Anyone found any ear plugs that work? The silicone surface plugs don't seem to work at all. The foam(?) cylindical ones with the rounded end work very poorly - quite well if you put your fingers in your ears on top of them but that's frequently not practical (brand, Mack's). Any I missed? That's all I saw on the store shelf I tried.
I need something that fits in the ear, not on the surface like ear muffs or headsets with or without music. I want something I can sleep comfortably with. The sound generators that make surf or rain or whatever sounds don't help me much.
Curious myself. At shooting range this week, I wore both foam plugs and ear muffs. I guess you should look for rating on package. I'm seeing stuff that varies from ~22 to ~34 decibels reduction. I think plugs designed for shooting are highest.
Pretty much worthless! I discovered this at an NHRA top fuel drag meet, where they were selling them NHRA branded.
You want really good foam ear plugs? Right here:
I can tell you, as a drag racing fan AND an avid gun owner/shooter, I will use no other kind/brand. The flat shape at both ends makes 'em reusable a cpl times and they work where the round ended plugs do not. Even the US Navy uses them.
One exception.... they are only the best "foam" earplugs and will only work as well as foam earplugs, alone, can. OTOH, these E.A.R plugs, along with even the cheapest pair of wallyWorld ear protectors (ear muffs), will be more than enough to protect most ears from all but the loudest racket. I use this combo for shooting magnum rifles.
You can get better, but it's gonna cost you, either in $$$$ or in bulk.
I used to live right next to railroad tracks. Trains would make all kinds of noises all night long. I'd sometimes get woken up, but I'd go right back to sleep.
Now I have tinnitus. Nothing will stop that noise.
Anyway, they make ear plugs out of something like Play Dough, I've tried to use them for swimmers ear, You just stuff some in your ears. Fits some of the criteria you mention above.
Best ones I've found are Heraros 'Ultimate Softness Series'. They have 32dB attenuation and are soft, pliable, and comfortable. I've been using earplugs, including expensive custom units, for decades and these are superior. On top of that they are fairly cheap at least when bought in a
Well sure. There are several brands in different colors. Not that the color matters but what color are the ones you used?
I usually use eaR*plugs, or however they capitalize it, and they work quite well.** I find the change dramatic, even though I can still hear something from the outside. I think the difference between you and me might be that I roll them until they're quite thin and I push them in until the outside end sticks out only slightly or not at all beyond the lowest surface in my outer ear. In that position, I can sleep on my side, on my ear, without the mattress or pillow pushing the plug in any farther than it already is (though Idon't like sleeping with earplugs because, it's too quiet and remote from normal sleeping)
I'm sure my ear canal is longer than it was when I was a little boy, and maybe not all adults have one long enough to push the plug in all the way. The first few years I used them I didn't push them in as far, and I think it was when one pair got older that it was easier to roll them thinner. I have some new pairs around and maybe I wouldn't push them in as far, I'm not sure -- I can check if you want.
So don't push it in so far that it hurts or even that you feel it hitting the eardrum. My ear canal is long enough, and I suspect almost everyone's is or they wouldn't sell them so long, I can push it as far as I said without feeling or hearing anything that could mean it's touching the eardrum. That is, there is no added noise at all when putting it in.
EARplugs are the brand, last I looked, sold at newsstands in the NYC subways. Trains are a lot more quiet now then they were in the 70's and I probably wouldn't even use them there. I did however take a pair to a Sting concert a girl took me to, and I'm glad I did. Also at the race track west of Ft. Worth. I didn't bring any but they sold them there, some brand or other. .
Also, when I drive my convertible on the Interstate, when the top is down, the noise is fine up until 65MPH. When I used to drive at 75 or
80, I would use earplugs to make the wind noise tolerable. I'd have to turn up the radio a lot so I could hear it, so much that when I slowed and took out the earplugs, the radio was so loud it was intolerable.*** Then I would get to a toll booth and I couldn't hear what the toll collector was saying, So they work well. ***I may have had a power amp or left and right reverb/amps then.
**They are plain yellow cylinders,with no points or rounded ends or different diameters. But I've also used green ones, ones with a rounded, almost pointed inner end, ones that are bigger at the outside end, ones that have a string from one to the other (I don't like the string.) . Even though they are bigger, iirc you can still rolll them small enough to put the whole thing in the canal iirc.
I wash them once in a while by leaving them in a pocket when I put something in the washing machine.
Most stores only sell one brand of something if the other brands are basically the same thing.
BTW, I might mention that I've had some tinnitus in one ear since I was
10 or 20 years old (I'm 68 now). When I was 20, i had a job for a couple weeks rebuilding a 20 foot diameter steel chimney that involved someone using a jackhammer in the steel vaulted, steel walled chamber**, every 20 minutes for 10 or 15 seconds. I didn't attribute the noise in my ear to that, perhaps because it had actually started when I was 10 or even younger. I can't remember.
Then about 5 years ago, the volume of the noise doubled all of a sudden and is now pretty annoying, when at the lower level I didn't really notice it.
But in the last two weeks there have been times, whole days almost, when the noise is 1/4 of what it normally is, 1/2 of what it was before 5 years ago. It's most likely to be that way when I wake up in the morning, so it may have something to do with sleeping on my right side (same side as the ear) but I've been sleeping on my right ear for 5 years. Hmmm. That might imply that that's what doubled the noise in the first place, but I don't think so. Maybe I can start sleeping on my left ear, or lose enough weight so I can go back to sleeping on my stomach (or learn how to sleep on my back, in preparatoin for the nursing home!)
Anyhow, I'm hoping the noise will reduce and stay that way
**Even though I wore a professional quality dust mask, not just a cloth mask like surgeons wear, I also came home every day with dried pink mucous in my nose. I didnt' worry about that either, and when I started hufffing and puffing to get up one flight of stairs, it occurred to me that maybe I had ruined myself, but after I lost 30 or the 70 pounds I want to lose, I was pretty much back to normal. Still, I don't think one can count on the dust filter to do everything if my nose was dusty pink inside, and one can't rely on nose hairs to keep all of that out of one's lungs.
Where I worked we had some like this that had a cord between them so you could pull them out and let them hang from your neck when not in use. As they were free (company furnished them) I used a new pair every day. I was not in the noisey areas much of the time,but when I did have to go to the noisey areas they worked well. There were also some others with the brand name Quiet that are orange and you do not have to roll them up like the EAR foam kind. Thew worked ok also. I have a pack of them on my desk and they reduce the sound 28 db.
Sometimes it is how you insert them in the ear that makes a big differance.
I am not sure how they would work around a gun range as I always wear ear muffs for that.
3M EAR - the yellow foam cylinders. No coating around the barrel - just on the top and bottom. Have been wearing them for years and haven't found anything better. Ultra cheap if you buy the box of 100 pair at Grainger or Amazon.
Me too, but that's only cuz they're hard to find, hereabouts. Also, I'm now more conscious of using/tossing disposable plastics.
The US Navy also uses the V51R sgl-flange earplug and the SMS trpl-flange earplug. They are washable and reusable. I've not tried them, but I will. Again, these are all only partial attentuation and will provide even better protection when used in conjuction with "muffs". ;)
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