As these adapters are always sold singly for ridiculously high prices, and I regularly need them, I thought it would be a wise move to buy six and save. Unfortunately I wound up very quickly in a dangerous -- some would say life-threatening -- situation with them.
I had plugged an appliance with an American plug into a European socket using one of the adapters, and now I was unplugging it. I pulled the appliance out. The adapter was left in the plug (which is common and not a problem). Using normal force I grasped the adapter and tried to pull it out of the socket. Instead of the whole adapter coming out, the plastic housing pulled away from the base of the adapter. The plastic threads holding the screw which attaches the housing to the base had stripped away under this quite modest force. The electrical contacts inside the adapter were left bare with full current running into the adapter. I restrained my impulse to pull the adapter out of the plug by the contacts and shut off the power to the socket before prying the adapter out of the socket with a screwdriver. I have used many similar adapters over the years and have never experienced anything like this before. American to European Outlet Plug Adapter - 6 Pack
Instead of these, I recommend round grounded adapters for US 3-prong as well as 2-prong plugs. Why? Because they have a better, more snug fit on both sides. They fit more snuggly in the Euro/Schuko socket. These flat 2-prong adapters in my experience tend to have a looser connection or even fall out of the socket - esp. if yours is a heavy cable or if it has one of those AD/DC converters at the plug end pulling down on the adapter.
On the other hand, flat 2-prong adapters are slightly more compact and fit better in your pocket. So if you want to get one, I recommend you at least find one that is rubberized or has ridges or a lip to make it easier to pull out of the socket. (The cheap ones made of hard slippery plastic are the worse). And make sure you don't overpay. There are dozens of merchants selling these; make sure you don't pay more than $2/pc including shipping.
Lastly, keep in mind, the schuko socket fits most European countries but not all - most notably UK, and Italy which have their own peculiar sockets.
The adapters worked just fine. I brought them to both Paris and Vienna and had no real problems. The fact that I forgot about them after I plugged them into the wall is probably a good thing, since it means they were doing their job. The only negative comment I have is that the adapters didn't always fit into the wall perfectly, and were sometimes a little loose. One time, while using my hairdryer, the adapter did come out of the wall. Apart from that, I was happy with my purchase. Made my trip a lot easier.
We used this on a recent trip to Europe with great success. We didn't have any issues with the plugs breaking. We used them in four different countries and had no issues. It was helpful to have multiple adapters so you could leave the adapter on different items and not have to constantly change them, and for the price you can't beat it!!
These are very good little adapters, they are not the flimsy little black ones you sometimes get. They are very well priced and also work in Brazil, in fact I am using them to adapt some of my European plugs to work in Brazil, they need smaller posts than my European devices. Now it is possible these will be a little loose in Europe, I haven't tried them there yet.
Having moved to Europe from the US, we have a ton of lamps and computer chargers, etc that require these simple adaptors to get them to work. They cost on average about 5 euros here in the Paris area (ridiculous!). Here, they were a mere fraction of the cost and arrived in a flash. Efficient and cost effective! - Plug - Travel Adapter'
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