2-PACK UK to US Adapter,SHUOMAO 3 Pin UK to 2 Pin USA Travel Adaptor,UK to American Converter Adapter for America,Canada,Thailand,Mexico,Colombia(Type A,Type B)

These travel plugs have foldable prongs for easy portability, they should get you by in a pinch if you need to charge a phone or a device in an outlet, ideally they should have heavy loads put through them as there is no ground wire.Though that being said they are decent for travel and to get by, but may be better alternatives out there.

This two-pack of UK/US adaptors arrived in a plain cardboard box. Each adaptoer was packed in its own plastic bag.We immediately liked the fact that the US power pins are retractable. Having exposed pins is always a problem when travelling to the US as they can either get bent in transit or can damage adjacent items.However, when we rotated the pins into their regular position a couple of issues reared their heads.First of all, the pins don't rotate fully so that they are perpendicular to the body of the adaptor. They get to about 85 degrees, but not the full 90 degrees. We thought perhaps they needed to 'snap' into that final position, but no. That makes us uncomfortable about how stable they will be when plugged into a US power outlet.The second point is that there is no ground pin. That's not a great problem as we probably won't be taking anything that specifically requires a ground, but it limits the types of electrical appliances with which these should be used.Thirdly, if these are following the US type-A (2-pin) specification the pins are not correct. They should be different sizes, with the live pin being 6.3mm wide and the neutral 7.9 mm. Both the pins here are the same width. For some converters that's understandable as you may not know which pin is live and which neutral, but a UK socket clearly has live on the right and neutral on the left, so there's no excuse.There should also be a hole towards the end of the pin to help secure them in the socket. These don't have that, so will be more prone to falling out.Originally we thought they seems a little larger than was necessary, since the UK live/neutral pin sockets are about 1/3 of the way up the body, but having tested them with a UK 13A plug they are a good, stable fit in terms of size with no overhang.In addition, the adaptors' UK socket has shielded live/neutral pins which provide extra safety when no ground pin is inserted. UK plugs also push in very smoothly. We've had others where it's a real struggle to get a UK plug in, but there are no such issues here.The UK socket isn't suitable for electric shaver or electric toothbrush type plugs though like some adaptors, but they don't make that claim so that's fair enough. It does mean you might need a UK shaver socket adaptor in addition to these when travelling.So, while the retractable US pins are a nice feature, we do have doubts about relying on these adaptors on our next US trip for the reasons above. We'll take them, but also some backup adaptors just in case. A shame really, as a couple of small adjustments to the US pins would have given us complete confidence.