Mully
03-06-2010, 12:20 PM
Just going to pass along some information on our latest use of Proto Switchback EL paintball masks. We upgraded some of our RBT gear and went with Proto paintball masks. We purchased two of their turbine fans that fit into the mask to prevent fogging. Out of 40 students, we had two that fogged during searching scenarios and all the rest stayed fog free. The only issue I thought would be was the noise from the fan. When the mask is in place it sounds fairly loud, however once the scenario began and officers had to talk to RP they didn't have a problem hearing what they were saying, and once the action picked up they never heard the fan. I also used the mask with the fan on and only had a problem hearing our role player when he spoke softly. I feel that when you have a properly protected role player they have to speak loud anyways to be heard through the gear. We went with non-thermal lenses because of our cleaning process (soaking in hot soapy water). Thermal lenses have two small sheets of glass with a small foam shim in between the lenses. When you soak thermal's the water will get in between the two lenses (which caused problems with a few of our old masks). My recommendation is non thermal lenses, we found it is very had to get that sweaty smell out of the masks, unless we soaked them.