Best Auto Darkening Welding Helmets Reviewed For 2020

Ready to up your welding game in 2020 with a premium auto darkening welding helmet? We’ve done the hard work for you and put together reviews of the top rated welding helmets available on Amazon. Below is a quick table of the top 3 auto darkening helmets followed by longer reviews for each one on our list. So check it out and see how you can improve your welding game now!

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1. 3M Speedglas Welding Helmet 9100 with Extra-Large Size Auto-Darkening Filter 9100XX- Shades 5, 8-13, Model 06-0100-30SW

3M is one of the best welding helmet brands on the market today and you know it’s quality is going to be unparalleled. As far as the features are concerned, the 9100 welding helmet can turn its shade from light to dark within 0.1 milliseconds and can offer a shade between 8-13 as per the ANSI Z87.1+ standard. Other than being used for welding, the 9100 can also be deployed for grinding and torch cutting purposes. With a viewing area of 12.11 square inches, you are left with ample space to examine your work, pay proper attention to the welding area while working and everything else that you need to do with minimal obstruction.

A total of 3 sensors on the helmet take care of the lightening and the darkening of the lens. Exhaust vents are also provisioned to allow the exhaled air to flow out of the helmet thus reducing the heat and humidity inside the helmet and also preventing fogging of the lens.

 

 

2. Welding Helmet, Black, 3350 Series

The 3350 helmet series by Lincoln Electric is designed for comfort and for the best of fittings. The viewing area on the 3350 series of helmets is large and let’s you see everything in front of you. The clarity on the viewing area is second to none (thanks to the 4C lens technology implemented in the 3350). The 3350 range of helmets showcases a wide range of sensitivities- a range of DIN 6 to 13, which is in charge of making sure that your eyes won’t be strained or flashed even in the most extreme of lighting conditions while welding.

A total of 4 on board sensors are in charge of making sure that the reaction time of the lens is low and the lens shade changes its shade as quickly as possible to avoid any sort of damage to the eyes. This range of helmets is powered by lithium-ion batteries that can survive for almost 1300 hours in their lifetime.

 

3. Miller 280051 Digital Infinity, Relic, Auto Darkening Welding Helmet

The selling point of the 280051 welding helmet from Miller is its viewing area which is the largest amongst auto-darkening helmets in the market right now; the Infinity in its name should be suggestive of that. The lens has been made of some crisp material that offers a clear view of your welding. 4 onboard sensors are responsible for switching the shade of the lens between a range of DIN 8 to 13 within a matter of 0.05 milliseconds depending on the intensity of the light. Other than welding, the 280051 can also be used for cutting and grinding purposes. There is an additional X-Mode that is exclusive to Millers’ helmets; this mode eliminates the interference of sunlight for even better viewing.

The Relic Digital Infinity has also been designed while keeping comfort in mind. The headgear has been designed with oversized comfort cushions to make the user feel the minimum of strain and fatigue.

 

4. Auto Darkening Welding Helmet, Black, Digital Elite, 3, 5 to 8/8 to 13 Lens Shade

Made out of Nylon, the Digital Elite is a very good helmet. The sensitivities on this helmet are also great – 8 to 13 for welding purposes and 5-8 for grinding purposes, but in all fairness, these numbers could have been better especially for the price that the Digital Elite demands. It makes up for the same to a very small extent by offering a lens reaction time of 0.05 milliseconds provisioned by the 4 onboard arc sensors, but then again, it’s not something that other helmets do not offer at a considerably lower price. The viewing area is also not something that would blow you away; it is a meager 9 square inches- just enough to get your work done without any obstacles or hindrances.

Powered by 2 lithium batteries, the Digital Elite features controls that can be varied as per the comforts of the user. One place where the helmet does offer some value for its money is the cheater lens- a lens that is capable of magnification to allow you to get a proper and detailed look into your work and that too from various angles. The delay is also customizable between 30-500 milliseconds. But in totality and all fairness, the Digital Elite is nothing but a waste of money. The features offered do not justify its price at all and you can find tons of other options that offer a significant number of other features in the same price range.

