International outlets

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blueshoelaces

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Hi, all,

I'm not sure if you're allowed to answer this kind of question, but I wasn't sure where else to go (short of Yahoo Answers, and you get all kinds of misinformers over there), so I figured I'd give it a shot.

I'm spending the semester in Spain with a host family, and I'm wondering how safe it is to use my own (US) hair straightener. It takes 120 volts. I'm not sure what the Spanish outlet voltage is. I have a converter, which works fine for my laptop and camera battery, but someone told me not to try to use my own hair dryer since it could still do something funky with the current (I know next to nothing about how electricity works? my apologies).

I thought a straightener would probably function similarly to a hair dryer, since they both deal with generating quite a bit of heat, and I wondered how dangerous it would be, either to my appliance or to my host family's electrical system. It has an adjustable setting? would it probably operate at the same voltage on a low setting as on a high setting?

Sorry if this is outside the "answerable question" boundary? just thought I'd ask a professional for advice. I promise I'm not about to take anyone to court for melting my straightener, for what that's worth. ;)
 
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