Australian Appliances in HK

Can Australian electrical appliances ranging from hair dryers, kettles etc through to TV's & Computers be used in HK with a simple plug adaptor ?

Thank you very much for the advice.

Definitely bring along the kambrook style power boards as you are usually using them anyway in places like behind the bed (lamps, clock radios, phone charges etc) and the kitchen (microwave, toaster, kettle, fridge) as well as tv/stero combos and many of the flats are not over supplied with extra sockets so bring the good sort with electrical cut out etc.

The only thing that most likely will not work is the TV -we lugged a huge one up here three years ago and had to send it back. Receives sound but no pictures and although people talk about getting something to adapt it we never solved that problem UHF/VHF - however we do have one the kids use just for videos/playstation and that is fine as they don't watch local tv or cable. Possibly if your tv is very new and multisystem it may work here though.

The plugs used here are the three prong UK style if you want to pick up one or two travel adaptors before you come for use in hotel/unpacking but they are widely available here in multi packs in the markets. I would not change over all the plugs if you can use good adaptors as it means changing them back when you move home and is a load of hassle.

For appliances that draw alot of current you will need to change the plugs. Our washing machine literally melted the adaptor.

If you do decide to change the plugs on your aussie appliances, the " AUstralian" colour coding on the leads is as follows:


Brown lead = Active conductor

Blue Lead = Neutral conductor

Green and yellow lead = Earth


also if there is a earth lead, make sure that the length is about a cm longer than the active and neutral leads. If someone yanks that lead out of a socket the last cable to be stripped from the plug will be the Earth. Logical.


Some appliances may be double insulated, so wont have an earth lead, like power drills etc.


make sure that you match the coresponding cables to where they must match the plug, in some cases you will damage your appliance because of it being out of phase. Dishwashers, Washing machines that have electronic touch control panels will be very prone to this.


Quality replacement plugs by Clipsal have clearly marked brass binding posts with A for Active, N for Neutral and a christmas tree looking marking for earth.


If you do a whole stack together it wont take you that long.


Low current draw items like clock radios, video camera chargers, phone chargers, DVD players can get away with using market adapters.


Also, if your appliance is a 15 amp draw appliance, like a 2.5hp air conditioner for example, you will need a dedicated 2mm hard wired issolator switch that runs directly to the switchboard with its own dedicated resettable fuse. Plugging that sort of appliance into a standard 10 amp power point will melt wiring. In Australia, those sorts of appliances are easy to identify by having a thicker earth pin on the plug that wont fit into 10 amp sockets.