Let's Talk About Elastomeric Masks!

posted sunday, 2022-08-21 at 22:36 in category personal

As has become abundantly clear recently, COVID-19 isn't going away; in fact, it's striking more and more of my friends and family who had successfully avoided it for years. At this point, we have ample evidence that masks work to drastically reduce the spread of COVID; however, none of the local, state, or federal governments are willing to take the low-cost, high-return step of requiring mask usage in public settings, so most people just don't bother. The fact that I'm usually the only one wearing a mask in any given space, combined with the increased contagiousness of the Omicron family of variants, means that I've been spending the last few months wearing N95 masks1 a lot of the time. Given that I had an unavoidable plane trip2 coming up, and spurred by the recent New York Times article on elasticmeric masks, I decided that it was time to investigate reusable (and potentially both more-protective and more-comfortable) options. In general, reusable respirators (often called "elastomeric" because of the rubbery plastic they're made of) offer better filtration and much better seals than disposable masks -- if you wear glasses and have problems with fogging due to a poorly-fit disposable mask, you should strongly consider an elastomeric mask. After some research, I ended up buying three different reusable half-facepiece respirators, and this post has some brief impressions of them.

Just a note up front: I am (of course) not a doctor and can't give you medical advice. As far as I know, all of these respirators are suitable for reducing your risk of catching COVID-19, but you should probably talk to an actual expert. You can find some useful information on the CDC's page about elastomeric respirators.

GVS Elipse P100 Respirator with Source Control

$33.95, 133g

The GVS Elipse with Source Control is essentially the only NIOSH-certified reusable respirator with filtered exhalation in the US market. This means that it provides both extremely good filtration for air I'm breathing in (it's a NIOSH-certified P1003 filter), and also protects other people from anything I'm breathing out (in this case, by exhaling through the same P100 filter). It was recommended by several sources, but has been heavily backordered4, so I wasn't sure I could get it in time for my trip. In fact, it ended up being delivered on the day we returned, so I've only used it for grocery shopping so far.

  • GVS Elipse head-on
  • GVS Elipse from the side

Pros

  • Compact
  • Great filtration
  • No nose pinching
  • Great seal (doesn't leak at all on any side, even when talking
  • Wide straps are very comfortable on the head and neck
  • So cheap!

Cons

  • Substantially muffles my voice
  • Pleated HEPA filter rubs against my cheeks when breathing and is irritating
  • Hard to take off (has to go over your whole head)
  • Probably hard to clean5

3M 6000-Series with Source Control Valve

$45.56 as configured, 185g

Knowing that the GVS Elipse wasn't going to be obtainable in time, I decided to go with the cheap and common option of the 3M 6000-series6: specifically, the 3M Half-Facepiece 6300 Respirator combined with the 3M 7093 P100 filter and the 3M Series 604 exhalation valve filter. This gives me the same P100 coverage for incoming air as the GVS, and gives substantial protection for people around me (based on the ASTM F2101 standard). This setup is primarily targeted for industrial use, and you may have seen contractors wearing these when doing stuff like painting in enclosed spaces.

It's possible to make this setup a little lighter and less bulky by replacing the 7093 cartridges with 3M 2091 P100 filters, but those look even sillier and offer no protection against grabby toddlers.

  • 3M 6300 head-on
  • 3M 6300 from the side

Pros

  • Great filtration
  • Relatively easy to take off due to the quick-release clip on the lower strap
  • Great seal; absolutely no air leakage
  • Valves make me sound like Darth Vader7
  • Does a pretty good job controlling condensation
  • Available on Amazon (1, 2, 3) if you're into that sort of thing

Cons

  • Heavy
  • Substantially muffles my voice
  • Some nose-pinching after a few hours
  • Thin neck strap causes irritation
  • With exhalation valve filter attached, looks a bit like a WW1 gas mask and freaks people out
  • Complicated to clean

FloMask Pro

$89.99, 63g

The last elastomeric mask I've been using is something totally different: the FloMask is designed for consumer use (as opposed to industrial/medical use like the other two masks). It's not NIOSH-certified, but aims for a similar 99% filtration level, and was one of the Phase 1 winners for HHS DRIVe's Mask Innovation Challenge. I learned about this, of all places, from blogger Violet Blue's Patreon8.

  • FloMask head-on
  • FloMask from the side

Pros

  • Very comfortable
  • Lightweight and easy to carry
  • Easy to talk and breathe through

Cons

  • Filters are hard to change (and easy to mess up so that you have leakage if you let the filter wrinkle)
  • Fit takes some getting used to since it's above the chin. If you don't line it up right, you will get air leaking around the nose, which kind of defeats the purpose of wearing an elastomeric mask in the first place
  • Expensive! Even the replacement filters are expensive, at $1.19/ea.
  • Somewhat to take off (has to go over your whole head, but does have easy-to-loosen bottom strap)

Disposable N95 Masks

$0.94/ea, 7g

Just for comparison, here are the N95s I wear9:

  • Harley N95 head-on
  • Harley N95 from the side

They're the fairly common (and cheap) duck-bill style and have an external metal bit for improving the seal at the nose. This inevitably loosens every 20 minutes or so and causes my sunglasses to fog up until I re-bend it. I find that the straps end up wearing out after a handful of time being stretched over my head. I also try to dispose of them immediately if I was in a particularly-crowded area or around someone whom I know had/has COVID.

Conclusions

That's what I've got so far. All of the elastometric respirators are a lot more comfortable over long periods than the N95 masks, and all of them should be reusable for literal years (given sufficient cleaning). I'd like to imagine a world where I won't need a respirator10 a few years down the road, but that looks vanishingly unlikely.

Stay safe out there.

1

If you aren't familiar, N95 masks are face masks certified by NIOSH to filter at least 95% of ≥0.3μm particles. They are typically a much better fit than surgical masks, and if you're still using a surgical mask to avoid COVID you should definitely upgrade.

2

To Buffalo for a family wedding, so about 6 hours in the air each way. For one leg on the way back, we ended up stuck in the plane on the tarmac (with the ventilation turned off) for about 80 minutes and I was very glad to be wearing the P100. In general, I didn't have trouble flying with the P100, although one TSA agent had to ask a supervisor whether it was allowed in the airport and was told "of course".

3

A P100 filters at least 99.97% of ≥0.3μm particles, as well as organic vapors

4

I got mine from X1 Safety, which I was 75% sure was going to be a scam (and with which I used a virtual card with a low limit, just in case), but it ended up being real.

5

I haven't actually cleaned it yet

6

3M makes a bunch of different respirators; the 6000 series is the only one that has a first-party exhalation valve filter, but people online (e.g., in /r/Masks4All) seem to think the 7500 series is a lot more comfortable.

7

I think this is a pro

8

Warning: while much of Violet Blue's writing is perfectly SFW (she wrote a column for the Chronicle), some of it is very NSFW. Exercise caution.

9

I almost-exclusively use Harley Model L-188 N95 masks from Bona Fide Masks, because they fit my face fairly well, and are easy to get without spending all day driving around between pharmacies to buy one or two masks at a time.

10

Well, except for during wildfire season...

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