Thread by @AdvancedTweaker

How Much Can a Fashion Earloop Mask Protect You? (The Upgrade Edition) (Trifolds Only)

Let’s talk about masks that anyone might want to wear, no matter what they believe in, just because some of them actually look cute.

***Warning: This one’s super experimental, but there’s some hopefully useful default fit info for you here, too!

I tested a bunch of popular trifold KN95s and KF94s to see how well they fit my face. I then made some mods to them and tested every step of the way.

Overall, these respirators/masks usually have really good filtration and SOMETIMES fit surprisingly well... But you basically have to fit test every single batch or even piece, especially if you’re buying obscure-looking stuff of eBay or Amazon.

I hope I included your favourites. If not, I’m accepting requests for the next one! 🧵

I used my oldie PortaCount 8020A to fit test the masks (which I then tried to convert into respirators 😉).

A typical Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fit testing protocol includes eight exercises: Normal breathing, Deep breathing, Head side to side, Head up and down, Speaking out loud, Bending, and back to Normal breathing. Each exercise is one minute long, adding up to eight minutes total.

The scores included are means across one or more exercises. I would always start with normal breathing. Whenever I got a higher-than-expected score on that, I would keep moving through next steps of the protocol to get a better picture. I usually stopped at the first four exercises max once I could see a pattern in the scores. And there were times I ended up doing the whole OSHA protocol.

So some of the scores are single exercise scores. Others are composites of no more than four exercises.

For the mods, I used stuff I had lying around from used respirators.

I wear a lot of Laianzhi KN100 (ppeo.com/goods/black-kn…) and Drager 1950 (draeger.com/en-us_us/Safet…), so I had plenty of used ones on hand.

I picked the parts that would fit each KN95/KF94 best.

Let’s start with a mask that turned out surprisingly good.

LyteCordz KF94 – Paint Splatter Design (available here: ebay.ca/itm/3247947222…)

Fresh mask:
46 [97.83% protection] – okay this is actually good without mods? I thought my PortaCount broke for a sec there
Mask + Laianzhi KN100 respirator nose wire:
52 [98.08% protection] – nice!
Above + KN100 nose foam & leather strap ear saver*:
83 [98.80% protection] – wowza!

Note: the ear saver I used is from Etsy and no longer available, but here’s a similar one: etsy.com/ca/listing/797…

I also tried replacing its earloops with the KN100 headstraps, but they did not improve the score. This is the very first mask I tested for this experiment. I messed up something the first time around when I did record the headstraps result. I did not use the scores from the very first time at all. For the second time, I did not record my added headstraps score, but it definitely did not make a difference.

For all other specimens I tested, I did include the headstraps data.

I was so impressed with its performance, I did a full OSHA test. Here are the results. (% filtration = % protection here)

Caveats: It’s a very soft mask, which makes it less sturdy than N95s. I wore it with all successful mods (foam + wire + ear saver) after this experiment for ~10 hours. Its fit factor fell to 25 across a full OSHA test. If you’d like the full scores for that, please let me know! (Too much data, too little time)

Evolve Together KN95 was the next best one. Here’s the link to the one I used: evolvetogether.com/products/santo…

Fresh mask:
14 [92.86% protection] BUT
Mask + Draeger 1950 nose wire:
34 [97.06% protection]
Above + Draeger 1950 nose foam:
41 [97.56% protection] – no difference
Above + ear saver:
64 [98.44% protection] – made it better
Above + earloops removed, KN100 headstraps added:
98 [98.44% protection] – omg!!!

Next are the two runner-ups(ish).

KIND KN95 – Red (ppe-supply.com/products/kind-…)

Fresh mask:
18 [94.44% protection]
Draeger 1950 nose wire:
15 [93.33% protection] - meh
Above + Draeger 1950 nose foam:
21 [95.24% protection] – alrighty
Above + ear saver:
37 [97.30% protection] – okay!
Above but earloops removed, Draeger headstraps added:
47 [97.87% protection] – not bad!

Pink KF94 from eBay (ebay.ca/itm/2846934037…)

Fresh mask:
17 [94.12% protection]
KN100 nose wire:
16 [93.75% protection]
Above + KN100 nose foam:
25 [96.00% protection] - ehh
Above + ear saver:
23 [95.65% protection]
Above but earloops removed, Draeger headstraps added:
20 [95.00% protection]

Looks like this one hit a ceiling at around 25 fit factor (96% protection). The fit felt very snug, so the actual filter might cap out at that filtration %. I find it pretty cool how my (used) PortaCount can also give you a clue about filtration performance without buying the super expensive filtration efficiency machine!

Last, but maybe not least is the MaskLab – Camo (store.masklab.global/products/grey-…)

Unlike the other masks, it did NOT come with a nose wire!

Fresh mask:
2.9 [65.52% protection]
Draeger 1950 nose wire:
3.2 [68.75% protection]
Above + Draeger 1950 nose foam:
3.5 [71.43% protection]
Above + ear saver:
25 [96.00% protection]
Above but earloops removed, KN100 headstraps added:
33 [96.97% proitection] – okay, not bad!

Isn’t it neat how a few mods suddenly changed it into a really decent mask, with its good filtration but what was absolutely awful fit?

Overall, you can see I was able to get decent protection out of even a completely random KF94 off eBay. Any genuinely Korean KF94 or even ones made in China (the Lytecordz ones) are likely to have a good filter.

Results from Armbrust’s filtration efficiency database confirm this: armbrustusa.com/pages/mask-tes…

There are more random KN95s/KF94s that pass the (NIOSH) filtration requirement than ones that don’t.

Problem is, even masks from the “same supplier” have inconsistencies in filtration (and even fit) across batches.

For example, Armbrust tested a bifold KN95, MaskC, and got a bad result: armbrustusa.com/blogs/mask-rev…

Accumed tested it and it did great! blog.accumed.com/products/maskc…

I bought another batch of the LyteCordz KF94, this time the camo variety pack. All four colour varieties fit my face differently. I had to staple one at the chin to make it pass a seal check, which I did not need to do with the paint splatter batch. And the fit testing results for those were not as great as the first batch, more like the worse ones I’ve tested here (but still not terrible).

Takeaway: If you’re gonna wear an earloop KN95/KF94, make sure to at least qualitatively fit test it!

Here’s a basic DIY, at-home qualitative fit testing setup example: x.com/JenniferKShea/…

Even if you taste Bitrex during testing, which you probably will for anything with a fit factor less than 100, the relative degree to which you taste it will tell you which earloop fits you better.

A stylish earloop might be the only thing you can handle wearing at a social event. But getting sick at that Taylor Swift concert ain’t worth avoiding a proper fit test. Trust me.

Bifolds coming up next (depending on your interest of course) 🙂