Full Brim Hard Hat With Built-In Eye Shield And Earmuffs

The eye and ear protection you actually wear is the kind that never leaves the hat

People do not skip safety glasses because they lack a pair. They skip them because the glasses are in the truck, or on the bench, or tucked away in a pocket with a scratch across one lens. The same goes for earmuffs. Carrying three separate items creates three separate chances to work without any of them.

This is one shell with the other two already attached. A clear eye shield sits on a hinge beneath the front brim and drops over your eyes with a single finger. Two earmuff cups are mounted on swing arms at each side and pivot down over your ears, or swing up clear when you need to hear someone. Put the hat on and everything you need is already there.

What is actually molded into the shell

When you buy head protection, the rating matters more than a customer comment. Below is the marking, photographed from the inside of the shell rather than copied from a supplier sheet.

Type I is the designation for an impact landing on the crown. It is the common rating for construction, groundwork, warehousing and general site work in the US. It is not Type II, which covers off-center and lateral impact. If your risk is a strike from the side, choose a Type II shell.

The eye shield

The lens is marked ANSI Z87+ and 1F CE EN166. The plus is the detail to watch: under Z87.1, a plain "Z87" lens meets the baseline impact test, and Z87+ is the high-impact classification. The EN166 marking indicates optical class 1 with an F impact grade.

The shield drops on two pivots under the brim and tucks back up beneath the brim when not in use. Because it stores inside the shell rather than folding into a case, it does not get sat on, and it does not get left behind.

The earmuffs, and what we cannot tell you about them

Two cups on sprung swing arms are mounted to a rail on each side of the shell. They swing down over your ears and back up clear of them, so you can answer a question without removing the hat. The cups are marked CE 2777 and EN 352-3, the European standard for earmuffs attached to an industrial safety helmet.

Why the full brim, and not a cap

A cap-style hard hat has a peak at the front and nothing elsewhere. A full brim encircles the head. In practice that delivers three effects: rain runs off behind your collar instead of down it, the sun is kept off the back of your neck and your ears, and debris knocked loose above you lands on the brim and rolls off instead of down your shirt.

The trade is extra width. A full brim is broader, and in tight framing or a crawl space it will catch on things a cap-style shell would clear.

Fit and adjustment

• Ratchet wheel at the back. Thumb it tighter or looser without taking the hat off, and it works with gloves on.
• Fits 21 in to 24.8 in of head circumference — measure around your forehead, just above your ears.
• Six-point suspension with a textile cradle, so the load spreads instead of sitting on one ring.
• Crown vents open and close by pushing the plugs with a thumb.
• Chin strap with a molded chin cup, adjustable, and removable if you do not want it.

About the finishes

Nine to choose from. Six are solid colors — white, black, hi-vis green, orange, red and blue. The other three are hydro-dipped with a carbon-weave pattern, in white, gray and black.

To be clear about what you are buying: the carbon-look finishes are a printed pattern on the same HDPE shell. There is no carbon fiber in this helmet. The pattern is cosmetic and the rating is identical across all nine.

In the box

• One full brim safety helmet, with the eye shield and both earmuffs already fitted

The shield and the muffs are installed as the helmet ships. There is no separate bag of parts and nothing to assemble.

When this is the wrong hat

We would rather you bought the right thing somewhere else than the wrong thing here.

• Live electrical work. Class C. Get a Class E.
• Side-impact hazards. Type I is a crown rating. Get a Type II.
• Chainsaw and brush cutting. That job wants a mesh visor and hearing protection chosen on a stated rating, not a clear shield.
• Climbing, rope access, confined space and technical rescue. Those use a retained climbing-style helmet to a different standard entirely. Despite what this listing used to say, a full brim Type I hard hat is not rescue equipment.
• Chemical splash. The shield is not sealed to your face.

Looking after it

• Warm water and mild soap. Solvents, gasoline and bleach attack polyethylene.
• Do not drill it, do not paint it, and do not carry it on the parcel shelf of a car — sustained UV and heat age the shell.
• Replace it after any real impact, even if the shell looks fine, and check the molded date wheels so you know how old it is.