R-Tech masks

[Jack Pattenden]

Good evening all,

Does anybody have any thoughts on R-Tech's masks? I've landed on their Speedmaster XL:

R-Tech Auto Darkening Speedmaster XL True Colour Welding Helmet

R-Tech Speedmaster XL-V2 auto darkening, ultra-lightweight (0.51kg), wide-view welding helmet with professional darkening lens and 5A minimum current sensitivity.

www.r-techwelding.co.uk

I was under the impression that you had to spend quite a bit more to get a good mask but this seems to tick all the boxes? True colour, 1/1/1/2, four sensors etc.

Appreciate it!
Jack

 

[Fazerruss]

At the end of the day its just going to be a generic Chinese rebranded mask. If its the cheapest one with the desired spec then go for it.
I have a cheap amazon mask that gets used and thrown around for the last 8 years and still works well. I also have a 3M speedglass. The comfort and quality of the 3M is way above but for the money and performance its hard to go wrong with a cheap mask.

 

[Jack Pattenden]

At the end of the day its just going to be a generic Chinese rebranded mask. If its the cheapest one with the desired spec then go for it.
I have a cheap amazon mask that gets used and thrown around for the last 8 years and still works well. I also have a 3M speedglass. The comfort and quality of the 3M is way above but for the money and performance its hard to go wrong with a cheap mask.

Thanks for the take, I'm not a fan of buying cheap and then outgrowing - prefer to buy once cry once. So I'll set my sights higher if there's noticeable gains to be had. 3M, Optrel et al.

 

[skotl]

I have an Rtech true colour and love it. Not sure it’s the same model but night and day (literally!) than my previous green screen lid.

So definitely worth getting a true color then it’s just down to budget.

 

[trigger3]

rtech looks bottom barrell. speedglas has a couple lower price models that might be in your budget

 

[skotl]

rtech looks bottom barrell…

…based on…?

 

[trigger3]

based on several things. first is the extremely low price. even in a sweat shop were workers get paid peanuts , its near impossible to produce anything of qaulity. qaulity components just them self likely cost more than the cheap helmet. ive used them $100 cheapy helmets. ya they work but theres not much good to say about them if you ask me. spend your money how ever you want. i was just letting the op know theres some other qaulity options that dont break your wallet

 

[trigger3]

another thing people never consider or understand. if these china companies were able to copy top shelf stuff like speedglas and sell if for pennies , surely they would do it. the materials and reverse engineering and manufacturing equipment would cost far to much to make any profit. thats if they could even duplicate the mask at all. so this tells you the masks they are selling , are low qaulity.
nearly 5yrs in thats why nobody has yet been able to copy and bring to market the curved glass that speedglas developed. either they havent been able to reverse engineer it or they just dont have the necesarry manufacturing equipment. im sure theyre working hard at a cheap immitation but so far havent been successful

 

[Jack Pattenden]

another thing people never consider or understand. if these china companies were able to copy top shelf stuff like speedglas and sell if for pennies , surely they would do it. the materials and reverse engineering and manufacturing equipment would cost far to much to make any profit. thats if they could even duplicate the mask at all. so this tells you the masks they are selling , are low qaulity

I hesitate to jump to the conclusion immediately that they're low quality - the simpler explanation is surely that Speedglas have to pay the wages of Swedish workers. Chinese factories don't, and they don't have a mountain of R&D and hours put into the product that they need to recoup either.

Anybody who gets their product made in China also has to accept that those factories will not hesitate to disregard any sort of 'exclusivity' agreement they thought they had, and sell their hard work unbranded out the back door to make a bit extra on the side.

It comes down to the consumer to make their own decision if they want to encourage that or pay the (pretty steep) premium to reward the original designer who put in the hard work and took the risk. But none of this means the cheaper product is necessarily low quality.

 

[indy4x]

Can't comment on a Speedglass as I don't have one.

