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We are a big fan of making the most of our time in our business and our personal lives. Owning a hardscaping business also means that time is a valuable resource. If I am not able to listen to my music or podcasts while I work or during my commute, I would have no other time to do so. This is why having the right earbuds and headphones for construction sites is important to me.
Finding the right products that allow you to listen to your music or our podcast while you work can be difficult to do. We have tried many different types over the years, some great and others would not last a week in the harsh conditions of a construction site. From earbuds to headphones, we are going to offer our suggestion for which products you should consider when thinking about investing in a pair of earbuds or headphones.
Not only are these earbuds and headphones going to help you pass time faster while also being more productive, these also make excellent gifts for construction workers. In this post, we are going to talk about the benefits to investing an a quality pair of earbuds and headphones for your construction site.
Hearing Loss on a Construction Site
Hearing loss is no joke. Over the years in the industry, I have definitely noticed my hearing worsen with not giving as much thought into hearing protection as I should have. Now I have a constant ringing in my ears, called tinnitus, that will never go away and will only get worse over time. As somebody that enjoys peace and quiet, especially when I am trying to sleep, this becomes a nuisance.
It is extremely important to invest in the right products that are going to keep you safe, and that especially applies to headphones that will reduce the noise around you on a job site. Whether you are working on a consistently noisy job site and you just want to cut down the noise to a more bearable level or you are working with a saw and want to reduce the noise level to a less harmful level, there are a few great products on the market for you.
What we use on our job sites are ear buds so that we can listen to our music or podcasts while working. These cut down the consistent noise of a job site when working. However, when we are operating heavy equipment, machinery, or our saws, we add a noise-cancelling headphone on top of our ear buds. This allows us to further cut down the noise of these pieces of equipment to a much safer level, especially when we are exposed to these noise levels for an ongoing period of time. The idea is to cut down the decibels.
What are Decibels?
Decibels are used to measure the intensity of a sound. The higher the number, the more intense the sound is and the worse it is for your hearing. A safe amount of decibels is around 75 decibels, while OSHA considers a level of 85 decibels to be acceptable for an 8 hour exposure. As the decibels increase, the exposure to the sound decreases.
On a construction site as a hardscaper, the loudest noise you are likely going to become exposed to is that of a concrete saw which is measured at around 115 decibels. This is where using two products, both earbuds and headphones, will be beneficial to preventing the damaging of your ear drums over time.
What to Consider for Noise Cancelling Ear Buds and Headphones for Construction Workers
Just like the tools and equipment that you invest in for your business, you want to know that the same products you invest in for your own well-being are going to be of high quality and last you for some time. When shopping for a pair of earbuds or headphones for your construction site, you should consider a few different things.
- Noise Reduction Rating
- Wireless / Bluetooth
- Battery Life
- Rated for Job Sites
- Reviews
This is important to those working on noisy job sites. Having a nice pair of earbuds that take the noise out of a daily task while allowing you to listen to your favorite music or podcast is a beautiful thing to have. Combining that with a nice pair of headphones provides you with the protection you need to ensure that you are keeping the noise levels of a construction site to a safer level.
There is nothing worse than having a wire dangling around you on a job site. It will get caught on things, get pulled out of your ear, and generally not be a safe thing to have. Having a pair of wireless ear buds or headphones is an absolute must while on a job site. As a business owner, having the ability to pick up a phone call is a big bonus.
There is nothing worse than having a wireless pair of headphones on your job site that do not even last a full day. If you are going to be listening to music and podcasts throughout the full day, you are going to want a product that is going to last you the full day. Nothing makes me more furious than a product that dies on me when I actually remember to charge it.
Dust, sweat, and water resistant are the best things to have when you are purchasing your earbuds or headphones for a construction site. Where we work is dusty and there is no doubt that dust will get anywhere and everywhere in time. My phone case has about a sandbox worth of sand in it by the end of the week and needs to be emptied out every once in a while. Having a product that is going to resist that dust will ensure its lifetime on a job site. Sweat is inevitable in our industry and yes my ears will sweat all of a pair of ear buds and headphones. You will want to invest in a product that will provide you with that protection.
As with any product, you should read the reviews to make sure that you are getting a product that is not going to have difficulty connecting and staying connected with your device or does not hold its power or stops working after a week. The best way to do this is to see what type of reviews have been left for it and read into the middle ratings. Not the worst and not the best, but the ones in between. They tend to hold a lot more value in helping you make up your mind on purchasing them or not.
Note that these products provide a noise reduction rating that is a maximum amount and it largely depends on the fit to your ear. Though we like the fit of these products, we do consider that they do not fit perfectly in our ear allowing no sound to get it around the seal. This would require a custom mold of your ear to be created in order to shape the ear piece to your specific ear. You should use the noise reduction rating as a guideline and combine a pair of noise cancelling earbuds with a pair of noise cancelling headphones especially when operating louder equipment.
Best Earbuds for Construction Workers
Getting the right construction earbuds will allow you to have a comfortable and inconspicuous way to listen to music on a job site while also being able to cut down loud noises to a safer level.
ISOtunes Review
If you want a wonderfully designed earbud with an amazing fit while sitting flush with the outside of your ear, then the ISOtunes FREE earbuds are what you are looking for.
