w.hood question for hawk or anyone

[shoprat]

read your post on the elite and optrel my question is on the optrel i once tried a solar hood and had trouble when welding with obstructions,like if you got behind an upright for example.it would shut off every time the sensor was obstucted did you have thi problem and if i can ask what did the optrel cost,i was looking at the sattelight,thanks for any help

[SoCalTA]

Hawk turned me on to the Optrel Sat and I love it. I found mine at BRWelders.com for $239. He also just did an eval on the Miller Big Window. Search the board for it and you will get the other bits of feedback from him and others.

[HAWK]

shoprat,

The Optrel satellite has not given me any problems of any type. I paid $245 locally. As SoCalTA mentioned I was able to review the Miller Big Window Elite. It too is a fine helmet. I really can't say I would choose one over the other except for the controls being in or out.
I did test both helmets again this weekend on low level DC TIG of 2 amps welding some very thin hastealloy ribbon and got flashed by both. It was back to the old stand by fixed lens for this job. However, by anybody's standards that amperage level is not often used. Both did well on 5 amps and higher for low level GTAW.

[shoprat]

w.hood

thanks you guys.so you guys didnt have any problems with the optrel cutting out if the sensor got blocked?like i said before the one i tried would cut in and out every time something came between the arc and the hood,but it was an older hood and probably only had 1 sensor in it.well thanks again i am going to see if i can check them out.

[HAWK]

shoprat,

The only time the Optrel as flashed me is at 2 amps DC TIG. That is it. I have had to play with the sensitivity adjustment sometimes in situations you are referring to where a large girder or even a lift truck mast is blocking my view, but have been able to increase the sensitivity enough to avoid the flash problem.

If you have the chance, read my post on the Miller Big Window Elite. I really like it a lot. A lot of guys out here like the Hornell Speedglass. I am not a big fan. However, they are good hoods and my dislike for them is personal, not performance related!