Best Welding Helmet List – Guide and Review

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Updated August 2021

Shopping for the best welding helmet? Read on and find out which headgear suits you best.

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You can’t weld any material without using a welding helmet. That’s how vital this headgear is. The best welding helmet protects your eyes, face, and neck from harmful radiation emitted during the welding process. Having the right helmet can also increase your productivity and enhance weld quality.

The US Department of Labor says that eye injuries cost more than $300 million a year in lost productivity, medical expenses, and worker compensation. It is undeniable that using auto-darkening helmets goes a long way towards eye injury prevention.

But you don’t get the first welding helmet you find in an online store or at a retail store. There are many factors that you need to consider in shopping for a welding helmet. Additionally, you might be looking for a more affordable budget welding helmet that can provide the safety you need but for under $100.

Regardless of the helmet you choose, make sure that it meets ANSI Z87.1-2003 standards. This ensures that the headgear you are to purchase has passed independent testing. Simply put, the helmet can survive the high-velocity impact and provide ultraviolet and infrared filtering. 

So which welding helmet should you get? With the many welding helmet models in the market, you will be confused about which one to get. Here’s a list of helmets that you ought to consider buying:

Antra AH6-260-0000 Solar Power Welding Helmet

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As the name indicates, this is a solar-powered welding helmet. Its viewing size is pretty significant to have a good view of the material being welded. Its viewing size is 3.8 inches by 1.78 inches.

This auto-darkening welding helmet has several shades, which let you look at the material and adjust sensitivity depending on the intensity of the welding beam on the job.

The knobs, meanwhile, are easy to adjust. It has four sensors. The helmet also has a good response time to unshade. You can refer to the inside of the face area for the battery level. It is also very lightweight at just one pound so that you can use it for prolonged periods.

While this is an excellent choice, it does have its shortcomings. One is that the plastic nuts holding the helmet feel a bit cheap. There are also complaints that the head strap is pretty small.

Jackson Safety BH3 Welding Helmet with Balder Technology Black/Orange

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This is another auto-darkening, solar-powered welding helmet that is earning a lot of raves for being user-friendly.

It is comfortable to use, and you can use it easily both in light and dark modes.

This auto-darkening welding helmet has several shades, which let you look at the material and adjust sensitivity depending on the intensity of the welding beam on the job.

Aside from being lightweight, this helmet gives you top-level protection. It can guard your ears, neck, face, and eyes against weld spats and sparks. It may be pretty expensive, but at least you’re getting a welding helmet that is of superior quality.

Miller Electric 282000 Digital Performance Welding Helmet with Clearlight Lens Technology (Black)

[amazon box=”B077PCFCT9″]

This is an auto-darkening welding helmet that makes it a good choice for both hobbyists and professionals.

It isn’t as lightweight as the two previous helmets, but it weighs only 2.1 pounds.

It offers automatic darkening variable shade, ranging between #8 to #12. You can optimize the shade of the helmet for your comfort. It provides two sensors with a lens speed of 1/10,000 seconds.

Like the two other units previously mentioned, it is a solar-powered helmet. There’s an auto-on/off feature for recharging the solar cells. In terms of ease of use, this helmet is pretty impressive as well. There is a knob that you can turn to in controlling the slide, resistance, and closeness of the eyes.

There are some flaws, though. The plastic hinges aren’t precisely tough and durable, and reviews say it wears out within a year.

Hobart 770753 Pro Variable Auto-Dark Helmet

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This welding helmet is perfect for those looking for a durable and lightweight helmet.

It will protect your eyes and face for those large welding projects. It weighs less than one pound and is made from durable polyamide.

This helmet will give you superior visibility thanks to its 3.8×2.36 inch viewing area. Its shade settings from #8 to #13 give you enough protection during MIG, Stick, and TIG welding.

You might be turned off by its price as well as its flimsy flip locking mechanism. Apart from those cons, this is still a good choice for a welding helmet.

Lincoln Electric VIKING 3350 4C Lens Technology Review – K3034-4

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Another auto-darkening welding helmet, the Lincoln Electric Viking 3350, features an advanced 4C lens technology. This makes the view a lot clearer and cleaner.

The Lincoln Electric has a viewing size of 3.74 inches by 3.34 inches. Plus, its adjustable light shades let you work in almost any lighting environment with relative ease and have improved optical clarity.

The only problem with Lincoln Electric is that it is a bit heavy at around 3 pounds.

Best Sellers

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How to Choose the Best Welding Helmet (What to Look For)

Aside from that, there are other essential considerations in choosing a welding helmet:

Helmet Type

There are two types of helmets:

  1. Passive welding.
  2. Auto-darkening.

Passive welding is the more traditional type of welding helmet used a lot in the welding industry. It offers good safety protection. It is more affordable because it is made from molded plastic. But the problem is that it may not be a suitable gadget for inexperienced welders because it can be hard to position the electrode when it is snapped. This can lead to poor starts and affect the quality of welding.

