Triton Powered Respirator Review

by Robert Simmons

I bit the bullet and picked up a new Triton Powered Respirator at HH last Thursday for $269 plus tax. I want to pass along my first observations and impressions after a few days' use.

I got it home Thursday evening and began setting it up to be ready to work in the shop on Friday (day off from the real job). The recommended initial charge for the battery pack is at least 15 hours, so plan ahead if you want to get an early start. The belt for the battery pack is very long, so don't worry about it not fitting. Getting the belt short enough was the challenge for me. The battery pack/fan motor isn't overly heavy and fits OK at the small of the back.

At first the combined helmet/neck piece/ear muffs can be a challenge to get into. I found it easier in the long run to take my glasses off before putting on the helmet. The visor snaps up into partial and fully opened positions, so putting the specs back on again is not a problem. You won't take it off quickly to answer the telephone.

There is very little distortion from the curvature of the visor and you get a good field of view, but polycarbonate tends to develop a surface charge and dust will adhere to the visor. I solved this by wiping it down gently with a dryer sheet and then a clean towel - no more dust spots. The neck piece is very light weight and does keep chips from getting into the neck of your shirt. The ear muffs come already inserted into the neck piece, so chips and dust don't get in there either. There is enough play in the neck piece so that the muffs can be snapped back and still keep you covered.

The batteries, fan housing and filters are contained in the waist pack. There is a pre-filter on the bottom that is easily removed for cleaning or replacement and the unit comes with a spare. The main filters are 2 P2 cartridges, also in the pack, and very easy to access for replacement. I worked for a couple of hours a day over 3 days on the initial battery charge and still had good airflow at the end. The air hose runs up and into the base of the helmet in the back. Looking up can be problematic as this arrangement pushes the front down if you lean your head back, so you may have to re-think some of the movements you make when you work.

At first the airflow in the helmet seemed a bit slow compared to the Racal that I've been using, but the visor and my glasses stayed clear of fog. The noise from the fan is substantially reduced from the Racal. This is an important feature if you spend a long time at the lathe or any other activity where you wear this type of dust/impact protection. Like a lot of folks I like to have some music on in the shop and the reduced fan noise was great.

I did some work in just about every area of the shop over the weekend and wore the helmet most of the time. It was reasonably comfortable and I enjoyed having the ear muffs handy (no hunting for them) for the noisier jobs like sawing. The snap-up visor is good for grabbing a quick bit of refreshment or conversing with SWMBO without having to remove the helmet. The really important thing is that at the end of the day I had no fine dust on my glasses. The prefilter showed evidence that I'd been working with padauk and dogwood, but the fine stuff stayed out of my face (and nose) for a change.

Nothing is perfect, however, and there are a couple of down sides that need to be noted. The first is that I don't think that the fan unit had been inspected carefully before shipping. I quickly discovered that one of the motor leads had not been properly soldered in place. It was a quick fix and I sent a note off to Triton about it. Hopefully it'll be a rare occurrence. The gasket around the top of the fan unit is a little thin and will leak a bit if not seated exactly right. It's positive pressure here so you don't suck in dust, it just robs you of some of your airflow. A thicker or wider gasket would make getting it just right a bit easier.

The bottom line here is that so far I like the product, especially considering the price. After working around most of the tools in the shop this weekend my sinuses are much happier than they usually are of a Monday morning. Everybody turn safe!

Update:

I got an answer to my questions from Triton. They got back to me pretty fast, too. Here is their response for all who might be interested:

"There is not an absolute micron rating for this type of equipment. The filters remove a percentage of all sizes, not 100% of particles above a certain size. The P2 rating of our cartridges have been found to remove 99% of test dust, which is under 1 micron. The face shield is rated for high impact resistance. Tear off covers are not possible due to the double curvature of the shield. Triton believes that these covers are not suitable to woodwork due to the tendency for dust to get trapped between the layers. The Triton Powered respirator was designed almost exclusively with woodworking in mind."