Using US electronic equipment in the Philippines

[top_secret 2,283]

19 minutes ago, Jason and May said:

have usually just closed my eyes and plugged things in. I've been lucky, I guess. (I'm not suggesting you do this. Some other pretty intelligent folks have chimed in; you're much safer following their advice.)

 

I used to do that.  Then about 15 years ago in a hotel in Indonesia I plugged in a cheapo charger that promptly detonated in my hand.  Miraculously, other than some soot marks on my fingers, there were no ill effects to me, but it blew the circuit breaker for like half the rooms on my side of the hall.  (who knew they had circuit breakers in Indonesia?)  So I called the lady at the front desk who who spoke very little English, but more than anyone who was there at night.  I somehow communicated the power was out and about 15 minutes later two "repairmen" showed up at my room with a flashlight and a ladder.  They did not speak a word of English and despite my best efforts I was not able to communicate to them to just go turn the circuit breaker back on and everything would be fine.  I 'think' they associated the blown circuit breaker with some recurrent problem with the air-conditioning(??), since they started climbing in the ventilation duct in the roof of my hotel room.  After 5 minutes or so, the guy up in the ventilation duct yelled something to the other guy who then disappeared down the hall and presumably finally flipped the circuit breaker since everything came back on.  The guy climbed out of the duct in the roof and the two of them were all smiles having heroically solved the no power situation.  After they left I checked the label on that charger and sure enough it was like the only charger that was NOT dual voltage.  Ever since then I do check the labels.🤣