Thread: hearing protection recommendation

Peltor, from memory I think these cost me $95

I noticed that the difference between the elcheepo and the Ok ones is that they have acoustic foam inside them.

I have never owned (should say bought) a $200 pair but I do have some ex Ansett ones which I'm sure cost Sir Reg a few bob.

The only difference that I can see is that the padded part that sits on your noggen is a bit softer and better foam and that the internal of the shell has good accoustic foam in it. Accoustic foam costs bugger all and most good accoustic insulation companies would give you a 300 x 300 square for nix if you asked them.

But who knows ...as I said I've never had a $200 pair.

Originally Posted by djstimber

Peltor, from memory I think these cost me $95

One of the woodwork mags offers a special deal on electronic earmuffs for $200+ and that's what i thought the going rate was. Peltor (peltor 6) seems to be the go but the peltor 6 gets lots of +es from shooters.
I'm estimating that these could be sourced from USA for about $100 but are they the right thing? I guess a rifle shot has got to be louder than a drop saw!

CP

We have two pairs of Peltor behind the neck muffs. One yellow one (Optime 1) and one black/red (Optime 3)....the latter has higher attenuation (good for chainsaw) while the former allows more detail (better for woodwork as you can hear things like blade performance). Neither cost more than fifty bucks...and that was from Blackwoods!!

Carry,

Go into Bunnings and check out the ozito electronic earmuffs ($30). I use them for shooting (so does half my club at the moment) and they work just as well as the expensive electronic earmuffs.

Not exactly a fashion statement, but you can't argue with the price!

I am legally deaf in one ear and close to legally deaf in the other so I spent a lot of time researching and trying muffs to protect my remaining hearing especially because I recently started milling logs with an 111cc chainsaw mill For those that don't know what this involves, this means repeated running of a chainsaw full throttle continuously for almost a complete tankfulls of fuel. It would not be unusual to consume 4-5 litres of fuel in one days milling ie a lot of noise.

I already had a set of Peltor H7s which are very good but I wanted to see if anything better was available including any in the electronic muff range. After considerable research I decided on another Peltor - the H10A. They have much better specs and are the most effective muffs I have used - definitely better than any of the expensive electronic ones I have tried.

The best deal I found for H10As was from http://www.maka.com.au/products.php?cat=20 who I see still have the PELTOR H10A for $40. I have seen these elsewhere for as much as $87.

Because I do a fair bit of air travel I did end up buying a set of Jabra noise cancelling muffs because they very comfortable, have a built in microphone so you can still hear people speaking and of course you can connect them to the planes sound system. However, for workshop use they are too fragile and not as good as either of the Peltors.

For extended chainsaw use I use my H10A plus ear plugs for extra protection. My next most noisiest tool is my $40 angle grinder which makes a horrible noise and the peltors are very good at knocking this out.

I have used these for years. Currently they are about $23US. (The $95 quote caused my heart to skip a beat.)

http://www.websoft-solutions.net/pel...e_p/pl-h10.htm

Due to machine noise (Computer rooms) I've lost much of my hearing. Believe me that $23 is a good investment to prevent spending $5000 for a pair of hearing aids.

If you can't get these hearing protectors in OZ at a reasonable price, I'll go into the not for profit export business and I'll see that you get them. Send me an e mail at richflynn (at) yahoo dot com. What ever it costs me to get them to you is what I'll charge. Hearing protection is important to quibble over pennies.

Originally Posted by BobL

The best deal I found for H10As was from http://www.maka.com.au/products.php?cat=20 who I see still have the PELTOR H10A for $40. I have seen these elsewhere for as much as $87.

And a forum regular though I haven't noticed Maka for a while now. I have one of his chisel rolls I won as a prize and it is superb.

Originally Posted by Dangermouse

Carry,

Go into Bunnings and check out the ozito electronic earmuffs ($30). I use them for shooting (so does half my club at the moment) and they work just as well as the expensive electronic earmuffs. Not exactly a fashion statement, but you can't argue with the price!

While doing my research on electronic muffs I discovered that while they may appear to work as well as the more expensive muffs they are in fact more dangerous because rather than actively removing noise, they produce so much white (hissing) noise that they end up masking external noise. The hissing noise is at a low level that is not easy to hear but is good at masking other noises - in other words - its either bad electronics or a deliberate trick.

It may not sound like it, but they are more effective in reducing hearing loss if you turn them off (just use them as a passive muff). For significantly superior hearing protection I would recommend the gun club members ditch the ozitos and go to the H10A Peltors.

The Ozitos claims to "attenuate noise above 85 decibels." This is a sneakingly meaningless statement (all muffs will do this) designed to put the number "85" on the box, whereas others will state that they will attenuate or reduce noise by something around 25 to 30 db. Well, 85 is bigger than 30 so the 85 ones must be better - right! Where's the bull excreta smiley when you need it?

There is also some interesting discussions about how complicated hearing protection is at
http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...ad.php?t=14066
and
http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...ad.php?t=28536

Someone who should know about hearing protection is Soundman - I would rate what he says about this as worth taking on board.

When you are in an extra noise enviroment suplement your muffs with foam ear plugs , small shaped foam that you squeese and insert into your ear, I used them for years at sea in high noise levels without problems and in extreeme high noise level areas wore muffs as well.
The foam or insulation material within the muffs should be inspected and changed as required it does deteriate over time from sweat dirt oil etc or in one case mentioned before a dead mouse, we use to have supplied protector brand muffs and the pads and internal insulation material we got as spares and changed as needed.
Rgds

Well done BobL, I was in a similar situation recently wanting to upgrade to the Peltour H10A's and after reading good reviews on a previous thread bought them for $50 + $15 postage to Hobart from www.safetyquip.com.au

Can I just reconfirm, that I am sure there are different muffs for different applications but the difference between the Mitre 10's and the real deal is fantastic.

In light of my previous post I just want to add one should not just leave it to your ears alone to tell you that some muffs are better than others. It's too easy for one noise to mask others and your brain is not able to sort this out adequately. A single noise reduction or attenuation number is also not all that useful and one really does need to look at the complete frequency spectrum performance of muffs and in extreme cases match these specs against the noise being output by specific tools etc.

I would not recommend any muffs that could not provide something like the following 8 band attenuation info. Any that don't do this are not being serious about preventing hearing loss.



This shows the attenuation obtained by the H10s at various frequencies. What is particularly impressive about this chart is that the manufacturer is prepared to specify some sort of tolerance as well.

Of course no matter how good a set of muffs are, if it is not comfortable or too heavy it is less likely to be worn so there are other factors to consider in practice.

BTW if you want to see what frequencies your tools put out and you have a PC sound input and (Quality) microphone and some frequncy analysis software you can do this with your PC. I've done this for my TS blades/

What BobL said about comfort is true. I wear the foam into the ear plugs a lot. Some are better than others, but there are some frequencies and noise levels that I still find uncomfortable (most notably routers). I would like to get a good pair of muff but I wear glasses and as of yet haven't found a comfortable pair. The muffs push my ear against the earpiece of my glasses.

ron

I've stopped getting any of that sort of stuff from Bunnies, since I started watching where the tradies get theirs from. I've been going to a place at Geebung in north Brisbane, but I can't remember what its called. If I can find their card, I'll post it. You could try these guys too:

http://www.rsea.com/