Personally, I think it's up to you, whether or not it's worth the hundred or so dollars. You do get what you pay for and if all the bells and whistles are not required for you to be happy with your purchase, the cheaper(in price) shields may be fine for you. Adjustability was important to me when I purchased one of those auto-darkening shields. It gets annoying to be in partial sun/shade and to have the shield flashing over everytime the sun hit it. I felt a regular shield was what I needed if the shield flashed over all the time. Time delays, sensitivity and shade adjustments made the difference for me to justify the $'s. With the bells and whistles I mentioned it made the shield alot more useful and I was alot happier with it. Also changing processes I didn't need to go change shades of lenses, just turn a knob. I needed a dark shade for FCAW and lighter shades for other things and it came in handy to be able to adjust to what I needed and still be able to see to tack without lifting my shield. Lots of opinions on this topic, so listen to em' all and decide for yourself.
John Wright

Dave,
I personally would have nothing but an auto helmet. As far as price goes that will have to be your decision. I bought my first one for around $300.00. This may seem like a lot of money for a hood but it is the main tool a welder has. If you compare the cost of tools for a welder as apposed to a mechanic, $100.00 will not even get you a set of snap-on wrenches.

I have used (but do not own) auto darkening helmets and most of the men in my shop have purchased one at some point or another. As they have been broken or worn out, not one of them has ever purchased a second one.You may read into this anything you like, I don't know why they have not replaced them.

Mike Sherman

Personal reason for not liking the auto darkening shield is wearing bifocal glasses. The lens of the shield is not as accomodating as the 4x5. Being a bit nit-picking, the lens will go to the lightest shade if your hand, or whatever, gets between the arc and the lens sensor. Personal experience, training students to do vertical up GTAW(tig). The hand holding the filler wire tends to get between the arc and sensor. Instant bright light, even though the lens will only lighten to a #3 or #5.

Reason for liking the shield, you can see where the electrode is before striking an arc. In my case, I could watch students and make small adjustments before the arc was struck. Out on the job working in the overhead position the shield allows you to not raise the shield in hard to get to areas.

It's a personal choice. My choice at this time is not to have one.

I don't own a self darkening welding hood for 2 reasons.
#1 -I don't weld much anymore because I'm in QA/QC.
#2 -I'm too cheap to spend the money on one.
But that shouldn't stop you if you want one.

If I was welding for a living, I would consider how rough I would be on the helmet, how much do I need one, and how badly I wanted one. There are some very good reasons to use a self darkening hood as has already been mentioned in this posting and in others.

I agree with Mike Sherman's post. In our shop nearly all of the welders at our shop have tried the new hoods out and now have gone back to regular hoods. (Mostly because our company won't replace a $100-$300 hood and we are very rough on them.)

However, as was already mentioned, you should make up your own mind. I also agree that you get what you pay for. If you find a cheap self darkening hood, I would check your guarantee and compare the product specifications to the more expensive ones. It isn't that you can't get a good hood for little money, just that your not likely to, so be careful.
Chet Guilford

I really like my (expensive) Speedglass helmet. I found, though, that I need to use all those adjustments I paid for in order to get the thing to react properly to small TIG welding. I've not used the cheap helmets, but if you're doing TIG you might be disappointed in them.

There are other postings on this topic -- try a few searches. Their big drawback aside from expense is that they tend to darken to things like sunlight, grinder usage, and others' welding. If you're working in a big shop with other folks welding you might want to go conventional.

Being able to see what you're doing before you strike the arc is a HUGE plus, though.

Chris

I am a hobbyist newbie learning stick which I hope to get back to once the deep freeze is over. I bought an ESAB autodarkening helmet for about $150US; I didn't really shop that much so I wouldn't say this is necessarily a great price.

I really like the autodarkening. It drove me nuts trying to position then nod the helmet. I lived in mortal fear of accidently striking an arc. If you only weld a couple of times a year then you may be in the same slightly incompetent boat I am in unless you used to weld a lot.

The pros have a different set of circumstances than the hobbyist and I can understand the wear and tear issue and the fact they have to work where the auto feature is a problem rather than a feature. I think if I were a student pro I would work at mastering the regular hood.

Bill

Dave,
I have both auto-darkening and conventional hoods that I use. I have an Optrel Satelite that I only use in the shop for MIG and TIG welding. It's expensive but worth every penny, great for precision TIG welding. My conventional hood is a fibre-metal for on-site/field welding. It's light weight and durable and has a great rubberband style headband. It's probably one of the least expensive and simplest hoods out there but is my favorite for field welding. My first auto-darkening was a Hobart "Hood". After about 6 months use the adjustable shade only darkened to shade 9 regardless of the setting selected. I wore sunglasses for a week after that episode. I'm self employed and my eyes are my living so I don't go cheap on protective equipment.