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submitted 9 months ago by darkcalling@hexbear.net to c/covid@hexbear.net

That's right four hundred forty masks (6 cents per). Yes it's Amazon but this is a good deal.

This is the link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08J1THV9G

It is from a sub-company of Amazon that specializes in deals so it is legit-ish. The ones a close friend received came in an official 3M branded box (a huge brown box not retail packaging).

They're individually packaged in the official sealed wrappers, had lot codes on them and looked to be in good shape. No weird smells either and the elastic and nose pieces seemed fine. No expiration dates unfortunately if that's super important but the box had a barcode and I suppose you could contact 3M and ask about that lot number.

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[-] darkcalling@hexbear.net 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

To read the lot codes: first letter indicates country of origin factory, second and third characters (first two digits) indicate the year of manufacture, so 20 would be 2020, next 3 digits indicate how many days since the start of the year they were made (so 330 would be 330 days since Jan 1, 2020). Last one is the machine that made it.

If anyone can chime in on where that 5 year rating comes from that would be great (I know for a lot of drugs the maximum safe time is from tests done by the manufacturers and in their own interest they only test for a few, maybe 5 years and when the US military tested some substances they discovered they retained most of their potency for much longer). As I wouldn't be surprised if it's a case of 3M only warranties them that long and under proper storage they can last longer but at the same time I understand there is something of a static charge in parts of the mask that does the heavy lifting for particle trapping and that may dissipate over time or other materials may suffer degradation. I know it's important to keep them sealed in the wrapper packaging until time of use for instance.

The things to look for as I understand are: they don't smell strongly off when opened (outside of packaging smelling doesn't matter), the adhesives aren't breaking down (nose pads coming off, melting), the straps don't snap on first use (probably least consequential but it could be a sign of bad storage conditions and stresses to the rubber/elastic and hence the rest of it) and they fit test properly. The straps on these ones aren't that great anyways, I've had store bought ones of this model break on me after the first use if I pulled a little too far trying to get them out and over my hair without tangles.

[-] JoeByeThen@hexbear.net 2 points 9 months ago

5 year rating is based on NIOSH and the 3m warranty. During 2020 there was some papers put out by NIOSH regarding using beyond their expiration date (due to shortages) and it's the usual about watching for straps and cushioning to fail first. No real way to check the electrostatic filter without a proper tester I guess. Idk if the fit test technique would be as useful?

this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2025
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