Whatever the official standard socket is in Brazil, in practice when you get way from the tourist hotels built in the last decade or so, you will find round 2 pin sockets that are more or less the European spacing, but with thinner pins. You will also find  a metricated rounded up  USA flat blade kind as well, both types on both voltages.  From what I understand  from relatives who have been to Argentina and Paraguay  those parts of  south America are much  the same, though perhaps more 110v and flat blade plugs as you get nearer North America.

here is a  picture of the 'universal' house socket as seen in domestic kitchens and bathrooms.

The idea is that the flat receptacles may be connected to 110, and the round holes to 220. This sounds like an excellent idea, but in reality as only one voltage or the other is ever supplied, we may find that both are 220, or both are 110, or that one half or the other left is left disconnected.

The only good news is that the 4mm round holes do not take the earth of the 3 pin US socket, as if they did, there would be a 50% chance of a live chassis. As it is, that troublesome pin gets snipped off, which may be safer in some cases. Dont ask about the wires that are, I think, a power take off to a switch for an extractor fan.





In many ways the new socket is a much better idea, but it will be 50 years before everyone has one, and the voltage confusion and plugs that look the same is just silly.

More generally the idea of a dedicated shaver socket with transformer does seem to be a uniquely British and former Empire concept, the rest of the planet just puts ordinary sockets in the bathroom and is careful. If you do not have the transformer, then the dual voltage offering is not possible, and again, outside hotels and similar places with lots of travellers,  quite rare.

And of course with some perverse logic we Brits had to make our shavers fit no one else's sockets, ever.

Whatever the official standard socket is in Brazil, in practice when you get way from the tourist hotels built in the last decade or so, you will find round 2 pin sockets that are more or less the European spacing, but with thinner pins. You will also find  a metricated rounded up  USA flat blade kind as well, both types on both voltages.  From what I understand  from relatives who have been to Argentina and Paraguay  those parts of  south America are much  the same, though perhaps more 110v and flat blade plugs as you get nearer North America.

here is a  picture of the 'universal' house socket as seen in domestic kitchens and bathrooms.

The idea is that the flat receptacles may be connected to 110, and the round holes to 220. This sounds like an excellent idea, but in reality as only one voltage or the other is ever supplied, we may find that both are 220, or both are 110, or that one half or the other left is left disconnected.

The only good news is that the 4mm round holes do not take the earth of the 3 pin US socket, as if they did, there would be a 50% chance of a live chassis. As it is, that troublesome pin gets snipped off, which may be safer in some cases. Dont ask about the wires that are, I think, a power take off to a switch for an extractor fan.





In many ways the new socket is a much better idea, but it will be 50 years before everyone has one, and the voltage confusion and plugs that look the same is just silly.

More generally the idea of a dedicated shaver socket with transformer does seem to be a uniquely British and former Empire concept, the rest of the planet just puts ordinary sockets in the bathroom and is careful. If you do not have the transformer, then the dual voltage offering is not possible, and again, outside hotels and similar places with lots of travellers,  quite rare.

And of course with some perverse logic we Brits had to make our shavers fit no one else's sockets, ever.