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Best auto darkening helmet?

I have a Viking with the larger lens. It works well, and I don’t get flashed even with out of position low-amp TIG welding.
The thing that REALLY sucks about this helmet, is that corrective lens placement is inside with just enough of an air gap, that if you flip it down a little too far, you will get condensation between the cheater and the inner lens. You almost have to take the damned thing apart to get it dried out and transparent. Anti-fog helps a little, but, if I’m welding something with enough IR to reliably fire the trigger, I have a no-name with the corrective lens on the outside that I will often use preferentially.
 
Personal favorite is the Optrel Panoramaxx. The auto shade is wonderful. Being able to go from 6 amps dc to 185 AC amps without even touching the helmet really helps at some places. The weight and headgear is really good along with very good field of vision and no dang fogging. I haven't used every helmet out there but a fair number of the top brands over the years.

Well worth mentioning is the Striker supreme from usaweld. Far and away the best hood for the money IMO. Great shade range, great weight and headgear, fair battery life, good sensors and positions.
 
I have a baldor at the moment. The 1/1/1/1 rating is the best thing ever and using anything else is annoying. + the blue tint to the baldor is awesome.
The only other helmet I want at the moment is the optrel crystal.
 
I set my Speedglas in the cabinet for the new Crystal Optrel. I used it for TIG only so maybe this doesn’t apply across the board but, after welding my eyes felt a little burnt. I have two friends that are claiming similar. I love the clarity but it’s not hugely better in clarity than the Speedglas. The Optrel is now hanging and I’m back to the trusted Speedglas. Speedglas w/ 9100xxi lens
 
I have a Viking with the larger lens. It works well, and I don’t get flashed even with out of position low-amp TIG welding.
The thing that REALLY sucks about this helmet, is that corrective lens placement is inside with just enough of an air gap, that if you flip it down a little too far, you will get condensation between the cheater and the inner lens. You almost have to take the damned thing apart to get it dried out and transparent. Anti-fog helps a little, but, if I’m welding something with enough IR to reliably fire the trigger, I have a no-name with the corrective lens on the outside that I will often use preferentially.

The adapter for my speed glass was the same, So take said adapter, chuck as far as possible, pick up roll of nice 3m 3/4" wide electrical tape a clean cloth and a pair of scissors, Work neat and on a dry day and seal that cheater lens on there a full 360 with the tape and your golden. If your masks one of the bigger screened ones, i have seen some one even glue the cheater lens to were they want it on a inner cover lens, as in a complete 360 fillet of silicone, sure a bit more buggering about, but it really solves the inter lens condensation in a way the factory mounts all fail miserably at!
 
I set my Speedglas in the cabinet for the new Crystal Optrel. I used it for TIG only so maybe this doesn’t apply across the board but, after welding my eyes felt a little burnt. I have two friends that are claiming similar. I love the clarity but it’s not hugely better in clarity than the Speedglas. The Optrel is now hanging and I’m back to the trusted Speedglas. Speedglas w/ 9100xxi lens

Odd you say that, because the local welding sales guy walked in whilst i was at a customers, he was the same guy both me and the customer bought our speedglas helmets off, selling point was there price, quality, low weight and that lens that was so damn clear. All the bull shit aside, the difference in clarity IMHO was not much, all the speedglas lenses are or were some of the clearest for a long time now, say compared to some of the old ESAB ones that were more akin to a 6-8 lens even when "clear" especially with the asking price of the optrel being multiples of the speedglas.

Had my speedglas for a good few years now, am open to the idea of replacing it, but apart from the odd flash, kinda can not fault it, next helmet definitely wants more than 2 sensors, other than that, i like light weight and at least speedglas clear, kinda not sold on any clearer will help all that much. Battery life has also been great - only needing changing every few years.
 
^Yeah i think hes finding it a bit confusing, then again you need to remember, some of us were our welding helmets crawling around in a pit of shit to get to the job, other whilst standing in a nice clean air conditioned and ventilated space and every thing in between. Equally theres a big difference between fine stainless dairy pipe work and hard facing excavator buckets, hence its little wonder we all like different helmets!
 
