and South American countries as well as the Caribbean, 127 volts used in Mexico and parts of Brazil, and 220 to 240 volts used in the rest of the world, including Europe, Asia, and Africa. But why does this even matter? If you have an appliance made for 100 volts and plug it into a socket with 220 volts coursing through it, you will not just fry your electronics, but you can also start a fire or even get a lethal shock.

What you want to do is either get a completely new appliance in the country where you want to stay, or you can get a voltage transformer – essentially a box that will increase or decrease the voltage coming from your socket. You plug the transformer into the socket and your appliance into the transformer, and all should work as usual. When choosing a transformer, make sure you pick a higher quality one. The cheaper transformers are prone to overheating, wasting electricity, and sometimes even giving off a loud hum when plugged for too long.

Some appliances use high-power motors, like fridges, microwaves, AC, and such, that need a particular frequency of the electricity that comes from the socket. The most significant difference is between the 220-to-240-volt range and the 110-to-120-volt range. The first one uses 50Hz while the second 60Hz.

So plugging a US microwave into a European socket may still damage the appliance. To make sure you can use these appliances, you need to buy a transformer that also changes the frequency of the current coming from the socket.

There are over fifteen different plug shapes globally, but thankfully, the Czech Republic uses the same shape as the rest of the European Union - the Europlug. Don’t confuse the shape of the plug with the different voltage ranges.

For example, while South American nations and Europe have very different volt ranges, they share the same plug shape. However, you can buy some universal plug adapters online, letting you take any two plug shapes and connect them. Just make sure you check the voltages first.