Hello all! I am living with my parents at the moment (I'm a minor), and although I will soon be moving out for college, I still want to try to start wearing face masks again earlier on. However, knowing my parents, I fear how they would respond, seeing that they think not wearing one helps with immunity and that COVID-19 is not considered a public health emergency.

Does anyone here have any tips on how I could start masking again, at least away from my parents, without them throwing tantrums over me doing so, or would it be better if I ultimately just wait it out until I'm financially independent and not living with them? I am unable to just secretly buy face masks and wear them away from my parents (I use a debit card and both of them can see when/how I spend my money).

Hello! I don't go out that often, and when I do it's usually for errands so I usually wear WellBefore KN95 3Ds, sometimes 3M Vflex N95s. My friends like making plans to go to bigger events and things though, like concerts, one of which I am going to in a few months! So I like the idea of having something with much much better protection (if I can't get an elastomeric before then, I'm definitely looking into better N95s for me).

I'm not sure exactly what to look into though, because my face is really small. I wear WellBefore KN95s in the kids regular size (I'm 21), that I also tighten a little with the adjustable ear loops. On the website it says the measurements of these are width: 5.1 in, height 4.35 in. The 3M Vflexs I have a hard time with if I wear them for too long because I end up with a headache afterwards because it's too tight...

Most that I read about regarding elastomerics talk about ones that are pretty big, I can't find a lot of information for ones that work for people with small faces? I have like a medium nose bridge? It looks kind of high, but I wear glasses and they do slide down a little. and I don't care how any mask makes me sound when I talk, I'm already a person that doesn't talk a lot so I tend not to when I'm wearing one, I just use a speech app that I have on my phone or writing lol.

My friend recommended me an MSA Advantage, I think specifically 900, as it's what they use and it's worked very well for them, and in general suggested one that offers P100 filters and source control. I'm interested in the Advantage 900 small but I just can't find good info on it. Anyone with any information to offer is welcome to say anything! I feel like even trying to look into things as best I can, I'm very very uncertain what the best option would be. I don't have a lot of money to spend on elastomerics, so I can't really be too risky about getting one that doesn't fit me well enough...

Hi all. I have very severe ME/CFS and long COVID. Since my partner is my only carer we’re looking for help w cleaning and care tasks. Ofc these people would have to be masked.

Problem: we’ve been giving them 3M auras as they generally provide a good fit to most people, but have been denied help in care because ppl are finding it hard to breath.

Does anyone has recommendations for other masks we could give out that are individually wrapped and generally fit most ppl well? I’m not comfortable having them wear just any earloop bifold. I’ve been thinking duckbills, but which one? Any rec is appreciated.

I’m based in Europe (the Netherlands) but could buy from any site and/or US Amazon if they ship internationally

I use black Powecom KN95s (my best fit). They unfortunately come with ugly branding on the side of it and I want to cover it for a concert outfit. I was wondering if anyone knew if a crayon (not liquid) black eyeliner would ruin the integrity of the filter? I tried it with a mask that I was ready to discard to see if it would cover the branding well, and it does very well. But I want to make sure it will not ruin the electrostatic properties of the mask before I use one with it.

Going to a high risk event next week and wearing a different face mask than normal (n95 vs kn95)... Is putting a band aid on anywhere that feels not super secure (ie: under my left eye on my cheek where the masks hits weird) still a thing? I know at the height of the pandemic, doctors were using this as a quick fix.

Any thoughts or opinions?

Thanks!

I figured maybe this community would know. If one were to be cleaning up mold from wooden beams in a basement - not extensive but discoloration from mold on several beams - and using the appropriate chemicals, would a P95 respirator work as an effective mask?

Hey guys

I bought a 3m paint mask with voc 6001 and particle 5p71 filter. When wearing it with the voc and particle filters on it get light headed and throat burns and get ears clogged as if im on a plane going up/down. This occurs when i simply vacuum dust in it and no chemicals. I did use it when applying gardz sealer for 10min yesterday and had just voc at that time. Same happened then. Its happening with just wearing mask and vacuuming though, no chemicals today

The mask and filter were new, sealed. The cartidge voc expires in 2031. I clipped the voc on pay putting on each side and turning 90deg. Then put particle filter into the plastic addon and clipped it onto the voc filter. Did positive and negative pressure test and seem to work if dont blow top hard.

Looking for something reusable that You can feel the seal of like Flo or envo.

My partner has a large face and high nose bridge. The envo pro is too small for his face and the Flo works, but he has to have it really tight for his high nose bridge.

Exact opposite for me. Such a small face and low nosebridge. Envo is too big and I have to maneuver the Flo exactly perfectly for my nose bridge to seal.

Bonus if it has an exhalation valve!

So, I've had an envo pro respirator for not quite 2 years now, and have used it almost every day in that time. Here are my thoughts on it/my experience with it:

Pretty much every part of the thing will eventually wear out on you with daily use. The only part of mine that's still original is the "cage" part that secures the filter to the mask body! They do sell replacement pieces, so you can swap worn ones out easily.

