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A welder in Gary told me to skip the $300 auto-darkening hood and get a $60 fixed shade, and he was dead right
I was at a supply shop in Gary, Indiana picking up rod when this old pipe welder looked at my cart and told me the cheap fixed shade hood would outlast any of the fancy auto-dark ones on the shelf. Two years of shop work later and my $60 hood still works fine while my buddy is on his third $300 one that keeps fogging up and eating batteries. So what is the real deal here, is the auto-dark stuff just a gimmick for hobby guys or am I missing something?
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gibson.morgan1mo ago
My first hood was a $70 fixed shade from a farm store and I ran it for four years of pipe work without a single problem. The catch is you have to flip it up and down all day and you can't see your joint before you strike, so for tight tacks or out of position stuff it gets old fast. If you're mostly running beads in a booth the cheap one is fine, but guys doing a lot of fit up pay for the auto dark for a reason and that reason isn't that it's a gimmick.
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