Charging electronics on Bonaire - just wing it huh?

[Mike]

I did some searching here and have done some research on the power issues on Bonaire and it appears you either use a community charging station where you are staying or you take your chances on destroying rechargeable batteries in your room?

I talked with a few people about the travel converters and adapters and the issue seems to be that everything is designed to step down from 220 to 110, but nothing is designed to step down from 127 to 110 and nothing is affordable that will change from 50 to 60 cycles.

So you charge it and take your chances?

 

[ScubaSteve]

I have only been twice but when I was there I was charging Ikelite strobes, portable Sony DVD players, Ipods, laptops, camera batteries......never had an issue. Maybe it is not as dire as you are trying to make it out to be.

 

[Tom Kreider]

Never had a problem with charging, and never heard a problem with anyone in our group (40 divers) all staying at Buddy's. We constantly had our U.S. chargers (about 8 chargers in our villa alone - we take pretty pictures) running for everything from can lights, AAs, AAAs, cameras, and strobes. At least on all the chargers I own, some fancy and some simple, they all handle a wide range of input cycles and voltage.

Back to Bonaire in 4 days for another "charging experiment". Two weeks this trip! We'll be at GRI this time. But don't worry Buddy's, we're back with you in October. Do I like Bonaire diving, or what?

 

[herman]

I have never had a problem either. Look at your chargers, most all of them these days are rated 110-220V, 50-60 hz and if so you are good to go.

 

[jpiwaron]

I did some searching here and have done some research on the power issues on Bonaire and it appears you either use a community charging station where you are staying or you take your chances on destroying rechargeable batteries in your room?

I talked with a few people about the travel converters and adapters and the issue seems to be that everything is designed to step down from 220 to 110, but nothing is designed to step down from 127 to 110 and nothing is affordable that will change from 50 to 60 cycles.

So you charge it and take your chances?

It's almost certainly not necessary to worry about the charger. Nowadays it's common that chargers are universal voltage. The rating plate/pad print whatever, will have the input voltage range it can handle. And will tell you the output voltage to your device/battery.

I took Nikon equipment to Bonaire last January. I stayed at Buddy's Dive Resort. I plugged my battery charger in to a US style wall outlet and charged my batteries without any trouble or incident.

 

[Ms diver 57]

In March my husband dand I went to cuba Club Cozumel instead of Bonaire. We loved it and will return. Where is GRI you mentioned. All the divers I have spoken with abut BOnaire say to go to Buddy Dive it will only be my husband and I in March 2011. Cant wait to hear your thought.

 

[ScubaSteve]

In March my husband dand I went to cuba Club Cozumel instead of Bonaire. We loved it and will return. Where is GRI you mentioned. All the divers I have spoken with abut BOnaire say to go to Buddy Dive it will only be my husband and I in March 2011. Cant wait to hear your thought.

GRI = Golden Reef Inn - dvrliz (I think that is her handle here anyways) here on the board.

EDIT **************

:doh:....I was so close

Thanks Steve, my "handle" is dvrliz1.....

Liz

 

[dvrliz1]

Hi. Regarding charging. You won't have a problem charging your items 110 vs 127. However, I HIGHLY recommend that you bring a portable surge protector. The island is in the process of switching over to the new power plant (wind and bio diesel) and we have seen a lot of power surges.

Thanks Steve, my "handle" is dvrliz1.....

Liz

 

[Tom Kreider]

hmmm... I think this will qualify as hijacking the thread, (and now that I've used that word on the internet, I might not be allowed on my flight...) but I'm going to do it anyway.

I've never met Liz, but I've exchanged emails and such for the past 10 months or so. I can already tell she is a super person and I can't wait to meet her in 5 days. She has been so very helpful and accomodating that I know she'll be great. She runs GRI, so it must be great too! (the stay's @ Buddy's were arranged by my LDS.) I picked GRI for the value, I'm going to love it because of Liz.

Hi Liz !!! I can't wait to see you! oh, and do some diving too.

Tom

 

[DiveMaven]

You can buy some pretty small surge protectors for travel. We always use one for our laptop, but because of Liz's suggestion, we'll be using it for our battery charger this trip! (thanks Liz!) Because everything you plug in runs a bit hotter, we take our "quick charger" for our AA batteries instead of the 8 hour one. Our rechargeables have been totally fine in the 2 trips we've taken (2 weeks each trip), and we've never had a problem with our laptop either, though it's only plugged in when we're using it.