 

5. Jackson Safety BH3 Auto Darkening Welding Helmet with Balder Technology (46157), Black, 1 / Case

The Jackson BH3 offers variable shades between 9-13 to suit various types of welding. The filter lens of the same has the best optical clarity amongst auto-darkening welding helmets in the market amongst all price segments. The diffusion of light and the angular dependence allow clear vision from all angles possible. The BH3 is top of its class in all senses- performance-wise very few helmets even come close to match it, design-wise the BH3 boasts of a high-density polymer hood that offers maximum safety to the wearer by keeping his face, forehead, neck, and ears safe from the weld sparks.

At the same time, the design also boasts an aerodynamic design makes sure that the heat buildup is at its minimum, thus keeping the welder comfortable at all times; the same also makes sure that reflections do not become a hindrance and that no fog (arising from the breathing) accumulates on the lens shade.

 

6. Esab SENTINEL A50 Auto Darkening Welding Helmet

Before you even dive into the details of the Sentinel A50, you may have already made up your mind about getting one for yourself. Mostly because it looks so damn cool! Out of the box, the Sentinel looks like a gas chamber mask of sorts and is a killer in all design aspects. Getting a little technical, one would find that the Sentinel is a top of the line helmet that is not just durable but is a premium product in terms of safety. The lens showcases a variable shade range between 5-13: the highest ever witnessed on a welding helmet meant purely for welding. The optical clarity of the Sentinel is beyond the charts too- rated at 1/1/1/2. There is no doubt that ESAB has put a lot of thought and care into designing the Sentinel A50.

 

7. Hobart 770756 Impact Variable Auto-Dark Helmet

The Hobart 770756 is an entry-level helmet in the market. Even still, it packs quite a bunch of features that can put some industrial level helmets to shame. For example, the 770756 boasts of the best lens reaction time in the market at 0.04 milliseconds. The lens offers a full variable shade between 8-13. You may also use it in shade 3 while in grind mode. A significant viewing area of 7.05 square inches makes sure that you don’t miss out on any detail while welding. Even for its cheap price, the 770756 packs 3 sensors for more accurate and quick shading. However, you can only get so much for a particular price. Apart from these features, the Hobart 770756 starts toppling away: it’s heavy as well and can get uncomfortable.

 

Welding Helmet Buying Guide

These days, everywhere we turn our heads, massive structures and buildings surround us, all of which not just hold the world together but are a key part of a nation’s economy. From high rise skyscrapers to the longest of bridges, every mechanical structure in the modern world cannot be accomplished without one and probably the most basic of mechanical processes-welding. Welding is the process of joining two same or different types of materials and fusing them together making them one. Welding makes modern society possible.

Welding is one of the simplest processes in mechanical engineering and is the backbone the biggest economies of the world. It plays an essential role in the development and deployment of vital products such as automobiles, structures, buildings, space products, as well as many household items that we take for granted.

Welding can get risky and involves not just 2 pieces of metal, but a continuous supply of consumable electrode and electricity; during the process, the heat of the arc melts the surface of one metal and the other is fused into the hollow structure thus formed. The fumes given away as by-products of welding are a mixture of complex particles and ionized gases which, when inhaled can compromise your lung health over time.

But what’s even riskier than inhaling ionized and potentially poisonous gases is exposing the eyes to the constant sparks that are created while welding. The temperature of these sparks runs anywhere between 3,000 to 20,000 degrees Celsius- almost 4 times the temperature of the surface of the sun. That alone should be enough to make you understand the safety needed to keep the sparks from falling on your skin or even more so, in the eyes. Such high temperatures are enough to penetrate the outer layer of the eyes and leave them beyond repair. Even at its lowest performance, welding leaves behind sparks at 3000 degrees Celsius which is still more than half the temperature of the sun; I need not say anything else for you are the wiser person over here.

As a precautionary measure, the only thing that can protect welders from permanent damage to the eyes is a welding helmet that can’t be pierced by the sparks of the welding as well as allow the welder to see what they’re doing at the same time. Understanding the very same need, manufacturers came up with a metal helmet that is included with a window covered with a filter through which the welder can observe their work all the while protecting their eyes from the sparks as well as from the UV and IR rays emitted from them. Some widely used materials for this lens shade (another name for the window) include tinted glass, tinted plastic, polarized lenses, variable density filters, etc.

