multiple plug outlets - how safe an idea is it

With the addition of a netbook this trip, I will have camera batteries, the computer and a cell phone that will need to be recharged. If the cheap hotels in West Africa are like those in East Africa, there won't be more than one socket in a room, so I was thinking of bringing a multiple socket to attach to the converter plug to save time.

I have no idea if with the conversion as to whether this is safe. Can anyone enlighten me please.

thanks,
Kendrick

i think it should be fine if you are only connecting 3 electronics to it. I also doubt that those three appliances are high electricty demanding-like toasters and ovens that are very power hungry. However, just to be on the safe side, rather charge them separately when possible.

I now take only 1 international plug converter and a 6 port powerstrip/powerboard when I travel.
It's safe as long as you don't overload the circuit, just like at home. I normally charge my laptop, ipad, camera and phone at one time. No issues so far.

Good luck!

Have used one adaptor and a powerboard without problems in India, SE Asia, and fair bit of Europe with no problems at all. I am a bit paronoid and try not to charge them all while I'm sleeping.

phimeow,

would you please give me the name of your converter so I could look it up?

It's nothing special - you can see a sample pic here
I plug this in to the powerpoint and then run a powerstip off it.

PhiMeow,

I misunderstood what you wrote and when I figured it out, I realized that I didn't explain myself well. You do exactly what I was thinking of doing. You use one converter and then plug into it a strip of plug outlets. Thanks, if it's worked so far, then it should be safe in general.

Thanks everyone.

Personally I use a cheap adapter (from my experience, converters have been something else) and then plugging a surge protector into that and then the powerboard into the surge protector, especially in India where I regularly had power outages and you can get a significant power spike when the generator kicks in. I also now carry a few spare fuses with me as trying to find one specific fuse for a plug in Vietnam was really rather difficult and frustrating!

Apologies to all regarding my terminology.
I used 'converter' whereas I probably should have used 'adapter'.

Converter would imply it converts voltage whereas adapter just changes the plug.

Oh -re: surge protector as mentioned by woldranger - it's a great idea especially for places where electrical supply is dodgy. Instead of a separate surge protector, many powerstrips have this built-in (some is a fuse style, others is a push button reset style).

Happy travels.