our switzerland basics series so this is episode  number three if you have not seen the other ones  

i will link them right here as well  as in the description box down below

so the whole switzerland basics series is really  designed for those of you that are interested in  

moving to switzerland and you want to know the  real basics about life here and how to handle  

kind of everyday situations so in today's video  i thought we would talk all about you know  

electronics plugs electricity so although this  is not that exciting i feel like it is actually  

really important because when i first moved here  i was super confused about how things worked and  

i just felt like a lot of things that i read  online kind of confused me so i thought i will  

put it in this video as simple as i can for you  all right we'll just keep it real simple here  

this is a swiss outlet so it looks like this  of course sometimes there's slightly different  

configurations here but this is a typical  outlet now you have two plugs that you will see  

a lot of in switzerland so this is a type j  as you can see it is a mounted plug so it has  

three prongs on it so this is what you'll see  on like you know laptops and i guess other like  

i don't know how you say like high you know  energy using types of electronics and then  

this is the other type this is a type c plug and  as you can see it doesn't have the mount so this  

is actually similar to in the us you know you  have some plugs that are like really thick and  

then some that are more you know like everyday use  i guess so i guess i'll do a demonstration here  

goes in like this so actually you can fit  three electronics not with this this is  

actually as you can see this is an adapter  um but you can fit three of this for example  

in here so it's kind of interesting actually  probably not with this the goal is that you  

can fit a three let me see so here we have one  two and then you could put a third one uh like  

so so as you can see actually here i have  an adapter this is my curling iron and  

you can see underneath here is a us  plug and then i have this adapter over  

the top here so let's talk about that quickly so  if you are traveling in switzerland or relocating  

to switzerland and you plan to bring electronics  from a foreign country there are a lot of things  

you need to keep in mind and the first one is  that in switzerland the electricity is 220 to 240  

volts versus in the us what is it 100 to 120  well 110 to 120 so it's much lower it's half  

in the united states so you really need to keep  that in mind because you want to make sure you're  

only bringing electronics that are dual voltage  which means that they work like this curling iron  

for example is dual voltage it will work in the  united states and it will work in europe or in  

switzerland and the way that you can tell is  by looking at the product here so as you can  

see right here it is printed on ac 110 to 240 so  that's how you can tell that it is dual voltage  

because of that range so that means i can use this  curling iron really anywhere and i only need an  

adapter i do not need an electricity converter so  there is a difference if this curling iron was not  

dual voltage if i looked and it just said you know  110 and it didn't go up to 240 that means it's not  

dual voltage and you could technically bring that  with you to europe but you're gonna need to use  

a converter on the end so a converter i don't  actually have one but they look like this  

they can be pretty small and these are supposed to  you know protect your appliance and make it work  

um when you have different voltage so this you  know the electricity here is double in strength  

excuse me for using the wrong words to describe  this but basically it's twice as strong so if you  

plug your non-dual voltage curling iron even if  you have an adapter on it into the wall it will  

basically uh fry if not the first time it will fry  over time and in my experience i have brought over  

a lot of non-dual voltage electronics and  i tried to use an electricity um converter  

with an adapter and i found that within a few  months they all died even with the converter so  

i recommend only bringing with you dual voltage  electronics or electronics um that can handle  

the voltage here in switzerland so things that  are typically dual voltage are your cell phone  

your laptop a lot of like razors like buzzers  those are typically designed for travel  

so usually they're dual voltage but you  know it's best just to check you know i  

just actually went around and here like this uh  canon battery charger it says right on the back  

100 to 240 oh sorry it's totally out of focus but  you'll have to trust me there so i can pretty much  

use this anywhere and if you are moving to  switzerland and say you have a laptop okay this  

is laptop charger you can see it has an american  grounded plug at the end i would recommend  

that you don't buy a universal um how you say plug  adapter because look at how massive and bulky this  

is it's they're also usually pretty expensive they  can do every country which is great for travel  

but if you are relocating you're going to want  to get yourself a smaller one because you'll find  

if you are in a coffee shop or in a library or  something a lot of the times these are too bulky  

to maneuver into where the plugs are and it can  be a real problem so if you are moving here get  

some of these little guys because you can put  this on your laptop charger and it's really not  

i don't think it's a whole lot bigger and  this tends to be a lot more handy you can  

leave it on it doesn't fall off and all that  kind of stuff whereas this is like a massive  

