Simran SMF-200 Deluxe 200 Watts Step Down Voltage Converter for International Travel to AC 220V/240V Countries, Ideal for Laptops, Cameras, iPhones, BlackBerry, iPods etc

I bought this for my daughter. She has gone to Europe twice and this unit continues to work for her. She did buy another, but it would seem that the mildly cheaper one could not put up with the strain. This will easily keep the essentials on your trip working. She has lent it to a friend of mine going to Spain and I expect to hear about consistent fabulous results. Good Job on this one !! Robust and wraps up easily. It is heavy, but it is robust !!!My friend borrowed this unit, and it worked perfectly for his personal electronics. But reading the other reviews, and some are inexplicably negative, I thought that the following would be important.When you plug in your device, you need to be sure you are not using too much power. This can harm the device, and so there is some home work to do here.1. Perhaps your personal electronic device has a charger with the wattage written on it. What a Godsend that would be because you simply have to add up the Wattage of the devices you are plugging in. Keep everything under the 200 Watts and you are good.2. If there is no wattage listed, you can calculate this by taking the VOLTAGE of the unit and multiplying this by the CURRENT. This will give you a value called Wattage. Voltage of course is measured in VOLTS and current is measured in AMPS.Small personal items normally have no problem, as the tablet I have in front of me requires 5.0 V (kind of typical for things that plug into USB ports - another wonderful hint!) and draws a current of 1.0 A - that is only 5 Watts. I can plug in many of those units into this one adapter. SO, when it comes to this type of personal device, this unit is wonderful !!On the subject of LAPTOPS, do realize that the adapter that came with your laptop is required to do two things, and likely at the same time. The adapter needs to provide enough power to run your laptop, AND charge up your battery. MANY laptops come with 65 Watt Power adapters, and again this is small enough for this converter. But if you are plugging in a few things for the evening, do remember this little Road Warrior secret. Your laptop draws less power than that when it is ONLY CHARGING. So, with a little trial and error you can plug in all of your electronics, and provided that they are only charging, this converter unit is a TREMENDOUS unit to have !!I still heartily suggest that anyone going to Europe will need one of these.Lastly, and this is outside of my area of expertise, this unit can have other adapters for lesser known areas of Europe and beyond where there are different power conventions. I believe that the voltages will still be 220 V, but the actual fitting is different. Do be sure that you do your research on that !!

Most people likely will never need this item. Contrary to the item name/description here, phones, computers, tablets, readers, fitness trackers and other devices are typically designed to charge in a range from ~100-240v. This means that all you need is a plug adapter to convert your existing plug to be compatible with the outlets in the country you are traveling to, not this step down transformer. When you have a device, however, that must be stepped down to be able to use it, this converter is awesome. I use an electric razor that requires 110v. In the past, I've burned out two of them utilizing the 110v razor outlets that many countries have in their bathrooms. I should've known something was up both time as the razor just didn't sound right when operating it using those outlets, but needing a shave, I pressed on, and destroyed two razors in the process.I purchased this converter in the hopes that it would prevent me from ever having to replace my electric razor again, and that I wouldn't have to resort to a blade while traveling. It did not disappoint! Immediately upon turning on the razor the first time after plugging it into this unit, I knew the problems of the past were gone. The razor sounded exactly as it did when plugged in in the US.You can not go wrong with this unit if you are one of those folks that actually needs a step down transformer. Unless you need it for a high wattage item like a hairdryer of a curling iron. This until isn't designed for that kind of wattage, so you'll have to look elsewhere.

Just as a tip for other travelers that want to save weight on their travels:You may not need this to charge your electronics!Most modern electronics with a wall wart, brick or transformer charger are MULTI-VOLTAGE meaning they will up or down convert on their own. I am currently traveling and able to charge my iPhone, Blackberry, MacBook Pro, ipad and the batteries for my Canon 5Dmk2 and Canon G12 without the usage of this device. I plug these in directly into the outlet. If you look at the power bricks or specs for the charger of these devices, usually in the spec sheet to on the charger itself, it will indicate that they are multi or single voltage.I did bring the converter for charging my batteries for my Dewalt hammer drill. They did charge without a flaw and no errors from the charger. I was also able to charge my Sonicare toothbrush with this without fault. Unfortunately, the Sonicare toothbrush is only US voltage only.... I checked.I travel A LOT to overeseas countries that have 220v output in their household receptacles and have never had a problem with my electronics directly connected. You just have to read the specs. Even though this is relatively light, sometimes every pound counts when you travel. That being said, I've left the step down converter in the country I'm visiting in my storage container. I frequently visit the Philippines so I have a storage area that I leave or take thing from.When I did use this unit, I did not experience any overheating problems, but I did not really tax it with a heavy load. I just used it mostly for charging batteries that did not have a charger that was dual voltage. Hope this helps other travelers!