What's that?  I can't hear you!  At least that's my well versed response to my lovely wife! 

I do wear hearing protection. Usually just the foam ones that squish into my ears. I don't run impact guns anymore, so it's usually just when I'm running power tools!

Bob

I tend to seek out quiet tools and equipment and as I'm DIY/hobby, I'm in control of the noise levels I work in. If I was working on a site I would use some form of protection because of the prolonged effect.

In the garden I use 4 stroke gear because it's quieter and wearing muffs on a warm day is horrible.

If I ever do get a bandsaw I would definitely have a visor/muff combo hanging next to it.

didnt used to much but starting to wear them more and more. i find more you wear them the more the noises hurt you ears when not wearing them so you wear them more. i wish more emphasis had been put on this when i was leaning as i would find it second nature then. I'm 28 and get a slight ringing in my ears already so trying to reduce the further damage

They wouldn't in The Netherlands except for maybe 2 weeks out of the typical year. Here, they get pretty wet about half the year but I wear them anyway.


Tom

I use them for my shaper tables and surface planer, as they are real loud and after awhile it does have an affect on my working.
I have not used them with any of my festool toys there seems no real need in my opinion with them.
I have found that after my bout with Bell's Palsy my hearing is really effected by loud high pitch sounds

Sal

I wear them too in hot weather. And thanks to global warming we're not anymore on our minute two weeks of mildly warm weather as we used to be in the old days, it now can be quite hot here for months in a row. Admittedly, it's nowhere near the stories I hear from Texas, but even for America you get the extreme. The mufflers do get sweaty, I agree, but I can live with sweaty while I can not with the noise. But you don't need to wear them constantly, just put them on when you use a tool and take them off when you're finished.  

Besides that, there are other options than fully ear encompassing shells.  

I wear the Howard Light Max light's (green).
I never did until I was 24 or so and one night couldn't fall asleep due to the ringing in my ears!  Framing guns, staplers, and saws make a lot of noise, ya kno!
 I wore them religiously for a few months and the ringing went away, but one day of forgetting will bring it right back.
I also wear the "work tunes" when I'm inside trimming, no radio cranked over the noise of tools! I can't stand that.

But I definitely do have hearing loss, lol.

Anything over 80 db will damage hearing. Using a db meter I found I can clap my hands and peg the 110 db meter at it's max 110 db.

I have had my ear drums broken twice at a young age. Yea hearing was reduced a bit.

I wear hearing protection anytime I using power tools and even some hand tools.

In today's world there are so many comfortable options.  The sound canceling (Active Noise Reduction or ANR) ones you can get today allow you to hear and talk with others when tools are are not running and can actually increase hearing ability and the price is now very low for these. They will kick in/activate  when the ambient noise gets into the 80 db range. What make them great is that once the sound level drops to a safe level they turn off and you can hear just like normal.  So you don't have to take them off and then forget where they are and have to look to find them the next time. The result is you have them on and don't turn on the tool without them because "it is too much trouble to find/go get them".

As with any technology things advance. You can now get ANR headphones that you can plug your iPod into, have built in radios, connect to your phone via bluetooth so you can answer your phone while wearing them and they can have build in VOX radios so you can CX with the crew just like you were standing next to them.

I have earplugs with in reach all the time. Ever ridden in a jet?.... I use to travel 500,000+ airline miles a year and will not go on a plane without ear plugs and or sound canceling head phones.

Cheers,
Steve

Always, hate noise and would still like to hear when I am old!
thx
Lambeater

I don't think ever, not in 30 years. For what? Not nearly as loud as the Velvet Underground, the Dead or Metallica.

What DeanSocial said!  Only over the last 3years have I started wearing ear muffs when I was learning I never bothered because my mentor never did and never told me to and I just found them annoying.

   Wearing ear muffs for 3years regularly at work I have found when I start a tool up with no ear muffs I really notice the noise and want to put my ear muffs on.   I find you notice the noise far more also when some one else is making the noise instead of your self.


  I wish started wearing them when i started joinery cus I always feel paranoid that I have damaged my ears already.  Same with music in my car I always had my music dead loud in them boy racer days!



I use some regular cheap headphone type earmuffs

and I also bought these ones not cheap about £120

http://www.proguarduk.co.uk//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=34&Itemid=39

I do now. I wish I had begun doing so when I was younger.

That comment is really below the belt.

Cheers,
Steve

+ 1

Cheers,
Steve