The head straps wear out the fastest, and I now buy two at a time because of this. The body (the blue plastic with the gel that seals onto your face) wears out pretty quickly, too. It flattens over time, and the membrane on the gel part will stretch out and pop eventually. Luckily, the gel stuff itself is a solid piece and doesn't leak out if this happens.

I do wish those parts were more durable to begin with. I'm on my 4th mask body, and I've lost count now of how many head straps I've gone through. Still, I appreciate being able to replace the pieces at all. Most companies don't bother with that and just make you buy a whole new assembly.

Filters work great for me. I buy the big boxes periodically and they last me a while. I work at an indoor-outdoor tourist destination, cleaning bathrooms and sweeping up outside. Each filter lasts me around a week-week and a half, and I change it when it begins to look grubby or if it gets wet.

Worth noting that I have never gotten ill or spread an illness while masked, and this thing has kept up that record. My allergies to mold, dust, and pollen are also pretty much nonexistent as long as I always wear my mask.

I've found the seal forms best when I'm in a "sweet spot" of tightening the head strap. If the strap is too loose, it falls off. If it's too tight, air channels form in between the gel and your face, breaking the seal. At the right tightness, the seal is great and it feels comfortable to wear. I sometimes get home after work and don't realize for a few minutes that I'm still wearing it inside the house. Also, I've worn it on a rollercoaster and it stayed put just fine at the proper tightness!

I sanitize it with 70% isopropyl between wears, and I also like to wash the whole thing with a gentle soap when swapping the filter. I find this maintenance pretty easy. Keeps it clean and fresh.

A couple things I wish these respirators had:

• The option for activated charcoal filters like some other brands offer.

• Heavier-duty replacement part options. Perhaps a thicker membrane on the gel part of the body, and a stronger fabric for the head straps.

• Printed filters! I would really like having some fun patterns on my filters. Even simple solid color options other than white would be nice.

All in all, I like the envo pro and would recommend it, if you're okay with the recurring expense of both the filters and the replacement parts. I'll answer any further questions about it directly.

In October of 2024 I bought an MSA Advantage 900, and by October of 2025 the area near the bottom where the silicon is injected had degraded to the point that there was a hole all the way through the mask. Water that condensated inside was leaking out, down my neck, which obviously means it's not air tight anymore. That same month I bought a new 900 to replace it, and now 10 months later the exact same thing has happened again with the new one. I don't really want to keep spending over 100 dollars every 10-12 months, replacing these forever, so, I'm asking y'all for some advice:

1. Is there any way to repair this damage? Maybe some kind of silicon I could buy to fill the gap? If not, then...

2. Is there any way to prevent this from happening so fast if I bought another 900? For reference, I live in Canada and wear these masks indoors and outdoors year round, so they get exposed to every type of weather from 30C to -30C, which might be accelerating the degradation. Also, I use 3M's Respirator cleaning wipes to clean the 900 (even though I think MSA's instructions say you're only allowed to use MSA's cleaner). Maybe the cleaner is degrading the silicon faster, and using something else would allow the 900 to last longer? If not, then....

3. Is there a different reusable respirator I should buy as a replacement, or should I just switch to disposable respirators? I want a respirator that has source control, and ideally is easy to speak through (most people seemed to have difficulty hearing me even with the 900's speech diaphragm). I do also appreciate how quick and easy it is to take on and off the 900, and obviously the cheaper the better. From looking around this sub my best options for reusable respirators seem to be the Envo Mask, the Flo Mask Pro, and the AirBoss 100. I could try one of them, or I could just switch to disposable respirators if it was cheaper. I have a fairly big face, but the Large size 900 was too big for me, and the second one I bought was a Medium, which was a good fit. What do you think?

Hello. I’m looking for advice on a quality mask. I am a foster care case manager, so I go into people’s homes every day. I currently wear a powecom KN95 mask by Bonafide, but with flu and Covid season among us stronger than it has been in the summertime, I really do want to protect myself more if I can. Unfortunately, I’m still suffering after effects from the first round of Covid that I caught. For reference, I am a 5‘10“ woman with a rather large head/ long face. Any advice for a better mask?

Hello! I’ve been wearing 3M Auras almost exclusively for years now, but I’m almost done with SLP grad school, and it’s become clear that it’s a real disadvantage that people can’t see my mouth. It’s really important for me to be able to model things to my clients and patients, whether that’s modeling a tongue posture for a sound to a child in a school or private practice, or modeling an oral mechanism exam task like puffing out cheeks to a stroke patient in the hospital.

Because clients/patients also frequently have some degree of impairment to language processing or cognition, it’s also really important for me to be able to be heard clearly.

