How should ear defenders fit?

January 5, 2021 3:27 PM

My googling's done me no good, and I don't think mine fit right. Help me understand what I feel should be obvious but to me apparently isn't.

Shortly after my midlife autism diagnosis, I bought a pair of Leightning L1 Passive Earmuffs (I didn't like the idea of carrying around bulkier versions). I've since mostly moved on to the active noise cancellation of the Airpods Pro but sometimes still use the passive muffs instead. However, I feel like they don't fit properly, but maybe they do. So: should your ears be entirely within the circumference of the cushions, or do the cushions partially sit atop the edges of your ears? Because these do the latter, and that's not comfortable. But I can't seem to find any indication that cushion circumference is a thing you can buy different sizes of.

posted by bixfrankonis to Health & Fitness (7 answers total)

Your ears need to be fully inside, also need to avoid hair, eyeglass arms, or headphone lines, all these allow noise in.
posted by unearthed at 3:41 PM on January 5, 2021

Purely on a comfort basis, I'd recommend having your ears within the circumference of the cushions. In my experience, if there's pressure on the external part (which a quick search unreliably informs me is the helix?) it's tolerable until it's suddenly VERY MUCH NOT TOLERABLE GET THESE THINGS OFF ow!
posted by Lexica at 3:51 PM on January 5, 2021 [2 favorites]

They need to make a complete seal outside your ears to work properly, even eyeglasses block the seal from forming fully unfortunately.
posted by TheAdamist at 4:39 PM on January 5, 2021

Ears need to be entirely inside the muff area, to achieve a seal.

If you have huge ear flaps, you may need to go to a silicone-y solution, like those triple baffled tips from Etymotic.

Probably a bit more discrete too. We've seen "Karen" stories where people wearing EarPros were assaulted for "ignoring Karens". ;)

You can achieve even more sound isolation with "Decibulz" custom-molding fit. If you want to keep your Airpods, there are these snap-on wings that you can custom mold to your ears contour.
posted by kschang at 5:12 PM on January 5, 2021 [1 favorite]

for my sordin electronic muffs the original ear cup bothered me, so I replaced it with a squishy gel kit that didn't bug my ear (my left ear was mostly sewn back on a while back, so it is really really picky) and made a decent seal even with my glasses. you may be able to find a replacement kit since they are meant to be replaced, but if it is too close to the original it could cause the same problem, you may need a different brand.

here is a link to reviews that talk about head and ear size.
posted by th3ph17 at 5:24 PM on January 5, 2021 [1 favorite]

For the record mine achieve a seal only when I’m wearing them with the padding against my outer ear. If I cover the ears fully there’s a gap behind the ear that lets sound in. If I need guaranteed decibel protection I use in-ear earplugs either alone or as well as the defenders.
posted by lokta at 12:35 PM on January 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

When I went looking for earmuffs, I found there were zillions of cheap similar-looking ones on Amazon, ordered a pair at random and found they were fine but didn't happen to fit my head. So I googled some more and found someone that had reviewed different models with a focus on the size of the headband and of the cups that go over ears, and based on their advice ordered another cheap pair from Amazon. I wear that second pair every day, often all day long, without any discomfort.

All to say--there's lots of variation in exactly how they fit, so keep trying till you find one that works for your head.
posted by bfields at 6:28 AM on January 8, 2021