I tested 5 respirators to see which is the easiest to talk through and I’ve posted the audio samples in this video, without any audio processing or adjustment.
All of the respirators are currently available NIOSH approved source control elastomeric respirators with N95 or P100 filters.
Give them a listen and decide for yourself which sounds the best. Please let me know in the comments which you think is the easiest to understand.
00:00 TL;DR Super Cut
00:26 Intro
01:33 No Mask
02:03 3M Aura
02:37 GVS Elipse
03:32 3M 6000 Series with N95s
04:10 3M 6000 Series with N95s and 604 Exhalation Filter
05:36 MSA Advantage 900 with P100s
06:45 Dentec NxMD with N95s
07:44 ElastoMaskPro with N95s
After fit and filtration, speech intelligibility is a key feature for elastomeric respirators to have. It's important in order to be able to collaborate with co-workers, to talk to patients, or for using a respirator anywhere you need to interact with people.
All of the manufacturers have worked to create a balance of features. So speech intelligibility may not be your first criteria. I'm looking for the sweet spot that has the right balance for me.
The 3M respirator, the 6000 series, is the only elastomeric I'm aware of that 3M markets to healthcare as a source control mask - they added the optional 604 exhalation filter and called it a day. Only the specific N95 filters shown in the video and the the 7093 P100s can be used with the mask in combination with the 604 exhalation filter. I have no idea why 3M hasn't made a mask from the ground up for healthcare workers since the 6000 series plus the 604 filter is bulky and has many, many parts.
The GVS Elipse Source Control respirator is an easy to find one, sold on Amazon, but it looks identical on the outside to the valved one, so many people who otherwise know respirators will think it is valved. GVS makes a different configuration for Europe with separate exhalation filters.
The MSA Advantage 900 is, like the other masks so far, a lightly repurposed version of an existing mask. They took out the exhalation valve and replaced it with a speaking diaphragm. The medium and large are approximately the same height, but the large is massively wider.
The Dentec NxMD is also a repurposed mask, but Dentec updated the mold so there is no hole were the exhalation valve used to be. It is an inexpensive mask that appears to be heavily inspired by Honeywell respirators. I'm not a fan of the Dentec N95 cartridges, which are breathable at the cost of filtration efficiency. They are NIOSH approved, but allow more filter penetration than I prefer in an N95. The filter pads are also prone to being improperly seated in their cartridges (check my videos for details). I used the N95s for the test to make it a better comparison to the ElastoMask Pro, which only comes in N95. I suggest using their P100s if you decide to get this mask.
ElastoMask Pro is an incredibly breathable respirator with a very good N95 filter, unlike the Dentec N95s. It is the only one of the respirators that was designed from the ground up to be a source control respirator for healthcare workers. I received free samples of the ElastoMaskPro for review.
Update 12/1/22
Just got off a webex call with some of the people behind ElastoMaskPro and found out the mask has a 1 year warranty. I think that is something that may help with concerns about the durability of the straps. I'm not even sure if any of my other elastomerics have warranties. I'm not sure yet what exactly the warranty will mean in practical terms, but I was kind of surprised it exists.
And as to whether talking with them influenced me, definitely. They are all really nice and it was interesting to hear about some of the engineering that went into the mask, including fluid dynamics calculations that went into the air flow, which is why the small slits under the filter covers work so surprisingly well. And that one of the challenges in designing the seemingly simple mask with fixed straps was finding data on head circumferences since that isn't part of the NIOSH guidelines for mask fit test panels (panels which aren't part of for approval of particulate respirators, but apparently can be for vapor filtering masks).