Use the Promo Code:
HARDSCAPE
At checkout for $10 OFF your ISOtunes order!
The battery life on the earbuds claims to be 7+ hours plus the charging case itself will charge the batteries two more times providing 21+ hours of charge if both the earbuds and charging case are fully charged. The earbuds recharge in 1.5 hours and the case recharges in 2 hours which makes these earbuds extremely valuable to construction workers who are on the job site more than 8 hours a day.
They are OSHA and NIOSH compliant with a noise reduction rate of 22 decibels. That means a concrete saw with 115 decibels of sound will be reduced almost to a safe sound level. Though this depends on several other factors, one of the most important being the fit of the earbuds themselves. You should always wear a pair of noise cancelling headphones in addition to these if you plan on using a concrete saw. They even have an 85 decibel volume limit which is the same limit that workers can be exposed to for a maximum of 8 hours.
Connect with Bluetooth to play music from your phone while also being able to accept calls when they come through with the built in microphones on each of the earbuds. This allows you to accept a call with one earbud or both.
Plus they have a 30 day money back guarantee and a 1 year limited warranty.
An alternative to the ISOtunes FREE is the ISOtunes PRO 2.0.
Use the Promo Code:
HARDSCAPE
At checkout for $10 OFF your ISOtunes order!
These headphones offer much of what the ISOtunes FREE headphones offer with a few differences. The most obvious difference is the chord that attaches the two earbuds that sits behind your neck. This can be good as it does not allow the earbuds to fall onto the ground if they fall out of your ear, but we still prefer the one with no wire.
They still have Bluetooth connection and allow you to take phone calls. Though it does boast a 16+ hour battery life without having a charging case and a 27 decibel Noise Reduction Rate. Not a bad alternative to the ISOtunes FREE earbuds.
Best Headphones for Construction Workers
When it comes to the best construction site headphones, there are a few options that will provide you with some hearing protection while also being Bluetooth enabled. However, with these headphones being larger in size and having more parts to them and being exposed to the elements, they tend to not have as long of a life span as the earbuds do. The best headphones for construction use are far and few between, but there are a couple of brands and products that we would suggest you try if you want this type of product.
Best Bluetooth Headphones for Construction Workers
The best Bluetooth construction headphones are particularly difficult to find. Even the best names on the market still receive mixed reviews. However, we have had good luck with our 3M WorkTunes Connect.
We have had good luck with our 3M WorkTunes headphones. They are extremely comfortable and provide excellent sound quality while being easy to use and cutting out a lot of the sound from cutting concrete. These particular headphones have Noise Reduction Rate of 24 decibels. This is similar to the earbuds above, but these headphones will be more true to that number as they fit right over the ears creating a strong seal rather than being placed into your ear where the fit may not create a perfect seal and will still allow noise to sneak in.
You will have to have two AA batteries to power these headphones, though there is a rechargeable lithium ion battery sold separately. They do have a lot of great features making it easy to control your device right from your headset and to be able to answer your phone on the go. One thing I would say about them is that you do need to stay within 25 feet of the device you are paired with so that the sound does not cut out. This is exactly what they do advertise though.
A good alternative to the 3M WorkTunes Connect are the Ion Audio Tough Sounds Hearing Protection headphones. It has very similar characteristics that the 3M headphones have, but with some minor differences. This includes having a Noise Reduction Rating of 25 and having 20+ hours of battery life. Other than that, it has the same functionality including even having an AUX plug in just in case your device does not have Bluetooth capability (what device does not have Bluetooth these days?). These may trump the 3M headphones because they come with a built-in lithium ion rechargeable battery.
Just another consideration when making your decision.
Best Noise Cancelling Headphones for Construction Workers
Perhaps the best option is to just get a pair of noise canceling headphones for construction that do not have all of the pieces and capabilities that a Bluetooth enabled pair would have. This would allow you to put them over top of the earbuds to help provide further hearing protection. In that case, you do not need a pair of headphones that are Bluetooth enabled because you will be using the earbuds for their capability and these noise canceling headphones for their added hearing protection when the job site gets increasingly noisy.
Earbuds Vs Headphones
Choosing between earbuds and headphones for your job site is a task in and of itself. One offers more superior noise cancellation for those job sites that require better hearing protection while the other is much less bulky and inconspicuous. Both serve their purpose for what you want them for. Still, the best thing to have is both.
If you just want to listen to some music or podcasts throughout the day and there is not a lot of heavy equipment being operated around you, then you can get away with just wearing the earbuds. But, if you are going to be operating a piece of equipment that will be creating a lot of noise or you will be around this piece of equipment, it is best to combine the earbuds with the headphones for better protection against these noises.
In this case, you can purchase a pair of Bluetooth earbuds with some regular headphones without speakers so that when there is a lot of noise you can just slip the pair of headphones over top of your earbuds. Alternatively, if you enjoy the look and feel of having the bigger headphones, then you can purchase slip in earbuds without speakers to allow for some extra protection.
We prefer to purchase a higher quality earbud with some regular noise cancelling headphones to slip over when we need to. We love to have the ability to answer phone calls, to have some high quality sound, and to block out outside noises with our earbuds.
Do you use one of these pairs of ear buds or headphones on your job site or do you swear by another brand? We would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below.
Awesome post! Keep up the great work! 🙂
Thank you for your support!