Odd you say that, because the local welding sales guy walked in whilst i was at a customers, he was the same guy both me and the customer bought our speedglas helmets off, selling point was there price, quality, low weight and that lens that was so damn clear. All the bull shit aside, the difference in clarity IMHO was not much, all the speedglas lenses are or were some of the clearest for a long time now, say compared to some of the old ESAB ones that were more akin to a 6-8 lens even when "clear" especially with the asking price of the optrel being multiples of the speedglas.

Had my speedglas for a good few years now, am open to the idea of replacing it, but apart from the odd flash, kinda can not fault it, next helmet definitely wants more than 2 sensors, other than that, i like light weight and at least speedglas clear, kinda not sold on any clearer will help all that much. Battery life has also been great - only needing changing every few years.

Even the medium-priced "no-name" chinese masks seem to be 10 times better than something like old Esab mask.
I have one with large 98 x 88mm view area and screen clarity is excellent, bright enough to position work etc if you have decent lightning (1/1/1/2 clarity and DIN4 in off-state)
 
I have a Viking with the larger lens. It works well, and I don’t get flashed even with out of position low-amp TIG welding.
The thing that REALLY sucks about this helmet, is that corrective lens placement is inside with just enough of an air gap, that if you flip it down a little too far, you will get condensation between the cheater and the inner lens. You almost have to take the damned thing apart to get it dried out and transparent. Anti-fog helps a little, but, if I’m welding something with enough IR to reliably fire the trigger, I have a no-name with the corrective lens on the outside that I will often use preferentially.

I just purchased the same Lincoln Viking 3350 helmet and love it except for the inside cheater lens placement. It is much clearer than the Speedglas helmet it replaced.
 
Now let's all watch this "member".....can any of you see what is going on here ?

Yeah, hes been a nice kind dead helpful chap and done a load of nicely written reviews of a bunch of diffrent helmets just to help us. If only other forum members could do something usefull? That said anyone seen gordon lately?
 
I am in the early stages of learning how to TIG weld. OK, I just bought a TIG machine. Now I need a bottle of argon and a helmet. Argon is easy. Auto-darkening helmets range from $50 - $400.

I like my eyes so I am all about eye care. I really don't care about bells and whistles so much. I was eyeing the cheepy model at Harbor Freight but like I said, I like my eyes.

Cost is a factor, but not at the expense of my eyes, did I mention I like my eyes.

Any thoughts or advice???
When these autodarken helmets first came out, I got an expensive one, had to replace it as the head strap mechanism plastic failed. So I got a cheap one off eBay with large window area and 'tru-color". I'm happy with it, other then the odd battery it uses. I don't weld much, so the battery is drained during non use, and so now removed it when storing helmet for months at a time. But the under $60 helmets are good.
Do a keyword search on eBay "welding helmet auto darkening true color large". I then select US (in my case where I want it shipped from, to filter out the China shipments). I'm seeing them for less then $30. I don't know if the solar powered ones work as good as battery sourced, but you can tune the shade levels on these to your taste.
 
I am in the early stages of learning how to TIG weld. OK, I just bought a TIG machine. Now I need a bottle of argon and a helmet. Argon is easy. Auto-darkening helmets range from $50 - $400.

I like my eyes so I am all about eye care. I really don't care about bells and whistles so much. I was eyeing the cheepy model at Harbor Freight but like I said, I like my eyes.

Cost is a factor, but not at the expense of my eyes, did I mention I like my eyes.

Any thoughts or advice???
I still got the Optrel. Will be doing some welding again after a 3 year hiatus. I don't have much experience with other brands, except for momentarily burrowing other guys' helmet to see how it fares.

The one thing I would've done differently is get the Optrel with the optional port for the respirator. With my helmet I can retain the visor and sensor but would need to buy a the plastic helmet with the port if I wanted to use a wearable respirator. When I bought mine I was only welding in college, which had good fume extraction so didn't feel I needed a respirator.
 
I have bought them and got rid of them. I use a Cherokee chin operated one. The view is crystal cler and bright with it open, and I am in control. Yep, I have flashed myself on occasion, but that was my fault. You can also get magnifying lenses for the helmets. I used to do lots of very fine welding before laser welding came on the scene.
 








 
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