Lets Talk Welding Helmets

I have an auto darkening helmet with a very small view port. It has served me well but at least for the moment I am considering upgrading to auto darkening helmet that has a bigger view port. I don't want to get junk (these are your eyes we are talking about here after all). I probably use my welder 1-2x a week mostly in the rebuilding of 944 steering shafts. I have found my self wanting a larger viewport mostly because I ware glasses with transion lenses and when trying to do close up work the viewport does not go low enough for me to see out of the bottom half of my glasses. I can set the helmet forward on my head but this is kind of a nuisance.

So who makes a quality large opening auto darkening helmet. I would like to keep it under $300 if possible. But again we are dealing with eyes here so being cheap is not at the top of my list. Cheap is good but quality and eye safety are paramount here as I do use it with some regularity.

I thought it was Wedding Helmets. I was really curious...

In reply to pinchvalve: Holy carp! So did I. I was all like, "considering some marriages I've seen, that doesn't sound like a bad idea.

Miller Digital Elite. The off angle "X-mode" feature should sell it by itself, but add the new style head gear, window size, replaceable inner & outer shields, light weight, all the available accessories, and Miller's top notch customer support, I couldn't bring myself to cheap out. I really considered the mid grade Hobarts, they have a lot of complaints of not fitting a filter/mask under them, and came close to a Viking, but all have fewer sensors and no X-mode. Speedglass is silly expensive when considering the features their competition has at the same price point, and same goes for Jackson Baldor.

I bought the all black Digital Elite for $275+ tax drop shipped from Miller to my door through my LWS. I almost bought the Vintage Roadster design, I think it looks awesome and it was only about $20 more, but figured I wouldn't be able to keep it looking that good for long.

Cyberweld had some sales back in Jan, almost bought from them, but got the same price (pre tax) via LWS and was able to support a friend/local business.

• Lee

I'm loving my top of the line Lincoln helmet. No off angle issues, way lighter than my cheapo helmet, never get flashed. The viewing area is bigger than the Miller IIRC and its cheaper. I like it more than the older design upper end miller I've used it was lighter and more comfortable. Mine also came with a cheater lens which I tried for about 5 minutes before I wanted to puke and then took it out, lol.

Just checked Cyberweld.com and they have an even better deal going on now on the Miller Hoods. Plain black Digital Elite is on sale for $259 (free shipping on anything over $25) and you get a free set of Miller WeldX sleeves through the end of the month. NMNA, but that's a sweet deal. All of the Digital Elite "design" hoods are $281.60 with free sleeves too.

http://store.cyberweld.com/midielwehe.html

• Lee

Leafy wrote: I'm loving my top of the line Lincoln helmet. No off angle issues, way lighter than my cheapo helmet, never get flashed. The viewing area is bigger than the Miller IIRC and its cheaper. I like it more than the older design upper end miller I've used it was lighter and more comfortable. Mine also came with a cheater lens which I tried for about 5 minutes before I wanted to puke and then took it out, lol.

This is a good hood too, the Viking 3350 was high on my list, it does have a larger window over 12 sq in vs. the Digital Elite's a little over 9 sq in. The DE is slightly lighter though, by 2 oz, doubt you'd really notice a difference. I thought it only had 3 arc sensors, but it has the same as the Digital Elite (4). That X-mode is what finally sold me on the Miller though. It senses the electromagnetic field of the arc instead of the light of the arc. It allows much less chance of getting flashed during off angle viewing, and allows you to work out doors without sun light tricking the arc sensors.

That Viking 3350 would be a real close second for me, that bigger lens almost got me to forget about X-mode when I was shopping. I couldn't say you made a wrong choice with either.

Edit: full disclosure, I've been told that I "drink the blue Kool-aid" so I'm a tad Miller biased.

• Lee

I have a Miller digital Elite also... I LOVE it...

At my last job we had a 6x6 window Miller AD helmet and that was the best one I've ever used. It got so clear you didn't need a light over the work, we also had a $35 unit while it worked very good (and I have two at home) it doesn't get as clear nor does it cover the top of the head as well. Neither unit causes eye pain / sand in the eye feeling.
With the low cost unit I often find myself using a rag taped to the top and flipped over the skull to block out the light hitting the back side of the lens. It only effect the view when not welding.

The job I'm at now has a AD Lincon unit and it's not as good as the Miller but better then the low cost unit.

I have a Miller Elite at work and a Northern Tools $70 special at home. The difference between the two is almost nonexistent. The large eyeport is a big plus. I've been welding for most of my life, and have never had any eye trouble.

Somewhere I saw one with a small automatic window and a super size dark tint window beneath it. I think it was from the days when no one trusted the automatic dimmer for their eyes, so you did your work through the big window and peeked at your work through the dimming one instead of raising the helmet.

I didn't buy it, but it seems like a good idea for people who are afraid of cheap automatic dimming helmets.

My LWS carries the Lincoln Viking 3350 and Arc-One Vision X540V for ~$200 range 'large view port' AD helmets. From what I had found, they were essentially the entry point for this category of helmet, in addition to being a high bang for the buck on both features and quality. As is often the case, both can typically be found a little cheaper online than locally, but most of the time I like to support my LWS if they can get reasonably close in price...Especially the one that's open on Saturdays.

For the vast majority of garage/hobby welders, who measure their time on welding projects in hours per week or hours per month rather than hours per day, I just haven't seen the real world advantages of jumping up towards the $300 range of more 'professional' helmets. So far, in my limited garage welding experience, I have yet to encounter a situation where the Miller X-Mode would have provided any notable advantage. After trying them on, I did find that I liked the headgear on the Lincoln slightly better than the Arc-One to justify the slightly higher price between the two. Even though I am a bit 'blue' biased (due in larger part to previous professional experience with the company) and know that the Digital Elite is a fantastic helmet for anybody willing to justify the extra cost, so far I've been more than happy with both the money spent and money saved on my Lincoln Viking 3350.

Admittedly, getting the Miller Digital Elite down into the mid-$200 range would definitely have been tempting...Even if it was an online only offer.

ronholm wrote: I have a Miller digital Elite also... I LOVE it...

bingo... same here

I got a large faceplate harborfreight helmet mostly to try, because so many folk were raving about how good it is. It's worked flawlessly for me so far. About 1/4 the price of typical automatic welding helmets.

I am really intrested in the 6x6 one. I am going to have to investigate that one more.

My experience with the cheap auto hoods hasn't been stellar. Granddad had a ~$80 Hobart, I think, from TSC that absolutely would not work in the cold, I flashed myself a few times before ditching it for a fixed shade. This was 10 years or so ago, the cheap stuff might be better now, but I learned the hard way with that hood.

• Lee