Sometimes looking for the best passive welding helmet could be time better spent finding a newer type of auto-darkening type, which gives a better overview of your environment, at the expense of needing batteries, of course.

Welding helmets with an Auto-darkening filter, on the other hand, are the more modern type and are excellent choices to keep your eyes safe. Unlike passive welding, there’s no need to flip the helmet repetitively. Thus you can position the gun perfectly, as you can see through the viewing lens. It also makes welding work more straightforward and without the risk of neck injury or fatigue. The downside is that it is costly.

Viewing size

Another factor to consider when shopping for a welding helmet is the viewing size. Welding helmet sizes range from six square inches to 9 square inches. Six square inches is appropriate for light-duty welding, while nine inches is more appropriate for industrial use. You should decide on the view size depending on comfort and the amount of out-of-position welding you are likely to do. A professional welder will choose a larger viewing size to improve reaction time.

Weight

It would help if you also considered the weight of the helmet. After all, you will likely have a strained shoulder or even the dreaded neck strain if you are to work for long periods. The ideal welding helmet is lightweight. A headgear with multiple bands is more recommended than one with a single band because the latter tends to make the helmet heavier in hand.

That’s why you should try the welding helmet first before buying it. You should also check if the helmet can be adjusted not upfront but also at the back. You must also make sure you can quickly tighten it around the head.

Features

Certain features can affect your buying decision. For example, an adjustable delay control can let you set the time that the lens remains in the dark after the arc work is done.

Sensitivity control is another feature you should look for, as it lets you adjust the brightness level to trigger the lens’s darkening. It is very much helpful when the welding is done at low amps.

Ease Of Use

Welding helmets are designed to protect the welder from infrared, ultraviolet, and visible light emitted by the welding arc. They are a type of personal protective equipment that is worn on the head. They can have a shade or lens with a filter for two main purposes: to protect the wearer from glare and infrared radiation. When welding, an intense light is produced due to the welding arc which can be very harmful if it strikes the eyes directly. Welding masks help to reduce this exposure because they deflect much of this light away from the eyes. Nevertheless, they need to be easy to put on, take off, and more importantly, use with bulky welding gloves.

Other Considerations

  • Sensors: The number of sensors ranges from two for entry-level helmets to four for more advanced models. The higher the number is, the better the helmet is in terms of coverage and welding processes it can be utilized for.
  • Power source: Your helmet could either use lithium batteries or solar-powered. Batteries can add up to your energy expenses, aside from having to change the battery. Solar-powered is more energy efficient. If you go the battery route, you should consider battery life as they can be expensive. Another option is to use replaceable batteries which are a bit cheaper but have a slightly reduced capacity compered to in-built options. If you don’t want to always think about your battery life, you should opt for lithium batteries which last for long periods of time before they need to be recharged.
  • Shade range: If you buy an auto-darkening welding helmet, you need to choose the share range. Fixed shade is the best choice for welders dealing with the same kind of materials with the same thickness, while the variable shade is best for those who deal with different materials which should reduce eye strain.
  • Optical clarity: Welding helmets are often made of glass or plastic. The clearness of the lens depends on the type of glass or plastic used. These helmet lenses can generally be classified by their clarity, which is based on their refractive index, which is the ratio between a ray’s velocity in air and its velocity in vacuum. A higher refractive index means that more light will pass through the material and less light will be reflected off it thus resulting in a higher optical clarity. Therefore, we can conclude that a higher index number means greater clarity for the lens.
  • Price range: If you are looking for a cheap welder’s helmet at an affordable price, then the best option is to go with an entry level model. These helmets usually have basic features and they will not be able to offer much protection against any kind of hazards that may occur during your work. However, these models can still provide some good value for money as compared to a more expensive helmet in a higher price range.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which welding helmet is best?

In our view, it is the Lincoln Electric K3034-4 for its crystal clear optics and comfort of use. 

What is a good welding helmet for MIG welding?

Again, our choice would have to be the Lincoln Electric Viking 3350, an all-around fantastic option for both amateur welders with the cash and even those who are professional welders.

Are cheap welding helmets any good?

The short answer is that they can be. While they won’t stand up to rigors, industrial use, as long as they have the relevant safety standards, they are typically fine for occasional use around the house or home garage.

What’s the most expensive welding helmet?

As far as we can see, it seems to be the 3M Speedglas Heavy-Duty Welding Helmet coming in at four digits!

Final Verdict

As you may have noticed, all the items in this list are auto-darkening welding helmets. If you are a novice welder, you will realize how more practical it is to use this headgear. Not only does using this modern headgear save you from having a stiff neck, but it also makes your work faster as you no longer have to flip down the lens, unlike in the old type.

Auto-darkening welding helmets may be expensive, but you will have better-quality welds. And if you’re at a loss on which helmet to buy, go ahead and buy any of the items listed above. Anyone on the list can be considered as the best welding helmet today.

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