I do have the RTec true colour mask and bought it on the back of a review by @doubleboost when they were 1st released

Absolutley no complaints and was a huge step up from my previous green autodarkening helmet

I'm a low volume hobby welder so don't wear it all day, not sure how it would stand up if you are welding all day for a living

Its now my backup mask as I splashed out on and Optrel a few years ago. Yes the Optrel is better but the price difference is hard to justify if like me you are a hobbyist. I still use the RTec occasionally for welding but mostly these days for plasma cutting

 

[Jack Pattenden]

Can't comment on a Speedglass as I don't have one.

I do have the RTec true colour mask and bought it on the back of a review by @doubleboost when they were 1st released

Absolutley no complaints and was a huge step up from my previous green autodarkening helmet

I'm a low volume hobby welder so don't wear it all day, not sure how it would stand up if you are welding all day for a living

Its now my backup mask as I splashed out on and Optrel a few years ago. Yes the Optrel is better but the price difference is hard to justify if like me you are a hobbyist. I still use the RTec occasionally for welding but mostly these days for plasma cutting

Interesting, what is it that makes you still pick it up sometimes over the Optrel?

Also seeing some conflicting information between what's on their site and what an old video says which I can only assume is because some parts have been changed since then. I'll have to ring and find out, but the XXL might be a shout over the XL.

Jack

 

[Jack Pattenden]

I've just now realised who doubleboost is! I watched his reviews ages ago before I joined the forum! The most helpful on the brand by a long shot.

 

[indy4x]

Interesting, what is it that makes you still pick it up sometimes over the Optrel?

I find the RTec better outdoors. I do get regular phone calls from a farmer friend who has usually broken something and needs it sorted pronto and its always outdoors

I should make a shroud for the Optrel but its low down on the roundtoits

 

[trigger3]

some optrel are terrible outside. the sensors werent designed properly to deal with the sun. i sold off my optrel because of that reason.
ive tried ( or owned) all the major brands except esab. esab may be good but i see nothing that puts them above speedglas so i use all speedglas equipment. they wear like iron from my experience. batteries last years. they arent bothered by the sun. thier 2.5 light shade models are great. the variable color lens i like. some folks may not like it but i do. tap activated grind mode is awesome and much better than what anyone else is currently doing. ive used or own nearly every model of speedglas and cant hardly find a bad thing to say about them. every other helmet ived tried, there was always something i didnt like about it

 

[trigger3]

Good evening all,

Does anybody have any thoughts on R-Tech's masks? I've landed on their Speedmaster XL:

R-Tech Auto Darkening Speedmaster XL True Colour Welding Helmet

R-Tech Speedmaster XL-V2 auto darkening, ultra-lightweight (0.51kg), wide-view welding helmet with professional darkening lens and 5A minimum current sensitivity.

www.r-techwelding.co.uk

I was under the impression that you had to spend quite a bit more to get a good mask but this seems to tick all the boxes? True colour, 1/1/1/2, four sensors etc.

Appreciate it!
Jack

another reason i would avoid this particular helmet is the images show it to have a light shade of 4. thats a bugger to see what your doing preweld

 

[skotl]

another reason i would avoid this particular helmet is the images show it to have a light shade of 4. thats a bugger to see what your doing preweld

Have you actually tried one? Seems that the people on this thread who have used them, rate them.

I dislike the look of modern MG cars (perhaps the RTech equivalent of the car world!) but I wouldn't state that I had an opinion on how they drive, if I've never driven one.

 

[Domdom]

I had the R-Tech true colour one and it was fine for me. Obviously Far Eastern but it worked well enough, especially for the money. I did glue a head torch to it to light up the work area before striking the arc, it was a tad dark before that.

 

[Porkypine]

Tbh, I'm very tempted to try one of these, I'd pretty much given up on the 'reactive helmet' malarkey as I've never found they work properly for me. I can't justify or afford an expensive one but may take a punt on one of these, particularly as a number of you chaps have used them with satisfactory results.

 

[Mark 2]

@ the speedglass fans.
Does it still need to be switched on?

 

[Dave-sparks]

I've had an Rtech similar to the above for a few years, I'm only a hobby welder at best but it has been perfectly good for me.

I've just upgraded to the Rtech air-fed version and so far no complaints on that either