thing but i will link um down below links for all  these plugs that are going to work in switzerland  

and i would recommend that you buy them make sure  you buy them if you're moving here buy them before  

you come here because it's a little bit harder to  find like this is a specific u.s to switzerland  

plug which is a lot harder to find once you're  here obviously it's easier to buy this in the us  

and in the us you also have amazon we don't have  amazon in switzerland so it's super easy to get  

these kind of niche products for super cheap and  just buy a bunch and just stock up on them because  

you are going to need them especially i love these  little guys here they're very very small you can  

put an you know a regular us plug and uh that  lives on a whole bunch of my electronics and i  

hardly even notice it's there but make sure  you really check which plug you are getting  

because we know switzerland they like to do things  differently they're not in the eu they're not in  

the euro zone and their plugs are different  than the surrounding countries so if you get  

the wrong plug and look at this here pop quiz is  this a swiss plug is this what was it a type j  

it's actually not it looks very or sorry it  looks very similar to this one the sea right  

but it looks almost the same look at that but  this will not work in switzerland this is what  

i think they use i'm not an expert in all of the  countries but i i take this when i go to germany  

or france or like spain um most of europe uses  a plug like this now it's a little bit strange  

because if you have if you're coming from like  germany or france or whatever your plugs are too  

thick for the swiss outlets so if you're swiss or  if you have a swiss plug and you go abroad this  

will fit in a german plug because it's small right  it will fit whereas if you're going the other way  

around this will not fit because it's just like i  can show you it's just too wide it just doesn't go  

in um but again the other way around does work so  if you have a swiss plug thing this will work in  

germany france etc but keep in mind this will not  uh the three prong will not which is why i have  

this and just a small tip here let's say you're  moving to switzerland from the u.s or from germany  

whatever you might want to bring with you a power  strip from your home country these are swiss  

plugs obviously but you could bring one of these  with american plugs and then you only need one  

adapter on the end so you could just get your  one swiss adapter and then you could plug  

all your american electronics in here without  having to have plug adapters on each thing that is  

a good little tip and i have one other note here  about what is called country coding or country  

um locked appliances basically so this  sounds completely silly and ridiculous  

but when i first moved to switzerland um to go  to college i brought my inkjet printer with me  

okay i was a totally broke college kid and i'm  like whatever i have from the us that's like  

kind of expensive i'm gonna bring it with me in  my suitcases because i don't want to have to buy  

that stuff in switzerland so i had a pretty small  inkjet printer that fit right in the bottom of my  

checked luggage and i think it was actually dual  voltage and i only needed to get an adapter so i  

got an adapter put it on there got my printer all  ready thought i was going to save so much money  

and i got to switzerland and it definitely  worked the printer worked no problem but  

when i ran out of ink i went and i got more  ink and when i put it in the printer it said  

uh country coated locked and it did not allow  me to print which was really annoying because  

obviously i had already opened the ink cartridge  and i could not return it to the store anymore  

um so i had just spent like 40 swiss francs on ink  and then when i installed it the printer said like  

the printer basically knew i was using swiss ink  and an american printer and it locked me out and  

i couldn't figure out how to unlock it and then i  basically had to get rid of the printer couldn't  

even sell it because nobody wants a locked printer  so that is an item i know is country coded and you  

should not bring with you unless they've changed  that hopefully they've changed that um also back  

in the day it was the same with dvds i couldn't  use like american dvds and swiss dvd players  

obviously people don't use dvds anymore but  just check anything that has like components  

that go into it just double check that before  you move over here that they are not country  

coded and you're gonna get locked out so i hope i  basically covered it let me summarize if you have  

swiss plugs and you go abroad your two-prong ones  will work in eu plugs but the three-prong ones  

will not and if you have standard european  plugs the prongs are too thick for switzerland  

and make sure you get all this sorted before you  come here because it's just going to be a lot more  

affordable less stressful it's very hard to find  these kinds of niche products in switzerland  

surely there are websites that sell them but  there's definitely ways to do it cheaper so that's  

it for today's video i will link my favorite plug  converters down below the ones that i use like on  

a daily basis that i bought years ago maybe 10  years ago never had a problem with it and i hope  

this video was helpful in some way you guys if you  like this video leave it a thumbs up comment down  

below what you'd like to see next we love doing  this switzerland basic series but i want to know  

what you want to know so leave your request down  below and i'll talk to you guys very soon bye

you