Hearing Protection

[bob]

Does anyone use radio ear muffs? Can you hear the radio over the noise of the mower? How is the reception? What kind do you use? I currently use plain ear muffs and I'm concidering a pair of radio ones. Bob

[scottlawns]

i use radio head phones...i can hear them great,i bought mine at northern hydrolics,in minnesota for around 50.00 and they have worked great,

[Charles]

I tried that but havent been able to find enclosed earphones. Think I went partially deaf lol trying to hear the radio over the equipment. I will check out northern and see what they have. But one thing I found out. For some reason the jobs seem to take longer while I was listening to the radio. Or they did take longer. Don't know which one.

[fireball]

we always had a problem with this. The purpose of the muffs is to protect your ears from loud noise(decibels and frequency). Anyway, our junior members would get that headbanging racket(they called it music, but none of them can humm you a tune from what their listening too)cranked up so you could hear the bass three yards away with your muffs on. In short, in moderation they work okay. We bought the wheel horse radios and mounted them on all our larger machines. These enable you to plug into them without batteries. They run about 125.00 and have a real good impact housing.

[HOMER]

We use them, got them at radio shack. I paid 40.00 for the pair I wear and find that the jobs seem to go faster and less stressfull! Not a problem hearing them over the mowers and trimmers as well.<p>Homer

[nlminc]

I would advise against using the radios while working. I lost my all of my high frequency hearing from not wearing protection over my ears. Today I wear ear plugs and ear muffs at the same time to prevent further damage. Funny this topic came up because tomorrow I am getting fitted for a hearing aid. This will not bring back my high frequencies, but will help me distinquish certain sounds again. Your highs are the first to go and there is no operation or hearing aid to this date that will bring it back. Be sure to take care of your sight and hearing while working. Listening to music over the sound of equipment will only lead to hearing loss sooner. I'm only 33 years old and I have the hearing equivalent of a 70 year old.

[JTurpin]

I also go the one from Northern for $50 I thought I would try them before I stepped up to the Elvex brand that are $150. I was really like them and they also pick up the country FM stations good. What I have found works best is to put foam earplugs in and then put the headphones on. The earplugs seem to filter out more of the mower noise and lets the music pass through fine.<p>Thanks, <br> John Turpin

[cantoo]

I wear ear plugs but my wife wears a walkman with the tiny ear plugs inside of her ear muffs. She likes to hear music while cutting, I prefer the peace and quiet without the radio.

[PLS]

I have a pair of Elvex rechargable, They are wonderful. They have a 27db block out, which is better than my plain elvex earmuffs of 22db. I never have to turn the volume much over half way. Never gives me a headache and the reception is great, they even have a right to left balance. Charge them for 10 hours and they play for about 40 to 60 hours. Don't know how I made it without them.<br>

[jeffclc]

I used to wear the foam ear plugs. I found that they were not real effective for me. They would keep falling out, and when you would go to replace them, rolling them with dirty fingers only made for dirty ears.<p>I had seen the Evlex Com Muffs in catalogs, and was a bit leary of spending such a sum of money on a product that I had never seen or heard of(pun intended). <p>I was at a mower shop last season, and saw that they carried them. I asked the salesman about them, and he took me out in the parking lot, sat me on a mower, then put them on me. WOW.<p>They cut the noise of the mower considerbly. You can still hear it running, and are able to tell that it is running properly. You will be able to hear if you throw a belt, or hit something. <p>It drowns out the noise, and you are also able to hear the music. I don't have to turn the music up very loud to hear it satisfactory. <p>When opeating low noise machines, namely a walk behind areator, the noise from the machine is almost not noticable. You would probally not even need hearing protectors with such a machine. <p>I bought the AA model. It takes 2 AA batteries. They need replacing about every 2-3 months. They also have a rechargeable model.<p>I love them, and find myself wearing them whild raking up, and doing other non loud tasks. I only wish that they got Am. The reception os pretty good, but declines as the batteries wear down. <p>I would buy them again in a minute.<p>PS- This is a completely different setup than what most think of in headphones. These are actually hearing protectors with a radio built into them. I have tried the normal jogging headphones, and found that they had to be turned up too loud to cover the mower noise that they were ineffective.

[lawrence stone]

I have added a 15 acre school athletic field<br>weekly mowing (when school in in session)and<br>would like to buy the elvex model but they<br>have no am band.<p>This must be some leftest pinko ploy to control the airwaves and I will not be<br>BOUGHT!!!

[Eric ELM]

I use the Peltor FM hearing protectors with FM. I noticed some of you are using head phones or the regular FM stereo phones. The Peltor hearing protectors sounds like the ones in Northern. I have seen them, but not tried them. Mine cost $140 several years ago and still work great. They have a volume limiter in them so you will not hurt your ears and you can hear music at half volume with a back pack blower on. I would recomend them to all. They sure make the day go better. :)<p>----------<br>&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.townserver.com/elm/&quot;&gt;Eric@ELM&lt;/a&gt;<br>

[JJ Lawn]

I agree with Mr. Stone, I also want AM radio. I like to listen to the Talk radio shows, The G man, and sometimes Rush. <p>Anyone know of a model that has AM?<p>Jim

[PLS]

Stone & JJLawn, If you get the Elvex rechargable muffs you can plug a AM or CD player or tape player in the charge socket and it will work as headphones. So now what ya got to say?

[Bobby]

If you cut yourself, your body will heal .If you damage your ears,thats it. They don't get better.To all you new guys ; You MUST wear some kind of hearing protection. Just because it don't bother you to blow without somthing on your ears,don't mean it's ok. Hearing loss is painless and silent. ( Good stock tip ) Buy into a hearing aid company. Half of the generation X'ers are going to be deaf by there 25 birthday.