The dangerous power adaptors holidaymakers need to avoid this summer

Safety first – even when on holiday (Picture: Getty/Metro)

When packing for a holiday,there are a few things you should never go without: sunscreen,passport and a travel adaptor that bursts into flames.

Well,maybe not that last one. Electrical safety experts found thousands of dodgy travel adaptors for sale on popular online marketplaces.

Electrical Safety First (ESF) tested 14 products from AliExpress,Amazon Marketplace,eBay and TikTok Shop – all failed to meet safety standards.

People using them would be at risk of electric shock or electrocution,the charity’s product safety engineer Giuseppe Capanna told Metro.

‘Travel adaptors are often something people pick up at the last minute before going away,which makes them an easy target for unscrupulous sellers looking to make a quick buck,’ he said.

‘They cut corners by using cheap,poor-quality materials and making false claims,all while putting people’s safety at risk.’

What did they find?

Testers bought eight universal and six basic travel adaptors from marketplaces they suspected were unsafe. All of the since-removed adaptors were unbranded,with no notable model numbers.

Mains socket shapes vary by region,so a UK plug won’t fit into an American one. Voltages – the strength of the electricity – also tend to differ.

A plug adaptor converts the shape of the plug to another and sends the power from the wall directly to whatever you pop into it.

Travel adaptors will,in tiny lettering somewhere,say the range of volts they work with (Picture: Electrical Safety First)

Adaptors need to hide their internal circuits well to stop people from being zapped (Picture: Electrical Safety First)

Universal plug adaptors should only be able to show one set of prongs at a time (Picture: Electrical Safety First)

Given the risk of blowing a fuse or overheating,adaptors can only be sold if just one set of plug pins is shown,so a user can’t touch the electrical bits.

Yet you could have more than one set of prongs out while the adaptor was in use in six of the eight universal travel adaptors tested.

This means the user could come into contact with 240 volts of electricity – if they touched it with wet hands,the shock could be fatal.

Six boasted ‘surge protection’,designed to absorb the voltage from power trips to keep them from frying your devices,despite not having it.

All the basic adaptors were fire risks as they had oversized pin holes,missing fuses or lacked safety shutters,which would hide internal parts.

One of them had more than 1,000 reviews on Amazon and was flagged as an ‘Amazon’s Choice’ – or a ‘highly-rated,well-priced product’.

The reviews seen by Metro,however,painted a different picture.

One Amazon review claimed the adaptors nearly caused a house fire (Picture: Amazon/Electrical Safety First)

‘Almost burnt down my home using this,’ read a one-star review posted in 2023. ‘Charger destroyed the appliance I was using with the battery highly swollen and smoking.’

Another posted in April said the plug adaptor ‘fell apart’ in their hands.

‘Imagine if I had attempted to use this and for it to fall open while inserted in a socket,’ they added,‘I would have been electrocuted.’

‘Badly designed electricals can have fatal consequences’

Sue Davies,head of consumer protection policy at Which?,told Metro that the consumer watchdog has similarly found faulty phone chargers for sale on popular e-commerce websites.

‘Badly designed electricals can have life-altering – even fatal – consequences,’ she said.

‘It’s appalling that online marketplaces continue to fail to prevent dangerous products from reaching consumers,despite countless warnings.’

Unlike universal ones,plug adaptors are just simple pieces of metal in a plastic shell (Picture: Electrical Safety First)

Some said they have ‘surge protection’ when they don’t (Picture: Electrical Safety First)

Online marketplaces are kept in check by the Department for Business,Energy and Industrial Strategy.

The government department told Metro that platforms need to ‘act’ to stop unsafe products being listed to begin with.

‘We take action to remove unsafe items from sale and hold online marketplaces to account,’ it added.

Can you still buy these travel adaptors?

No,as the marketplaces have removed the products ESF flagged from sale.

AliExpress said that safety is the platform’s ‘top priority’ and has issued a recall.

‘We have also launched a wider review of universal travel adaptor listings where all plug pins are shown extended at the same time,’ the Chinese e-commerce platform added.

Amazon took similar action,stressing that all products must comply with local laws.

What to look out for with travel adaptors

1. Multiple pins extendable at onceUniversal plug adaptors let you slide different pins to match the country’s outlet – but just one set at a time. Anything more is risky.2. Seeing internal partsIf you can see any of the adaptor’s circuitry through its socket holes,that’s a bad sign,ESF says.3. Spelling and grammarWhen buying anything electrical,keep an eye out for errors on the packaging or printed on the product itself.‘We proactively monitor our store for safety alerts and product recalls and remove relevant products and email customers who purchased them,’ it added.A spokesperson for the online thrift shop eBay also said the offending adaptors have been removed from digital shelves.‘At eBay,we combine technology,AI-supported monitoring and specialist teams to help maintain a safe and trusted marketplace,’ they said.‘We also work closely with regulators to monitor for unsafe products and enhance our prevention efforts. Together,these proactive measures have prevented millions of potentially unsafe items from being listed every year.’TikTok uses similar filters and moderation to keep sellers in check and has removed products and associated videos.Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at .For more stories like this,check our news page.