After reading the article I was ready to buy the ones linked but then looking around I found MPOW ANC headphones. The specs say they have better noise reduction and they have more features as full noise canceling headphones. I just ordered them so I cant comment on how good they are but the reviews were good on Amazon:
The price is slightly less too.
I previously had something like “DEWALT DPG15 Digital AM/FM Hearing Protector” and I found the ones built for the workplace were not actually that study and had poor sound and battery use.
A 30-50 hour noise canceling headphone I can pair to multiple devices sounds better to me and I hope they can handle the dusty environment fine.
I have a small yard. I use a manual push mower. Better cutting than a power mower but it has problems if the grass grows too tall. I need to borrow a neighbor’s power mower for a one time use, some of my grass grew too quickly with all of the rain I gotten this season. The makers of manual mowers recommend against using them if the grade of your lawn is too steep.
I use an electric leaf blower along with my rake. It makes taking care of the leaves much, much easier. And I don’t have a child living at home any more to do the work for me.
I agree that the outdoor power equipment isn’t always necessary but please don’t make broad proclamations. There are cases where having the power [fill space here] makes sense.
They’re decent but not absolute winners / far from perfect due to inferior design and cost cutting.
Comfort. The space inside the cup is very shallow, so they will press the ears down and become uncomfortable within hours.
Noise reduction is just adequate. Worse is the fact that, as a wearer of glasses / sunglasses / safety glasses, the foam band is very shallow as well and does little to conform around the frame … seriously cutting down the protective rating.
I have $10-25 hearing protectors with deeper cups and thicker seal band, with next to no reduction in protection. With the worktunes I almost have to wear ear plugs when using my safety prescription sunglasses for outdoor work. As such I can only use the worktunes for certain tasks.
And, with the average protection comes the fact that you need to fiddle with the audio every time there is a change in noise level; there is no volume knob / adjustment like some other models. If you enjoy the sound level half way during a more quiet periods of time, once you crank up the blower/mower/saw … you need to max it out … which requires you to get your phone out of your pocket etc. Idle the garden tool for whatever interruption, the music is way too high, so get the phone back out, …
With maybe $5 extra in materials for a bit of cup depth and foam; plus a volume button; this thing would be 5 stars. As it stands, I don’t recommend it.
That set you linked is something one would use on an airplane, public transportation, etc … It should not be used as hearing protection while operating powertools and it would not be approved in a workplace setting requiring hearing protection.
Protective devices have passive noise cancellation first and foremost with a fully enclosed cup; and some have added bluetooth and headphone speakers added for audio.
There is only so much active noise cancellation can do, and when it comes to durability, in a work environment, that unit will not last.
I understand the logic there, but am not sure that the set wont do better for the mowing application. I’ll post here once i’ve received them and done some mowing. Nothing like a real world test to confirm. Worst case the kid gets some ANC headphones and I have to buy a different set.
Do you have a quiet-ish push mower? Versus a large riding mower.
I wear ear plugs + over the ear hearing protectors while using our loudest equipment, which would be a big riding mower with vacuum trailer in tow; 6" wood chipper and up; extensive hours on the chainsaws; … I wouldn’t do those tasks with the worktunes set as I find too much sound gets in around the safety glasses frame …
Large riding mower with pull behind bagger that also has an engine. I’ve been using my old broken Dewalt am/fm hearing protectors over airpods in my ear. Hearing protectors over the airpods aren’t great for a number of reasons.
I agree. Hearing protectors over audio earbuds do not work well, as invariably either the cord tugs or pushes them out of place, or the elongated battery part on the cordless version gets touched and then they’re loose in the ear … and fall to the ground when you lift the cup, etc.
What I tried to say ( but wrote without enough detail ) was that for the noisiest tasks, I skip the audio, using hearing protection ear plugs combined with over the ear hearing protection; because I find the passive noise cancellation lacking, especially with the 3M unit when I wear safety sunglasses … and I figure I’d rather be without music or radio for a couple hours versus potentially getting more hearing damage. So, I’m genuinely curious how a conventional headset with active noise cancellation will work out.
At the risk of resurrecting a dead topic, I didn’t see an answer to this question:
Although the 3M product might be different, every pair of noise-canceling headphones I’ve ever used work by filtering out noise not sound.
This means it will quiet repetitive, droning types of sounds like engines and wind, but it won’t block sounds that are not repetitive, like people talking and emergency sounds.
Back when I used to work in a computer lab, I’d always wear a pair (without any music source) in order to block the sounds of several hundred cooling fans. I never had a problem hearing conversations with other people in the room.
This is very different from wearing (for example) foam earplugs, which reduce the volume of all sounds.
