also called plug adapter · socket adapter · travel adapter
A device letting your plugs fit different countries' sockets.
A universal power adapter is the gadget that reshapes your plug so it fits different countries' sockets. It only solves the shape problem: getting the pins into the wall. It does not change the voltage coming out of that wall, so a device that cannot handle the local supply is not made safe just because the plug now fits.
You slot a universal adapter onto your charger and it clicks neatly into the foreign socket, so you assume you are covered. If the appliance was built for a different voltage, the adapter has done nothing to protect it, because all it changed was the shape of the plug, not the power behind it.
Solves shape mismatch only; it does not change voltage if a device cannot handle the local supply.
The difference is the whole point, so here is each one in a line.
These solve two different problems people confuse.
A universal power adapter only changes the shape of the plug so it fits a foreign socket, while a voltage converter actually changes the electrical voltage so an appliance built for one country's system works safely on another's.
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