Hearing protection

[Okie Again]

I am becoming more concerned with my Tinnitus I have had for years. It seems to be getting worse. Seems like sitting on a tractor running a brush hog can't be good. I am using just ear muffs now. Are any of you using the noise cancelling head phones with music? Would these provide good ear protection?

 

[snymat68]

Personally, I feel that pumping music into your ears is kind of defeating the purpose of using ear muffs.

Noise cancelling wouldn't defeat the purpose at all. I'm just not sure what their limits would be with extra loud noises.

I currently use regular ear muffs with a radio built in. They do pretty well at lowering the dB's. You could always use muffs over plugs for ultimate protection.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I mostly use work tunes, old and new (digital) style. I rebroadcast Youtube material on FM and it works out nice. I don't subscribe or log in to anything, but youtube sure knows what I like to listen to based on the first song I search and play. The headsets don't go as loud as I might like, but I guess that's a good thing.

Makes you wonder about people that wear ear buds 24/7.

 

[KennyG]

You can use the noise cancelling headphones with no input and they cut the noise. However, be aware that many of them are "tuned" for aircraft noise and don't work well in some other situations. I'm pretty happy with good over ear protectors. Not sure that noise cancelling would do better. I use in ear bluetooth buds under the ear muffs to listen to my phone.

 

[ruffdog]

For very loud conditions, I'll wear muffs and earplugs. Most the time it is just one or the other. I find that earplugs will block the loud noises so I can hear a radio better.

 

[Argonne]

I used 3M worktunes for years and was very pleased with them. They have AM/FM radio and Bluetooth so you can listen to media from your phone. The only shortcoming was that they had no microphone so you couldn't answer the phone and talk even if you heard the ringtone while using bluetooth, and, the bluetooth implementation for even hearing the ringtone was imprecise, sometimes you would hear it, sometimes not. This may be fixed in newer or different models, I don't know.

A couple of months ago I was mowing one of the pastures and a tree branch whipped the worktunes off my head and tossed them right under the brushhog...no more worktunes. I couldn't afford to replace them, but I kept an eye out for something cheaper. A month ago, I finally found a replacement for half the cost of the worktunes, "Rifleman - Bluetooth Communication Hearing Protection - Electronic Ear Muffs Bluetooth Technology Compatible - NRR 25 - Hearing Amplification and Protection -Black - RFCMBBX" at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NW7NYN2/ref=emc_b_5_t

These things are actually superior to the worktunes in one way. The Bluetooth implementation is better in that it handles both calling and media well, and, it has a microphone. The noise cancelling isn't great, but if the phone rings I kill the tractor anyway, so no big deal. They do not have a radio tuner, but I seldom listen to music anyway, and if i do want to, my phone can feed programming to the headset better than a tuner could.

The Amazon link says they are "currently unavailable" and there is no price showing, but I think they were about $40. Don't know why they are unavailable, but they way things are these days other vendors might have them or selling the same product under a different name, I didn't research it.

 

[Argonne]

Noise cancelling is OK, but my point is that with tinnitus, wouldn't you want to eliminate ALL noise that you can?
Why eliminate noise and then pump more noise back into your ears?

I have it too. The point is to prevent further damage with loud noise. Once you eliminate the tractor roar, it's fine to add back in normal levels of sound.

 

[EddieWalker]

I put a pair of orange foam ear plugs in my pocket every day. I wear them every time I do something that is going to be noisy. Most of the time when I'm cutting a lot of wood, I just keep them in all day. When I'm going to do something extra super loud, I put in the ear plugs and also put on a set of head phones. This is for shooting, using a grinder or cutting metal. I've been doing it for 30 years and feel that my hearing is better then most people my age. I plan to continue doing this the rest of my life. You just have to get used to doing it every time you are dealing with loud noise, and most importantly, have the ear plugs with you. They may not be considered the very best at stopping noise by some people, but they are better then nothing, and when installed properly, I feel that they do a great job.

 

[Thomas]

There no excuse why I should wear ear protection other than I'm to darn stubborn.

