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Posted by David Sherman [216.18.131.166] on Friday, February 19, 2010 at 12:54:54 :
In Reply to: Re: I was worried about the same thing posted by Dick [206.74.179.143] on Friday, February 19, 2010 at 10:07:15 :
I got the cheapest El-Cheapo helmet they had and it works great. I've never seen a noticeable flash and never had my eyes feel bad in any way after using it. I did sunburn my wrist one time from wearing regular work gloves instead of welding gloves, so I know I've been exposed to plenty of UV. Obviously if I was an all day professional welder I'd buy a top of the line one, but I'm not. Perhaps the solar panel will wear out sooner and it will stop responding quickly, or perhaps the plastic lens cover will get scratched, smoked, or spattered more easily than better plastic on a more expensive one. It did come with a spare lens cover, though. I would assume the straps and adjustment knob on the cheap one are flimsier and will wear out faster than on a good one. One thing the El Cheapo one didn't have, that I don't need, is the flaming skull graphics.
There are probably very few suppliers of the actual electrically actuated lens material, and it could well be that they all use the same stuff, or that there are only a couple of manufacturers of that stuff and all the high-end helmets use one make and all the low end ones use another. Solar panels come in different qualities too. But I suspect that the difference in cost of the vital innards of the thing, between the $30 and $400 helmets, is a lot less than the difference in price of the finished product.
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