Voltage Converter for Egypt: 220V to 110V Guide

Egypt runs 220V at 50Hz, which is the same as most of continental Europe. If you are moving to Cairo, importing appliances for a hotel in Hurghada, or shipping 110V US gear to a customer in Alexandria, you need to step down the voltage from 220V to 110V for any single-voltage 110V appliance. Here is how the Egyptian market works and what to ship.

Egypt mains voltage and frequency

Egypt runs 220V at 50Hz across the country, from Cairo and Alexandria down to Luxor and Sharm el-Sheikh. The grid is stable in the major cities but can have brownouts and surges in rural areas. The frequency is rock solid at 50Hz.

The most common outlets are Type C (two round pins, no ground) for older buildings and Type F (Schuko, two round with side ground clips) for newer installations. Type E (French style with grounding pin) is rare. Hotels and resorts often have multi-standard outlets that accept European and US plugs, but that is for low-power electronics only.

What plugs you need

For the 220V input side of your step down transformer, you need a Type C or Type F plug to fit Egyptian wall outlets. Our ST series ships with a European Schuko plug by default, which fits both Type C and Type F outlets in Egypt.

For the 110V output side, you need a US-style Type A or Type B outlet on the transformer to plug in your 110V US appliance. The ST series comes with a US-style 110V outlet as standard, so no extra adapter is needed on the appliance side.

For travelers, a small Type C to Type A plug adapter is useful for charging phones and laptops that have universal voltage power supplies, but for any 110V appliance, you need a step down transformer.

Sizing for typical appliances in Egypt

For an expat household in Cairo, the most common 110V US appliances that need a step down are kitchen equipment (microwave, espresso machine, toaster, blender), home AV (turntable, vintage receiver, gaming console), and personal care (hair dryer, curling iron). Most households do well with one ST-2000 (2000VA) covering the kitchen and one ST-1000 (1000VA) covering AV and personal care.

For hotels and resorts importing 110V appliances for international guests, the ST-3000 (3000VA) or ST-5000 (5000VA) is more practical because multiple rooms can be on the same transformer or one transformer can power a larger 110V appliance.

Documents for import

Transformers for personal use are generally allowed into Egypt without special permits. For commercial import, you may need a GOEIC (General Organization for Export and Import Control) registration. We can supply the CE certificate, commercial invoice, and packing list your customs broker needs.

Lead time is 15 to 25 days after deposit for samples, and 30 to 40 days for full container orders. We ship FOB Ningbo or Shanghai to Alexandria or Damietta. Egyptian customers usually consolidate via a freight forwarder in Alexandria.

For neighboring markets with similar 220V grids, see our Saudi Arabia guide and UAE guide.

Tourism and hotel applications

Egypt’s tourism sector is a big buyer of voltage conversion gear. Hotels in Hurghada, Sharm el-Sheikh and Marsa Alam host a lot of American guests, and the 110V appliances they bring, hair dryers, straighteners, coffee makers and shavers, all need step down transformers at the property. Most hotels we supply prefer the ST-2000 with RCD because it covers the two most common appliances, a hair dryer and a straightener, from one unit, and the RCD is a safety talking point for the hotel’s insurance.

For short-term rentals and Airbnb-style apartments in Cairo and Alexandria, a 2000VA unit per apartment is the practical standard. It runs a guest’s hair dryer and phone gear without tripping, and it is small enough to hide in a cabinet. Resellers targeting the tourism market usually stock the 2000VA as their core SKU.

Where to buy in Egypt

Local electronics markets in Cairo carry basic step down units, but the high-VA and isolation models are hard to find and prices are marked up heavily. For resellers, importing from a factory gives you a 30 to 40% cost advantage per VA after freight and duty, plus a real warranty and test reports that you can show to hotel clients.

The import route we recommend is a mixed container: 60% ST-2000 for the hotel and rental market, 20% ST-1000 for household appliances, and 20% ST-3000 for shops and offices. A 10 pcs minimum per model keeps the mix flexible. If you are just starting, order samples of each size first, and we will split the sample cost against your first bulk order.

For freight forwarders in Alexandria, the CE certificate and commercial invoice we provide cover the GOEIC requirements for transformer clearance, and our team answers customs questions within the same day.

Rural brownouts and stabilizers

Egypt’s mains are stable in Cairo and Alexandria, but rural areas and some industrial districts see brownouts, especially during summer when air conditioners load the grid. A brownout is not a spike, it is a voltage drop, and it affects a step down transformer differently: the output drops proportionally, so a 110V appliance might see 90V during a brownout, which makes motors run hot and heaters underperform.

For appliances that matter, a stabilizer ahead of the step down holds the input steady, which keeps the 110V output at its rated value even when the mains sags. We recommend a stabilizer for fridges, water pumps, and anything with a compressor in rural Egypt. For heating appliances and simple electronics, the step down alone is acceptable.

The appliance repair market

Cairo has a large appliance repair trade, and the repair shops themselves are buyers of step down transformers for their test benches. A repair bench needs a clean, regulated 110V supply to test US appliances, and the isolation variant is the right pick because the technician is touching the appliance while it is powered.

If you supply repair shops, the 1000VA and 2000VA isolation units sell well, and the RCD and floating secondary are the features that close the sale. We can supply with a bench mounting bracket and a test-probe socket on request, which the technicians tell us they appreciate.

Sizing for multiple rooms

For a house with 110V gear in several rooms, the per-zone layout beats one giant transformer. A 2000VA unit for the kitchen, a 1000VA for the living room AV, and a 1000VA for the bedrooms covers a typical household, keeps the 110V cable runs short, and gives you redundancy if one unit fails.

For a villa with a housekeeper’s quarters and a guest wing, add a 1000VA per guest room and keep the kitchen and laundry on their own 2000VA units. This is the layout we recommend to most Egyptian villa buyers, and it is also the easiest to maintain because each zone can be serviced without cutting power to the whole house.

Water heaters and air conditioners on transformers

Two appliances that are easy to mis-size in Egypt are the water heater and the air conditioner, because both have heavy continuous loads. A 110V US tankless water heater can draw 1500W or more continuously while heating, which needs a 2000VA transformer minimum and a dedicated unit. An air conditioner has a compressor surge of 3 to 5 times its running draw, so a 5000 BTU 110V AC at 500W running needs a 3000VA transformer to absorb the start surge.

For both appliances, give the transformer its own circuit and never share it with another high-draw load. The combination of a water heater and a microwave on one transformer is the most common overload we see in Egyptian households.

Import duty and pricing

If you are importing transformers into Egypt for resale, the landed cost math matters. The import duty on transformers is modest, but the freight from China to Alexandria, the GOEIC registration, and the local distribution margin add up. We price FOB Ningbo or Shanghai, and your forwarder handles the Egypt side.

For pricing strategy, the 1000VA and 2000VA units carry the highest margins in the Egyptian market because the demand is steady and the price competition is less aggressive than in the appliance market itself. Stock the isolation variants at a premium for the hotel and clinic buyers, and the standard units for the household trade.

For Egyptian buyers comparing prices, the transformer market splits into the budget tier and the quality tier. The budget tier is aluminum-wound units that are 30 to 40% cheaper and fail within a few years, and they are common in the Cairo electronics souks. The quality tier is copper-wound units with a real warranty, like the ST series, that cost more upfront and last a decade. Over five years, the quality unit is usually cheaper because the budget unit fails and gets replaced at least once. If you are buying for a hotel or a clinic, the quality tier is the only one that makes sense, because a failure in service costs more than the unit itself.