Wednesday, November 13, 2013

All respiratory masks suck. Except for this one

Totobobo Mask
I'm not a man to give reviews very easily, unless it was bad... or spectacularly amazing. And this one is it, amazing. I'm talking about the Totobobo Mask, of course.

After a few years of use, it was about time I had written something more significant.

My Criterias: Light, Not hot, breathes easy, and non invasive
When I was still working in South Korea, spring time was also a time for a phenomenon called "Yellow Dust". Fine particles of sand specs picks up from the Gobi desert, collects air pollution as it travels through China and then dumps it in Korea. This can also last throughout the summer. Needless to say, I got sick a lot during the spring. Finally, I had enough and decided to look for a good mask. My criteria was that 1) Was light 2) Not hot 3) Breathes really easily 4) Non-invasive



You can rock climb with it!
After searching awhile online, reading reviews, I found that most other masks were lacking in atleast one of these criterias. Some were made of neoprene, some were "good" but once the filter goes on, it's very hard to breath, and some were just a huge thing in your face. Just as I was about to give up, I found Totobobo Mask.

They matched all my criteria.

Light
This mask is incredibly light. You can even mash it up, fold it in your pocket and carry it around with you. No harm will come to this mask.

Not hot
Despite scorching 36 degrees and 110% humidity, the mask doesn't make it any hotter when you breath into it. Ok, a little bit, but despite that I'm a sweaty guy, (I use a sweat band that channels sweat instead of a sweat absorber in high cardio exercises in the summer) the mask doesn't really make that much of a difference.

Breathes Easy
Yeah, as I said, I do lots of sports outdoors. And so breathing hard into this mask is no problem. The air flow doesn't really slow down. It does a bit, but not that significant.

Non-invasive
Once I got it, I started wearing it riding my bike to work. And wouldn't you know, I didn't sound like someone who had been smoking for 10 years and you can see the physical debris of dirt that gets caught up in the filters. Not only do I ride my bike with it to work, I also rock climbed with it. It never got in the way.

After using it for biking and rock climbing, I had brought it to India and Nepal. Even just sitting in the rickshaws in Nepal for 20 minutes, I had realized my mask is completely filthy and needed a filter change. With good foresight, I had bought a lot of filters.

Some other cool features?

30 minutes in a can in Kathmandu, Nepal
Filters
How good are these filters? Well, if you don't know what N95 is, that is pretty much the standard for "The American National Standard for Air Purifying Respiratory". This means it filters out practically every airborne pollution, which refers to 95% of the pollution. Also, I ended up getting N96 filters too!

Changeable filters, renewable everything! Less waste!
Unlike other masks where you have to throw out the entire thing and get a new one, Totobobo only throws out the filters. This produces a lot less garbage and being environmentally aware, I feel a lot less guilty doing this. To be honest, I didn't think this was a thing I'd really like about it, but it has grown on me. Recently doing lots of construction work, I've been throwing out and purchasing a lot more face masks than I feel was necessary. This changed everything

In a nutshell
Get it. My lungs and health significantly got better, you can see the pollution being filtered out, it's not invasive, not hot, light, easy to wear and reusable. There are so many pro's about this one filter! I'm very happy with it and you should totally get one, by clicking right here!







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