Review on Antra True Color Wide Shade Range 4/5-13 Auto Darkening Welding Helmet AH6-260-001X for TIG MIG/MAG MMA Plasma Grinding, Solar-Lithium Dual Power, 6+1 Extra Lens Covers by Alan Massey

Hard to beat for the money. I've been using auto-darkening helmets for over ten years and absolutely love them. I needed a new one as I live in a different country where my old one is currently located. This helmet solves all the problems I had with the previous one. 1) It has an adjustable lower limit when the helmet falls. Thus, the helmet falls in the same place every time. The old one didn't have a stop 2) It has adjustable sensitivity. The old one was permanently installed and only had one dimming setting. 3) It has a grinding mode. When working outdoors with the old one, there was often enough sun to trigger the auto dimming. I can turn it off here 4) The helmet attachment system is better. It uses an O-ring to allow for much better tension adjustment. If the helmet has a stop it's not that critical, but without the stop and adjustment slippage it was PITA. I've never had an issue with older helmets with a dual sensor system or no light delay. If it's important to you, I can't say anything about it. It comes with spare lens caps outside and one inside. The sun protection function is working. I removed the batteries completely and the helmet still works. There is a difference between solar voltage and battery voltage that affects sensitivity. Mine is more sensitive to direct sunlight than with batteries installed. If the manufacturer added a simple zener clamp (3.6V) and a series diode to isolate the battery, the performance of the battery and solar panel would be identical. This is only an issue when the sensitivity and darkness scales shift due to voltage changes, confusing the user. This can easily be fixed in future versions and is not a problem if you are aware of it. The helmet is very light. It won't be industrial as it's made of thin plastic. Good for ease of use but not so good for heavy industrial applications. If you want to use it at work, you'd better use another device. Overhead welding is not recommended for the same reason. Any hot slag can easily melt and pass through the helmet onto the wearer. I gave it four stars because it cannot be used for ceiling welding. If that's not a problem for you then this will be a five star helmet. Since I do blanket welds from time to time, that means either getting a different helmet for it, or putting protective barriers on top of the mask in the process. It's a good enough helmet to suit my situation. Yours could be a deal breaker. Considering the price I highly recommend this helmet if you can live with the limitations. If not, then no price is low enough.