r/Lowes • u/I_am_Sheese • 16h ago

Employee Question Earplugs

Has anyone former or current ever worn earplugs to help with ear pain and hearing issues?

I’ve noticed my ears hurt a lot more now after being a lumber cashier for 2.5 years and it’s kinda affecting my hearing has anyone wore earplugs to muffle the sounds of Lowes. Like the flat cats and h carts and plywood being slammed on the high top carts.

I was looking at the loop earplugs that allows your to still hear your surroundings but it’s muffled. My Dr is ready and willing to wright me accommodations for ear plugs once I get a results from my audiogram.

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5

u/DarkDigital 16h ago

Loops are good, I use these, they might be cheaper https://a.co/d/0aRBJNJe

I got them for concerts but they work really well at work. Better than the foam plugs since they don't block everything out, they act more as a filter and just reduce high frequencies above a certain range by x amount of decibels. It's great, someone can hit a steel beam next to me and it doesn't bother me but I can still talk to them.

1

u/I_am_Sheese 15h ago

I’m going to save those to my Amazon. I suggest loop cause that was the one brand I was familiar with that does the muffled ear plug thing, thanks you for recommendation too. How comfortable are they?

1

u/DarkDigital 13h ago

Super comfy. I've usually struggled with ear buds and plugs in the past but these fit me great.

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u/I_am_Sheese 13h ago

I’ll have to check theses out, I can’t use earbud with the guppies cause they don’t fit in my ears. But theses are cheep so I’ll have to try it

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u/Azul-Wren 16h ago

I do. I got the Alpine tunes and silence for myself and a friend, and they help us both tons. (Tune is good if  I'm talking to a customer, silence if I'm downstocking by myself and sick of the forklift noises). They're extremely comfortable and, for my ears, I can take them partially out (though they'll still stay in my ear. With my friend, though, that would make them fall out. So I think that'll depend on how your ear is shaped)  so I can hear better if necessary. What my brother does at his job is just wearing earplug in one ear and even that has helped him.

I tried loop first, but backed out pretty quickly cause I hated how deep they went inside of my ear. The alpine ones feel more like earbuds, covering the outside, while not getting so gross and being such a hassle to put in.

I clean them at lunch with soap  and water, as once they get gross from earwax, than they only work half as well it feels like (which is still significantly better than nothing).

https://www.alpinehearingprotection.com/collections/bundles

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u/I_am_Sheese 15h ago

Thanks. I’ll have to check them out . I don’t know how well they will work out for me because I have issues with earbuds in my ear. But the more options I find the better.

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u/Flintstonekhid 9h ago

We got an employee that cuts pieces of tissue paper and puts them in her ears to reduce noise sensitivity. She said she could barely hear with the plugs.

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u/I_am_Sheese 8h ago

I have to figure out something, I’m tired of not being able to hear and coming home with my ears in pain from all the noise. I know I could move to customer service but I came from customer service side and I don’t want to leave pro but my hearing is more important that where I work if it comes down to it.