Are power adaptors for iPad/iPhone/Nano interchangeable?

Take it with you and use that adapter and use it to charge your iPhone and iPod. You can use the one that came with your iPhone but it will take much longer to fully charge your iPad.

The iPod and iPhone chargers won't be able to charge the iPad (at least not a sufficient rate). This article http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4327 says that it can be used with the iPod and iPhone.

Call Apple support. Apple says you can use your iPod and IPhone chargers to charge your iPad, but under no circumstances should you use your iPad charging block on your iPhone or iPod. The wattage is different and you WILL ruin your smaller device. This is what Apple told me.

Apple support should refer you to the link that the Penguin provided above that says it will work with the iPhone and iPods. Did you read it?

So who in Apple told you differently?

I called AppleCare on 800-275-2273 and asked this specific question. My earlier response was partially incorrect - I looked up exactly what I was told. The Apple tech with whom I spoke said, "you can use your iPad charger on an iPhone, but we strongly recommend not using the iPad charger on any iPod due to the greater power and amperage supplied by the charger."

I wanted an official response from Apple, so I wrote down word for word exactly what she said.

For ref - I called AppleCare in May 2010 - so I expect I was told correctly and that the later reference pointed to by penguin is true for newer devices

Jaywalker5555 wrote:
so I expect I was told correctly and that the later reference pointed to by penguin is true for newer devices

The above support article clearly states: "you can use the iPad 10W USB Power Adapter to charge all iPhone and iPod models."

So dhaun you are saying that the AppleCare who spoke with me was absolutely wrong? She clearly read the information from a prepared answer.

Jaywalker5555 wrote:
So dhaun you are saying that the AppleCare who spoke with me was absolutely wrong? She clearly read the information from a prepared answer.

Well, there's obviously contradictory information here. When was that call to AppleCare? The above document is dated September 8, 2010. Maybe Apple changed their stance at some point.

All I can say is that I've been charging my iPod touch (3rd gen.) with my iPad power adapter for a while now and can see no ill effects.

I have to suspect that the Apple tech you spoke to just was not too much of a tech at all, electronics-wise at least. Or, heck, even Electricity 101-wise. Besides that, I can't believe that any Apple technical document would have said that. What I suspect is that the "tech" couldn't find a better answer in his allowed scripts and so decided to just use common sense. Too much pressure is just too much pressure, right?

It's certainly unwise for you to try drinking from a fire hose, but that analogy doesn't apply at all when applied to electricity. AC or DC circuits only take what they take and the only critical thing is the presented voltage. Wattage in supply is a measure of the max current available at that voltage level, but is not a measure of how much power whatever is connected up is going to consume. Examples of this are obvious.

Bottom line .... you can use any 5VDC charger on anything which requires that voltage level for its charging circuit. Things will work at maximum speed if the wattage is at least at the spec minimum, and will work more slowly to not at all if the power is below spec.