Accessory review: Accell travel surge protector with dual USB charging ports
Have you ever been traveling with tech friends and found that your hotel with two or three outlets was simply not enough to handle the massive charging requirements you had? The Accell travel surge protector (ATSP) with dual USB charging ports can help you out considerably.
The ATSP features three grounded three-prong outlets and two 2.1amp USB charging ports, but only requires one three-prong outlet to provide power to all of those outlets. In short, you can recharge five devices (three laptops and two phones) with this useful little gadget.
While at CES 2013 this would have been a very useful product for me, Grahm, and William, who were in a room with only a couple of working outlets and far too much technology to properly charge off of what we had available.
The ATSP features a folding three-prong plug so you can travel with it easily, or throw it in your pocket if you have to walk around with it (not advised). It accepts polarized and non-polarized plugs and is rated to 15 amps/1800 Watts.
The ATSP features two three-prong plugs on the sides rotated 90 degrees, useful for laptop plugs but pretty much useless for the biscuit-blocks we travel with on a regular basis. Thankfully most biscuit-block transformers will be taken care of by the built-in USB connectors.
The ATSP comes in at an MSRP of $19.99 but can be found online for slightly less. It features an indicator light that will let you know if the supposedly grounded outlet you’re plugged into is actually wired correctly or if you’re risking your tech goodies on the wirings of a madman.
It’s one of the most useful travel tech gadgets I’ve run across and can replace an average of two charging blocks while traveling. It doesn’t quite “pay” for the space it uses unless, like I was, you’re in a hotel with extremely limited power options, or you need it to simplify a tangled outlet mess.
It comes in white and black and has a 5-year standard $100,000 limited connected equipment warranty, which basically says if somehow this device manages to mess up your equipment and all the wiring was done properly that the warranty will kick in. So not that big of a deal as it’s betting on science.
The Accell travel surge protector is available in black or white from Amazon for $17.70.
