What's new
What's new

Auto Darkening Welding Helmets, Which are Made in USA?

morsetaper2

Diamond
Joined
Jul 2, 2002
Location
Gaithersburg, MD USA
I am going to purchase a mid-grade auto darkening welding helmet. One of my preferences is going to be a made in USA helmet, along w/ the typical things you would consider when purchasing an AD welding helmet.

I rec'd an email back from Speedglass that their helmets are made in Nebraska. Haven't heard back from Jackson. I have been told Miller helmets are made in Korea, as I suppose then the Hobarts are too. I'll have to confirm this.

While I continue to dig into deciding which helmet best fits my needs & price point can anyone confirm where any of your helmets where made and who was the mfgr and model? I'm willing to bet its more a situation of "assembled in USA of foreign or domestic components".

Not interested in chinese stuff for sure so please don't suggest how much you like your HF helmet. Because I'm not asking that and I won't really care anyway. ;)

I'm trying to make my purchase in the spirit of this THREAD: Made in America - Good Story and support the US economy rather than the chinese.

Thanks
 
I bought my Speedglass 9002X around 2004,, some time before 3M bought hornell, it says made in sweden in it.
I'll try to remember to check tomorrow where the 3M one is made(its probably 4-5yrs old now). I know a few things changed after 3M, and the touch button film inside wasn't nearly as good, cracked quickly and felt like it wasn't fitted quite right, glass was a slightly different shade, didn't check the new ones in the last year or 2 though. Did check a optrel a few weeks ago but I can't remember where it was from, pretty sure I'd have remembered if it was usa though.
 
I have a speedglass 9000x That i bought for $489 in 1999 when it first was available It was the largest view auto darkening lense at the time. I have used it roughly 300 out of 365 days a year ever since and just replaced the first set of batteries this past year. All i have to say was it was a great investment for me, and I would buy another or recomend speedglass to anyone. When i bought it I had narrowed my choice down to that one, or the optrel (was told its made is Switzerland). Since my Helmet has been so good to me I have not looked into new ones, So I have no recomendations. The only thing that would make me consider any other helmet would be 4 light sensors instead of the 2 my helmet has. Moral of the story .. great helmet, Great investment for me when i was a 19 year old kid.
 
i'm willing to bet the price of a helmet that electronics and faceplate is chinese, but the "helmet" is made in the US. Getting a 100% US welding helmet will be as easy as getting a 100% US made TV.
 
Yeah I wouldnt worry about where its made so much, its all crap anyways.. They say oh assembled here from foreign crap... Just go with a quality unit like a speedglas.... My fixed gold lens works well ;)
 
I like to buy made in USA as much as possible but we all need to realize we're in a global economy now. Maybe another question is how does the company you're buying the product from invest in America. I'm a Briggs and Stratton dealer and some of the guys buying kart engines like to point out that Briggs sources some of it's parts overseas. While that may be true, their stuff is designed in Wisconsin, many of their kart engines are assembled here and a good portion of their profits are invested in the US.

I used to work for Harbor Freight and at that time they really treated their employees well (health care, holidays off, etc.) Sad to say it's not true anymore but you really have to look deep into the story if you want to make a judgement about any company you do business.

Personally I'd rather have American companies source some of their parts overseas but keep people working to design, assemble, test, and market them here in the US than just shut down and move the whole mess to China.

JMHO,

John Matthews
Heartbeat Power
 








 
Back
Top