Earplugs: Which are Best for Hammering…and Sleeping

**Our honesty policy: This post may contain affiliate links and I may be compensated if you make a purchase at no extra cost to you. Some are, some aren't--I do some comparison shopping. The important thing is you will know exactly what we are talking about. Drop a note/comment if you have any questions on the products as these are materials and tools we use on our own projects.

My brother: “Why are you giving me these tools?”
Me: “What? I can’t hear you? Use these!”
My brother: “Don’t tell me what to do!”
Me: “That’s nice. These are some awesome earplugs!”

Ear protection is a must when working with power tools on projects. Which is why I invite my husband to wear earplugs when I tell him I’d still like to hold normal level decibel conversation 20 years from now. That is if, as an Italian wife, I don’t stop working on house projects and start feeding him to death.

I bought a decent size box of earplugs at Home Depot when I first started working with my DeWalt D24000 wet tile saw.  They protected my ears through all sorts of hammering, saw noise, and swearing. Although they blocked a lot of the noise, I could still hold a conversation at a regular level.

They certainly did a good job protecting my ears, but it wasn’t until I had a baby something changed. I ended up with the side effect of bat-like sonar hearing. I could hear every single peep along with every single pop and crack of the house expanding with changes in temperature.

A good friend of mine gave me a gag gift of earplugs during my pregnancy. I stashed them away until I had used most of the open box since I was using them to try and stay asleep every night.

The best earplugs ever! (note: out of a sample size of two)

I found the gag gift about a year or so ago when I was going through a drawer. They had this curious labeling: “Great protection at home or at the range.” Lo and behold: they are rated to protect eardrums from gunshot noise!

Since my husband had kindly started taking over our daughter’s irregular and unfortunately many nightly awakenings, I was willing to try this new kind of earplugs with promising labeling. I decided to forgo my current attempts at sleep with my current box of earplugs. Surely something rated to handle gunshot noise might be better than what I was currently using! In trying these Champion Target earplugs out I actually got some uninterrupted sleep.

IT.WAS.GLORIOUS!!!

At that moment I realized there are huge differences in earplugs! I still have the unfinished box of Home Depot earplugs.* I’m sure I will use them at some point. But get some of these for your next noisy house project (or to just take a nap).

Seriously.

*I’m not entirely knocking the Home Depot earplugs.** As hinted at in several posts, I’ve gone through several house remodels with all sorts of loud saws, drills and air compressors and I still have mom sonar hearing at night. I’m still sending Home Depot my love…and lots of cash.

**I am sure they offer some much nicer and more advanced types including the type with a cord attached to two earplugs so you can hang them around your neck. The cord is super handy so you don’t have that awkward moment when you want to take them out with your grubby hands and put them in a grubby pocket. I often forgot to take them out prior to chowing down on a good sandwich during a work day. For me, hearing myself chew from inside my head is like nails on a chalkboard. Please don’t judge the state of my hands when I eat a sandwich. 😉 I’ll claim there was no running water in the house, which really was true half the time of the first remodel. Alas, I still need to finish that first box of earplugs before I try out some of these.