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Yarhj · April 30th, 2015, 07:19 PM

(Apologies if this has already been covered a million times -- I stopped following the discussion in this thread a while back and haven't reread everything).

I've heard a lot of people say that the foam earplugs don't stay in their ears, or don't seem to properly attenuate sound. It turns out those issues are also commonly associated with improper earplug use (Though definitely they can still be issues for people using earplugs correctly! Everyone's ears are different, and some earplugs just don't work with some ear shapes).

The natural way to insert an earplug is to just take it and push it into your ear. It turns out that the obvious method is actually not that great in this case, and leads to the earplugs forming a poor seal in the ear, or just never really getting deep enough into the ear canal, leading to them popping out. Also, in my own experience, pushing the earplugs straight in can cause earwax to get pushed deep into the ear, eventually leading to temporary but significant ear pain and hearing reduction.

Earplugs are so commonly misused that OSHA has developed a correction formula to estimate the actual hearing protection afforded by improperly-worn earplugs: NRR_effective = (NRR-7)/2.

So if you have a pair of foam earplugs rated at 32dB, if you wear them improperly you end up only getting ~12.5dB of actual noise reduction.

This video illustrates the best way to insert foam earplugs. There's also a handy graphic here for the bandwidth-challenged. Rather than pushing the earplug straight into the ear, it must first be rolled into a tight cylinder, and then the top of the ear should be pulled straight up, to straighten out the ear canal. After that you can just slip the earplug into the ear canal (it should go in very easily) and hold it for a moment until it expands enough to not move around.

April 30th, 2015, 07:19 PM	#454
Yarhj ninjette.org member Name: Will Location: Atlanta, GA Join Date: Feb 2013 Motorcycle(s): Ninja 250 (2001) Posts: 135	(Apologies if this has already been covered a million times -- I stopped following the discussion in this thread a while back and haven't reread everything). I've heard a lot of people say that the foam earplugs don't stay in their ears, or don't seem to properly attenuate sound. It turns out those issues are also commonly associated with improper earplug use (Though definitely they can still be issues for people using earplugs correctly! Everyone's ears are different, and some earplugs just don't work with some ear shapes). The natural way to insert an earplug is to just take it and push it into your ear. It turns out that the obvious method is actually not that great in this case, and leads to the earplugs forming a poor seal in the ear, or just never really getting deep enough into the ear canal, leading to them popping out. Also, in my own experience, pushing the earplugs straight in can cause earwax to get pushed deep into the ear, eventually leading to temporary but significant ear pain and hearing reduction. Earplugs are so commonly misused that OSHA has developed a correction formula to estimate the actual hearing protection afforded by improperly-worn earplugs: NRR_effective = (NRR-7)/2. So if you have a pair of foam earplugs rated at 32dB, if you wear them improperly you end up only getting ~12.5dB of actual noise reduction. This video illustrates the best way to insert foam earplugs. There's also a handy graphic here for the bandwidth-challenged. Rather than pushing the earplug straight into the ear, it must first be rolled into a tight cylinder, and then the top of the ear should be pulled straight up, to straighten out the ear canal. After that you can just slip the earplug into the ear canal (it should go in very easily) and hold it for a moment until it expands enough to not move around.