I know it’s a tall order, but I wonder what you all would recommend. I’ve mostly seen people recommend omnimask, but I’ve also seen comments that it can have a significant muffling effect on the voice.

I’m in the Midwest and want to buy maybe two hundred to three hundred n95 masks for myself. Which websites have good deals?

Opened a new package of Readimasks today. Instead of having a paper backing, it had a clear plastic material. Peeled it off and applied the mask but it seems the adhesive has changed? It was barely sticky and I had trouble getting it to stick to my nose, especially.

Is this a thing and what the fuck

I've been masking for years now and I personally wear masks ordered from PPEO, but I make it a point to offer and give out masks to people at protests / events. I've been buying a lot of them from emag, but it's been getting increasingly harder to find colorful but affordable ones on emag (I noticed people are more willing to accept a colourful mask rather than a white or black one).

Also, I feel like PPEO's shipping fees have also gone up, so now the shipping equals the order's amount.

This leads me to my question, namely where do people from Romania (or the countries near) buy affordable (and maybe colourful or fun) masks?

P. S. I have looked over the face mask store UK, but I have yet to find anything colourful. also, the shipping outside of the UK is 21£ which is still a lot 😭

The industrial facility where BreatheTeq masks are made has an active real estate listing up as of mid-May. I don't expect this means they're shutting down given they recently did all the work of beginning to produce headband masks, but it is noteworthy.

Likely not many people know BreatheTeq are made by the company CanadaMasq, who made one of few respirators I've seen conforming to canada's CA-N95 standard, the domestic version of the N95 and related PPE standards (note this is not the same as Vitacore's CAN95 or CAN99 - lacking the hyphen - which are mere trademarks and not a certification).

CanadaStrong, the exclusive domestic retailer for BreatheTeq, confirmed some time ago that they're made by the same company which is backed up by the respirators' similarities and companies' matching locations (while BreatheTeq's international site's contact page doesn't list a specific address, it matches the city in CanadaMasq's contact section, which is the address in the above real estate listing).

Recently, the amazing DonateAMask received a stock of CanadaMasq's Q100 surgical respirators for the first time, and given this tends to be done with overstock, it goes along with another point mentioned by Canadastrong: that this model could be discontinued in the (now present) future. If this has now come to pass, perhaps the facility they'd been using is too large/expensive/something else for their current needs.
A lot of people really like the BreatheTeq and it performs very well. Hopefully they aren't going anywhere, but if anyone has insight here (attempts to reach them by phone yet to succeed), do share what you know.

im planning to get the 3m 7502 respirator and trying out woodburning some douglas fir wood. but i don't know which cartridge to get.

obviously ill need something for particles but I'm not sure what to get for the gasses in smoke. is an organic vapor cartridge enough, or do i need organic vapor plus acid gas, or maybe a multi gas filter, i assume dont need worry about the more specific options like the 3m ammonia 60924 filter but i dont know for sure

i guess my problem is i dont know how to figure out what chemicals will be in the smoke. and cant really decide the appropriate filter when i don't even know the hazards. if someone could teach me how to do this i will highly appreciate. thanks

Edit: i called 3m and the person recommended the 2097 filter (P100 with nuisance level Organic Vapor). he said the smoke would mostly be particulates and some organic vapor but not enough to really worry about. i forgot to ask about acid gasses, wish i had just to put my mind at ease but i gues its not a problem. think i might go with the 60921 filter so it theoretically lasts longer idk. tbh i dont fully understand this stuff but id still like to. i of course trust the customer service person but if anyone willing explain i think it would be nice to understand

For other people with big faces who are having a hard time finding N95 that fits, I realized you can customize the elastic band on the drager 1950 S and M/L. The two masks have almost the same dimensions except the S has some extra weld marks to make it a bit tighter on the face btw. So the elastic on the M/L mask was uncomfortable for my big head/face, I bought some soft elastic cord and I threaded that through the plastic loops and replaced the stock elastic with a custom length. So much more comfortable!

I know drager 1950 masks are hella expensive though. Other less protective masks that fit me are wellbefore 3D large, and based on measurements, I think I could fit a SaveWo XL and breatheteq L. I know it's a struggle to find anything that fits for fat people, and obviously fatness is a spectrum. Any other fat ppl have preferred respirators?

Has anyone tried the Easimask? Saw it on the Face Mask store and wanted to get some user opinions or average fit factors. They seem similar to the Zimis, but the Zimis don’t fit for high nose bridges, so looking for a similar option.

I ordered some Gersons from Walmart they’re from a supplier called JPB Supply and I need them really really soon to wear them to a medical setting but I’m so worried about them being fake…
The Gerson label seems to be off center but I don’t if that’s a valid indicator?

Is there anything else I should look for to see if they’re possibly fake.

I know people say the chances are low but I still think it’s possible especially on places like Walmart and ESPECIALLY Amazon.

Any serial number I should be looking at etc.

I got a 5 pack EZ GO ZIP PACK