 

[Argonne]

I wouldn't say I'm "fresh as a daisy" when I get off the tractor after 4 or 5 hours of mowing, but I find I am much less fatigued in general if I wear hearing protection while using my bigger tractors. I would go so far as to say that the noise is the most fatiguing thing about the activity. With Bluetooth hearing protectors, I am also not totally disconnecting myself from the world for all of that time. Of course you CAN forget to turn them on too.

 

[ruffdog]

I put a pair of orange foam ear plugs in my pocket every day. I wear them every time I do something that is going to be noisy. Most of the time when I'm cutting a lot of wood, I just keep them in all day. When I'm going to do something extra super loud, I put in the ear plugs and also put on a set of head phones. This is for shooting, using a grinder or cutting metal. I've been doing it for 30 years and feel that my hearing is better then most people my age. I plan to continue doing this the rest of my life. You just have to get used to doing it every time you are dealing with loud noise, and most importantly, have the ear plugs with you. They may not be considered the very best at stopping noise by some people, but they are better then nothing, and when installed properly, I feel that they do a great job.

Very good advise. I too have no problem wearing earplugs most of the day. For some reason, my wife wonders why I wear them when I'm not around loud equipment.:laughing:

 

[Industrial Toys]

Because it hurts less than breaking your eardrums with a philips screwdriver.

 

[caver]

When it's cold I use 3M Peltor ear muffs (keeps my ears warm too) and when it's warm I have some Honeywell disposable foam ear plugs I also got online. At one time I had some HF ear muffs but found the vinyl seal around the ears gets stiff after about a year and well just leery of any specs on HF stuff. If I was listening to music I would probably be distracted wow that was a cool bass line i never noticed and not focused on the task at hand.

 

[RNeumann]

I notice a lot of the professionals with loud “jobs” (like shooters) will have foam ear plugs in and then put on ear muffs. I could see some ear buds for music under some ear muffs helping.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I have ear muffs and noise canceling headphones and frequently forget to wear them. The noise canceling headphones do as well as my muffs.

 

[Jchonline]

Muffs are usually what I wear on the tractor, NRR around 30dB (same I would wear for shooting out doors). For indoors I would do plugs then muffs over them. I keep them slung over the loader control, so I remember to put them on each time I start the machine up.

 

[Kingsqueak]

I use noise isolating earphones all the time, they seal up like shooting plugs. With yard equipment I tend to wear a Husqvarna logging helmet that has ear muffs built in. I wear that over the music plugs. Let’s me keep the music quieter yet. The helmet is handy for knocks on the head from branches, eye protection from branches or while running cutters and keeping my bald head out of the sun.

 

[BertZegers]

I have custom made hearing protection plugs. They are a perfect fit, and I sometimes forget to remove them since I don't feel them. Putting ear muffs over them makes the noise worse ( lower noise level, but more unpleasant sound) I have the same ones for over 10 years now, and I need to have them replaced because the shape of my ear channel has changed over the years.
I always carry them with me in a little pouch in my pocket.
This is the best and most comfortable hearing protection that I have ever used.
I think every hearing aid store can provide them. They take a wax sample of your ear channel and than make it from , I think, silicone.

 

[Okie Again]

The ear muff I am using are cheap ones that were laying around. Jchonline good idea putting them on loader control I will try that. I will try some bluetooth my wife says I can hear her when I am on the tractor and she does not like that. Maybe wireless plugs and muffs.

 

[mikester]

I am becoming more concerned with my Tinnitus I have had for years. It seems to be getting worse. Seems like sitting on a tractor running a brush hog can't be good. I am using just ear muffs now. Are any of you using the noise cancelling head phones with music? Would these provide good ear protection?

Ive tried several brands and types of active noise cancellation headphones. The best Ive used so far have been the Bose QC 30 over ear headphones. On ear and in ear styles dont block the sounds as well as over ear. The new Sony over ear models are supposed to give even better active noise cancellation but they use a touch screen type control which is useless for me...if you are bouncing around on a seat buttons work much better.