AVOID This Mask

Okay, so today I'm going to do another video review of one of these. I did a review of it, like an unboxing and review of it, but for some reason most people never seem to find it. So I'm going to do it as a standard video and hope more people find this. But this is a review for those Chinese half-face masks you find under loads and loads of different brand names all over the internet. And they're dreadful, they really are. Now you can either get them as the half-face mask or you can get goggles with them. In all honesty, as cheap as these goggles are, they would at least function as goggles. They hurt to have on because the cheap plastic bit cuts into your face, but they are at least a goggle. I wouldn't trust them with much, but you know, if you buy the ones with goggles you'll at least get goggles with them. Let's look at it that way. So here's the face piece. Now something to point out, when I first got these there was this weird sock-like material over this bit. I don't know if that was meant to stay on and fall off, it fell off pretty quickly. But just in regards to it, I imagine it would break the seal of your face because in general rubber is much better to go to your face. So looking at it, initially it looks like, oh this isn't too bad, you know, it's got two straps on it, it'd be much better than an N95 mask. What's wrong with it? Well, there's a couple of problems. Firstly, we'll talk about the actual filters themselves. These are meant to be vapour rated filters, like not even nuisance vapour, but actually stop vapour. I'll demonstrate in banana oil, but straight out the packet I could smell through these no problem. So again, it's a problem that some of the really cheap end Chinese filters have, that they use such low-grade charcoal or whatever, or it's so old that it just doesn't work, or there's so little volume inside the filter, it doesn't have very good adsorption characteristics. Other than that, it's just a pretty cheap awful strap system. So strap-wise, it's meant to basically work like a lot of the N95 masks, where you have one strap around the lower bit of your head, you put this strap around the top and that's it. I had to tie the straps on here to stop them pinging off constantly, because basically the issue with these is there's nothing holding the straps on, which seems to be a common fault of a lot of the really badly designed Chinese stuff, not the good Chinese stuff, but the poorly designed stuff, is that these straps just ping off. So let's see if I can demonstrate that somehow. So what we'll do, both the straps there, we'll find whichever one the top strap is, probably that one, put that down, and do that. So if I did this, you'd say, oh, what's the problem? It seems to go on your face. Now it's not very comfortable, the reason being that the rubber is not a soft, supple rubber that folds to your face, it's more like a plastic. So there's that. But yeah, let me demonstrate the problem with this. I can smell banana oil. Let's try this filter. I can smell even stronger banana oil. I can smell banana oil at the chin. So it doesn't make a good face seal, and the filters are useless. So there's that. If you were using it for basic particle protection, it might do something, but against corona, like some people have been asking, no, do not bother. So yeah, this is a good example of how not to design a mask. And it's a shame, because it does have valves inside. It's constructed how a mask should be constructed, but the problems are the rubber's quite low quality, so it doesn't make a very good face seal. The straps, they could have done a better job on the straps. You can get around that a bit, but it's still not good. But the main issue, of course, is the filters on it are garbage. The filters are replaceable, but good luck replacing them with decent filters. So that's what the inside of the filter bit looks like. If you take these out, it says this on the side. It says, gas cartridge for spray painting and organic vapors of low toxicity. I guess that's maybe a legal disclaimer on there of it's not going to protect you. So yeah, just use this filter. Warning, do not use in a highly toxic atmosphere or where there may be a deficiency of oxygen. Well, they say that on all filters. It doesn't matter which way round you put these filters, they're not going to work either way. For example, we could, if we wanted to, put the filter that way round and then put this like that. Oh, I think they're yellow on both sides. Let's try it round that way, just in case that makes a difference. So rather than having the yellow bit facing out that way, let's just try it with that bit. If it will go back together like this. I'm just interested now, if where it looks like that, if that's going to provide any better vapor protection. I doubt it will because, you know, the problem with these sort of masks is that, that hurts my nose. I think that's probably why they put that bloody sock thing on it to begin with is just so it's a bit softer, the plastic cutting in. So right, we want to test this filter now, don't we? Now I can still smell it. So yeah, the problem is the filters that come with it are the mask isn't comfortable. If you're in an area where you can, and I know at the moment, it's not easy to find masks. If you're looking for Chinese sort of masks, most of the Chinese 3M rip-off masks are absolutely fine. Again, don't always trust the Chinese filters that come with them. You can put real 3M filters on it. So as in 3M 6000 sort of rip-off series, they do a rip-off for that 3M one that has the filter as like a block on the front where you open a door, you put a flat filter pad on and close the door. Can't remember the name of that one. They're also the older 3M style masks that have a single clip-on filter on the front. Those are all fine, as long as you, you know, put real 3M filters on it or whatever, not the garbage Chinese filters. These things are pretty crap. You know, there are other good Chinese things. The thing is with China, as we've said before, is I'm not doing this to constantly bash on China or Taiwan. There's lots of Chinese things that are good. It's just because so much manufacturing is done there, you get a massive amount of quality control. You know, you get some stuff that's very good and other stuff that's just really cheap garbage companies produce to sell. And sadly, I've seen some people, you know, linking these to like $30 sites. I think this was like a fiver when I got in the UK with the goggles going back a few months ago or whatever. So yeah, in regards to these, they are absolute junk. Do not bother with them unless you wanted some sort of post-apocalyptic costume thing. Yeah. I mean, at the moment, unfortunately, because I have had this where people are saying, what mask can I get? And there just aren't masks available anymore. You know, we're easy to find, but yeah, don't get this. I think you personally do better in all honesty, wrapping a load of like towels around your face or something and breathing through that than relying on this. So there you go. It looks like it might work, but it's useless.