BUYING GUIDE

It doesn’t matter if you are a DIY person or a person professional welder, a welding helmet is a must-have tool in your arsenal for safety. The following are some of the factors that you should keep in mind when looking to buy a welding helmet

• The first thing you need to ask yourself before buying a welding helmet is how often are you going to use it and for what level of work are you going to use it for? Depending on your usage, you need to pick either a passive or an auto-darkening welding helmet. Let’s discuss both these types in detail

• A passive or a standard welding helmet is for those people who will only occasionally weld because they offer a cheap yet a durable option of the right headgear for welding jobs. The lens of such helmets is often coated with infrared and ultraviolet dark-tinted glass as protection for the eyes, whereas the structure of the helmet itself is mostly made from molded plastic or in very rare cases a metal. These helmets mostly have a shade number of 10 as per the ANSI Z87.1+ safety standard.

While not using the helmet and examining the work done, the helmet can be easily flipped up to a horizontal position with the help of a hinge and the front face rests in the same horizontal position on your head. Once the positioning and the examining is done and you are ready to resume with your work, you can either flip it down with your hands or just give a quick snap to the neck to flip it back down into position.

• The next type of welding helmet that you find in the market is auto-darkening helmets. These are more advanced helmets and thus are suitable for people who have welding as a profession and are completely different from passive helmets. When not in use, the helmet lens offers a viewing shade of 3 or 4 (ideal for grinding and cutting) making it easy to see through it and while in use, offer viewing shades between 8 to 13 depending on the intensity of the light and the sparks being created. This change in shade is made possible by the sensors that are embedded in the helmet structure. These sensors can sense changes within fractions of seconds and automatically darken or lighten the color of the lens.

An additional benefit of auto-darkening helmets is that the frontal hood is fixed in position eradicating the need to keep flipping it open and snapping it down every time you need to take a break and observe your work. This observation can be very easily carried out with the hood flapped down, which is all thanks to the sensors. At the same time, these are extremely lightweight thus making them a less of a strain on your neck and the head, but for all of these wonderful features, you need to shell out a considerable amount of money: the value of which can only be justified if you use the helmet regularly.

The upcoming features apply only to auto-darkening helmets and not to passive helmets which is understood given the fact that passive helmets are beginner headgear and are meant for protection at a very basic level, whereas auto-darkening helmets are meant for professional usage and so need to be equipped with some extra features to justify their price as well as offer enhanced protection. These extra features and specifications that one may wish to consider include-

1. Shade

Compare the shade of welding helmets to the tint of the lens. The shade is basically an indication of the color that the lens assumes. The comparatively cheaper auto-darkening helmets have a fixed shade of 10 or 11 as per the ANSI Z87.1+ standard. By default, the lens is maintained at a shade of 3 or 4 but once the arc is started and the change is sensed by the sensors, the lens color changes to a shade 10 color to offer protection to the eyes. These types of helmets are suitable for welders who work with the same type of materials and using the same type of welding and as per certain settings.

The comparatively expensive auto-darkening helmets have a variable shade lens which is made possible by a significantly larger amount of sensors in the helmet. The shade of such helmets can range anywhere between 8 to 13 and is ideal for welders who use different welding processes as well as work on various types of materials.

2. Viewing size

The viewing size is the size of the window that you have available with you to look from and observe your work. The viewing size is a variable aspect and is all a matter of personal choice and comfort. Some factors that go into consideration in deciding the viewing size include figuring out the amount of out of position welding that needs to be done, how much focus is needed on a particular spot while welding, etc. Some universal viewing sizes include 6 square inches and 9 square inches with the former being more suitable for light-duty welding and the latter being a better fit for industrial level welding jobs.

3. Lens reaction time

The lens reaction time is defined as the time taken by the sensors to detect the change in heat and temperature levels and subsequently ask the lens to switch its shade from the normal 3 or 4 shade to an active shade of 8 or above depending on the intensity of the heat. Less is the reaction time of the lens, better is the helmet and subsequently more expensive as well for a helmet with lower lens reaction time means that the sensors in it can sense the changes very fast and very minutely and therefore act accordingly in a quick manner. Entry-level helmets are rated at an approximate 1/3600 of a second, whereas the high-end helmets take almost 1/20000 of a second to get activated.

4. Sensors

It is the presence of sensors only that make the 2 types of welding helmets different from each other. Also, it is natural to comprehend that the more sensors on the helmet, the better is the coverage and better is the output. Entry-level auto-darkening helmets usually comprise 1 or 2 sensors on them, whereas the more expensive ones used for industrial usage comprise of 4 or at the most 5 sensors on them. The difference may not sound like much, but the performance of auto-darkening welding helmets gets altered significantly by the presence of even a single extra sensor.

