Ear Plugs

[Hawke]

I’ve been using disposable foam earplugs for many years, and the box needs refilling. I see that the motorcycle dudes like to use reusable ones that claim to give similar protection. We don’t use radios here.

Has anyone had any experience with the reusable ones?

[bassracer]

I'm going to assume you mean custom molded ones. Not sure about motorcycles, but growing up as a musician I had a set made by an audiologist. There were 3 main purposes - 1) Get the best fit/protection/comfort 2)an engineered reduction in dB across frequencies and 3) eliminate the unsightliness of having yellow goobers sticking out of your ears while trying to impress the girls. Not all of this matters under a helmet in a race car.

I can get plenty of seal with the disposable ones and they easily last a few weekends if ear hygiene is kept in check. So maybe fit is the main motivator depending on the individual.

[BeerBudgetRacing]

I have a dozen sets of these on hand:
https://www.pegasusautoracing.com/pr....asp?RecID=498

I don't use them in my helmet since I have molded ear buds.
https://www.sampsonracing.com/Custom...ession-kit.htm

[Hawke]

One of the ones I was looking at was:

https://www.amazon.com/EarPeace-Moto...&creative=9325

[DanW]

One of the ones I was looking at was:

https://www.amazon.com/EarPeace-Moto...&creative=9325

I have a pair of custom molded earplugs that are good to 24 dbA. My ears rang for two days after using them. I went back to 32dbA foam disposable plugs and it was much better. I added a pair of foam earmuffs velcroed inside my helmet and things are much better.

[JoshuaJustice]

If you're going to pay more than I'd say 40-50 bucks, go to an audiologist and get a proper set of molded earplugs made. Get a hearing test done while you're there - which you should do if you've been around loud noises like engines for any amount of time - and your health insurance will probably even cover that! (But they likely won't cover the cost of the earplugs).

[TimH]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Work for me.

[swiftdrivr]

I spoke with a rep for [?] Entymodics [?] who make earplugs, and they said the foam were the best available. I use HEAR -os {I think that is how they market them. They are orange and have a little stem that you use to insert them with a twist. They stay in all race, work well, come from Lowes, and are cheap. You might want to try them.

[Roux]

I use Mack's silicone earplugs that are just lumps of silicone you shape a bit and shove into your ear. For Formula F I have no complaints and they are cheap so if you lose them, you grab a new pair and off you go

Have no scientific dB numbers to quote, but I stuggle to hear crew and grid folks with them in

https://www.macksearplugs.com/

Steve

[924RACR]

Mixed results this past year with custom made earplugs. My car got insanely loud after some airbox rework at the beginning of last year, going from manageable with earplugs (though still almost impossible to understand digital radios at speed) to ear-damaging.

Even after installing a restrictor (mute) in the intake, at Mid-O I'm pretty sure I got tinnitis from the amount of noise making it past my custom-molded (from audiologist) radio earbuds. My earplugs, from the same source, seem to seal a bit better, may have prevented the damage... but only just barely, if at all. Just a tighter fit in the ear canal, it seems.

Yes, the car made sound no issues.

So for the Sprints, In addition to the mute and the earbuds, I added in earcups to my helmet. Unfortunately, Bell helmets mostly do not have any provision for the cups. For once, wishing I had a Stilo. But I was able to jam some parts of the Bell ear cups in place well enough to run.

A bit too tight to be comfortable, a bit painful on the outside of my head/ears, but made a big improvement to my hearing isolation; I was actually able to hear the radio at speed, and was happily surprised to see that they worked almost all the way around the track!

So consider helmet ear cups in your quest for hearing protection/isolation... get a tight seal there, they make a surprising benefit over just the earplugs.

For me, I'm now going to take more aggressive steps to fit the cups into my helmet... I'd held off on shaving any foam to ease the fit until I had a chance to test, but now I'll carve out a little more room and attach them a bit more securely.

Also reworking my intake design anyway, which will probably take the bite out of the noise level... but still making progress, by now being able to hear the radio (which I never could before)...

[DanW]

The Noise Reduction Rating on earplugs is important. The better foam earplugs are usually around 32 to 22 dBA noise reduction. The ear cups/muffs inside my HJC after I removed the cheek pads really helped for a few more dB reduction. I put speakers inside the muffs for radio comms.

[EYERACE]

I use 'em at the gun range.
Howard Leight by Honeywell Laser lite High Visibility Corded Disposable Foam Earplugs (Amazon)
Box of 100
NRR 32 when used correctly.
I tried 'em in the car once.........never again.........I couldn't hear the car.

[Rick Kirchner]

Mixed results this past year with custom made earplugs. My car got insanely loud after some airbox rework at the beginning of last year, going from manageable with earplugs (though still almost impossible to understand digital radios at speed) to ear-damaging.

Even after installing a restrictor (mute) in the intake, at Mid-O I'm pretty sure I got tinnitis from the amount of noise making it past my custom-molded (from audiologist) radio earbuds. My earplugs, from the same source, seem to seal a bit better, may have prevented the damage... but only just barely, if at all. Just a tighter fit in the ear canal, it seems.

It sounds like in your case active noise cancelling would be the way to go.