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I have always forgotten the battery-charging adapter of my electronic devices during travel, so now consider purchasing the adapter.

However, I wonder if a universal worldwide adapter is safe enough to use in a general household. In a general household being a room either booked via Airbnb or rented for a short-time period.

Specifically, I'm more concerned that using the adapter may break my devices or the outlet of the room, or worst of all, ignition, than a chance that it breaks the adapter itself.

Note that I use it for 360 days out of 365 days as I travel for all year round. I believe these products are designed for a short-time trip, and that's why I'm worried.

So how safe is it to be used in a general household?

Is it more likely to cause those sorts of troubles than an one-to-one adapter (or no adapter), given that it is used all year round?

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    Use in a hotel or an house rented through AirBnB should be no different. The deciding factor will be what devices you are drawing power for and the reliability of electricity where you travel.
    – user13044
    Commented Nov 12, 2016 at 4:52
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    There is no difference if you use an adapter 1 day in 10 years or 360 days a year. If it will not burn after 15 minutes of use (because of crappy materials and design) it will serve you until you lose or physically break it.
    – Neusser
    Commented Nov 12, 2016 at 9:14
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    Make sure you buy a good quality item, (tested and approved in the country you buy it,) it is the cheaply made and untested ones that might be faulty and dangerous.
    – Willeke ♦
    Commented Nov 12, 2016 at 9:44
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because while I think it's an excellent question it could be much better answered on electronics.stackexchange.com . To answer this properly one would need to know what problems the shape of the bronze in the socket could mean. Also, most universal adapters have movable plugs, perhaps there can be some problem as well.
    – user4188
    Commented Nov 12, 2016 at 14:51
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    Note that the particular adapter you link to has a universal socket that accepts grounded plugs from several countries, but the plugs that plug into the wall socket have no grounds. This may be practical for a travel adapter since having grounded plugs for every country would require a much larger collection of plug hardware than that adapter provides, but you might want to be careful about plugging devices into the socket that depend on the ground for safety, even if the device's plug fits into the socket.
    – user38879
    Commented Nov 14, 2016 at 4:31

2 Answers 2

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I would not install an adapter for permanent use, but you, if I am understanding you, are not planning to use it permanently, just continuously.

Under use, two things might go wrong with an adapter: either the conductor breaks or the insulator breaks. If the conductor fails, it's not much of a problem. The adapter will stop working and you'll need a new one.

The insulator fails, that's a problem. It could start a fire, or it could give you a nasty shock.

Problems with insulation are typically perceptible. It will crack, get brown or black in place, or have a distinctively brittle feel, or have a slight burned odor. So long as you inspect the adapter every week or so -- something that is easy to do if you are moving around, changing hotels -- you will notice the problem months before there is any danger.

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So how safe is it to be used in a general household?

Quite safe.

Is it more likely to cause those sorts of troubles than an one-to-one adapter (or no adapter), given that it is used all year round?

Yes.

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