5. Sensitivity control

The thing with sensors is that at the end of the day, they are just a piece of mechanical equipment only and need to be fine-tuned in order to work properly. Another thing about said tuning is that there is no universal setting that can apply to every welder out there. Everyone has a different style of work, everyone has different types of work, everyone needs to deliver different types of output; the customizations never cease to end. As such, with so many settings possible at the end of the day, welders need to control the sensitivity which is nothing but the amount of light entering the lens and the subsequent brightness caused that triggers the darkening of the lens, as per their own needs.

In many cases it may happen that the welders do not want the lens to be triggered when the arc isn’t much bright to focus on the weld; in other cases the welder may wish for the lens to get darkened as soon as the arc strikes the metal and for all of these variations, sensitivity needs to set and controlled accordingly.

6. Delay control

Delay in terms of welding helmets refers to the time for which the lens remains dark after the whole job is finished and there is no longer the need for the arc. Again, just like sensitivity, delay is something that depends on job to job. For events where tracking the job is the priority, a short delay is ideal for if there are any changes to be made, they can be done immediately, while the metal is still hot; for jobs where the amperage of the process was too high, it is best and suggested to go for a longer delay because in such cases, even when the arc has been switched off, the molten metal might still be off giving away harmful radiations that are not good to be witnessed with naked eyes.

7. The type of powering

Welding helmets can be charged through one of two ways- either they can be battery charged or they can be charged via solar cells. Having said that, it is not difficult to see that battery-powered helmets are more portable and probably a little more convenient than their solar-powered counterpart. However, they do have a drawback that they add a significant amount to the electricity bill and also they need to be charged quite frequently, but that depends on how much you put the helmet to use.

On the other hand, solar-powered auto-darkening helmets make use of a built-in solar panel and a lithium-ion battery. As long as the sun is shining bright above your heads, you can put the helmet to exhaustive use without any worries, but in case of emergencies where you have to work till late night, the battery is only going to last you for a limited amount of time after which there is no scope of charging it again. This is the reason why I said earlier that battery-powered helmets are more ‘portable’ than the solar-powered ones.

8. Weight

Another factor that makes a significant impact on the user is the weight of the helmet because, in all fairness, welding is exhausting. What’s even more exhaustive is carrying the weight of the helmet on your head for the whole day! If the helmet has a considerable weight, then it is only going to cause strain to your shoulders and your head. As such, when you are out to buy an auto-darkening welding helmet, make sure that there are multiple bands on the helmet instead of a single band. Bands are nothing but small structures on which the weight of the helmet rests. If there is a single band, then all of the weight of the helmet rests on it and the remaining burden falls on you whereas, with multiple bands, the weight of the helmet is much more manageable.

9. Adjustability

While buying a welding helmet, one also needs to make sure that the helmet does not cause a nuisance while you are wearing it. Make sure that you can tighten the helmet around your head so that it does not keep falling off every time you bend a little to examine your work or whatever you are doing. Also make sure that the helmet can be adjusted up, down, front, and back.

Welding helmets have come a long way in terms of technology and innovation. Apart from the features just discussed, tons of other systems and functions have made welding helmets more advanced and sophisticated than ever. Let’s discuss some of these advanced features or terms that you may come across when buying welding helmets.

• The very first feature embedded in welding helmets these days is Speedglas. Speedglas are circuit boards that are designed in Sweden to offer enhanced, comfortable, and uncompromising peripheral vision in all sorts of demanding conditions but the best in hot and humid setups. 3M welding helmets are some of the biggest consumers of the Speedglas technology.

• MP (Multi-protection) is another awesome feature that has been integrated in the modern-day welding helmet. Multi-protection, as the name suggests, offers seamless and enhanced levels of protection to the wearer. With this feature, the modern-day welding helmet offers you 5 levels of safety and protection- head, eye, face, respiratory, and hearing; all in one. Hobart welding helmets and Lincoln electric welding helmets are some fine examples of the multi-protection feature being implemented.

How much to pay for a welding helmet? Well, the price of welding helmets, like all other things and products in the market depends completely on the number and the quality of features that it is offering. Auto-darkening welding helmets will have a price range of $250-400. If you are paying more than what the other guy is, you. Below we’ve reviewed some of the most popular auto darkening welding helmets on the market! Check it out!